Sax player and vocalist Michael J. Thomas was 19 when he joined the Rockabilly/Jump Blues band Jive Rockets, which opened for the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and Bill Haley’s Original Comets. While gaining a foothold in contemporary urban jazz since moving to Destin, FL, Thomas’s busy gig schedule allows him to both play sax and sing in a wide array of genres.

Thomas became an instant contemporary urban jazz sensation when his single “Baby Coffee” stayed at #1 on the Billboard National Smooth Jazz Airplay and Smooth Jazz Songs charts in 2017/2018. He has been on a momentous roll since then. “I’ll Never Love Again,” his explosive reimagining of the Lady Gaga hit from “A Star is Born,” became his second #1 Billboard smash, dominating the smooth jazz airwaves throughout 2019. Thomas’s cleverly titled, silky light funk follow-up single “Sippin’ the Yak” hit #2 on the charts, remained in the Top 5 for nine weeks, and rounded out 2020 on Billboard’s Year-End Smooth Jazz Songs chart at #5.

In addition to receiving terrestrial radio airplay across the globe, Thomas’ music has been featured on Sirius XM’s Watercolors and in the Warner Bros. film “Contagion,” starring Matt Damon and Laurence Fishburne. He is currently a Grammy voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

LATEST RECORDING NEWS

The title of Michael J Thomas’ recently released EP Outside the Door has a unique double meaning for the Florida-based saxophonist, singer, and composer. On one hand, it reflects a recent creative growth period for the #1 Billboard charting artist in which he mastered the art of what he calls “outside playing” – playing notes outside the song’s main scale to achieve a sense of harmonic dissonance that elevates even the most mainstream, in the pocket tune to a higher sonic level.

A fresh concept that musicians – and fans with keen ears – can instantly recognize, Thomas has been intrigued with the possibilities it offers since watching a tutorial DVD by Walter Beasley, where the legendary urban jazz saxophonist and longtime Berklee School of Music educator taught on how to incorporate different scales to

make one’s soloing more dynamic. The saxophonist currently showcases his passion for this unique dynamic on his new single, a freewheeling, high-octane re-imagining of Stevie Wonder’s classic “I Wish.”

The name Outside the Door also reflects an interesting but little-talked-about reality of being a successful independent artist in the smooth jazz world. Despite a stellar string of popular albums, EPs, and singles and premiere appearances at top genre festivals like Seabreeze and the Catalina Island Jazz Trax Festival, he has long felt that he’s always just on the cusp of being one of the bigger names in the genre, knocking on the door of “A-list” status.

Outside the Door broke ground in the smooth jazz genre as the first original genre recording intended to utilize and be mixed with the revolutionary immersive Dolby Atmos technology. Its sonic design expands on existing surround sound systems by adding height channels, allowing sounds to be interpreted as three-dimensional objects. Outside the Door was released in its entirety first to all platforms that support Dolby Atmos, including Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon.