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On February 20, 2023 John Twork wrote the article for the Illinois State University website. Below is an excerpt from the article with a direct link to the full article below.
For more than two decades, professional blues drummer Andrew “Blaze” Thomas has given music a pulse through his precise percussion and rhythm. Now, as an Illinois State University history graduate student, Thomas is shifting his focus to amplifying history.
Thomas, the chair of the Bloomington-Normal Black History Project (BNBHP), is giving a voice to the history of local, Black musicians. He has scoured the extensive BNBHP collection—with oral histories dating back to 1982—and he has conducted his own interviews with members of the local music community, always asking, “Who should I interview next?”
“Bloomington-Normal has this rich community of accomplished Black musicians,” Thomas said. He is compiling narratives for an essay, which he hopes to eventually expand into a book. Thomas plans to profile vocalist Jack Waddell and keyboardist Delmar Brown, among other prominent Black musicians who achieved international acclaim.
Thomas said he felt a particular connection with Waddell’s story. A Bloomington native and 1963 graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University, Waddell became an internationally renowned opera singer whose 50-year-career spanned the globe. Waddell, 81, now lives in Normal and will perform Journey to Freedom, the story of escaped slave and Underground Railroad station master John W. Jones, Saturday, February 25, at 2 p.m. in Illinois State’s Capen Auditorium.
“I read in his biography that he told his friends that he was going to become an opera singer, and they laughed at him,” Thomas said. “During that time, there weren’t Black opera singers, and there are barely any now—so you would think that he’s joking. There wasn’t anyone for him to mirror his career after.”
Yet Waddell pursued and achieved his dream, much like Thomas.
“I’m partial to him because my friends laughed at me when I told them that I was going to become a pro drummer,” Thomas said. Like Waddell, Thomas’ music career took him around the world for tours with Blues Hall of Fame inductee Billy Branch and the Sons of Blues, Bernard Allison, and Ana Popovic, among many others. He’s even played with blues legend Buddy Guy.
Born and raised on the west side of Chicago, Thomas has always been passionate about drumming. From the moment he could crawl, he would inch his way into his family’s kitchen where he would pull out pots and pans, find a big spoon, and start banging.
“My dad would pick me up, and I’d cry,” Thomas said. “When he put me back down, I’d start pounding again. So, my parents knew I was going to be a drummer.”
For his ninth birthday, Thomas’ mother bought him a shiny, white Pearl drum kit. It was love at first sight.
“Still to this day I remember that feeling,” Thomas said. “I played those drums for a long time—into the first few years of my career.”
Thomas’ first paid gig started when he was 13 years old with a local church choir. At age 16, his drumming was featured on the choir’s record.
“It kept me active and gave me some responsibilities,” Thomas said. “When I would come home from school, I would do my homework first, and then I would practice my instrument. And that really kept me grounded.”
After earning a bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University in 2002, Thomas returned to Chicago where he became a substitute teacher during the day and an aspiring drummer at night. He practiced his craft extensively and took every opportunity possible to play open mic nights at local music clubs.
“Chicago is a great town for music,” Thomas said. “You can play every style of music any night in Chicago.”
Thomas was drawn to blues, a genre of music that tells the story of “the struggle of Black people in the United State,” Thomas said in a 2021 interview with Living Blues magazine.
To become a great blues drummer, Thomas practiced a lot—at least four hours every day. “You have to do a lot of practicing because you’re working four limbs at the same time,” Thomas said.
Read the full article: HERE
