Artist Spotlight : Tomas Doncker

Would you tell us a little bit about your playing history?


I came up in the 80’s with the NO WAVE scene. I was a punk funker. I’ve played with the likes of James White and the Blacks (editors note: This was previous to me playing with James in the 90’s) I went on to play with Bootsy, Yoko Ono and Ivan Neville. I spent years in Japan performing, writing and recording.

What are you doing presently?


Presently I’m concentrating on my solo career. My group recently toured in China at the Shanghai Folk Festival. We are just finishing my new CD called, Power of the Trinity about Halle Selassie and the people of Ethiopa. The CD is being produced by Bill Laswell, one of my heroes and will be released in the Fall. We’re making what I call, “Groovy Sex Music” or “Global Soul”.

What do you have coming up in the future


We’ll be doing a college tour to coincide with the release of the CD. In the winter we’ll be back in St. Barths at “Le Baz’ for our annual residency. We have a monthly show at the Blue Note in NYC!

What do you feel the role of education is in regards to music?


Education is everything. Across the board, education is the key, not just in music but in life.

I think because of the saturation of ‘lesser’ product the audience is growing more in tune to what a “real artist” is. This is a great time for music. Even though the music business is smaller there is still a lot of music business o be done. In fact, you can even take courses in school on the Business of Music. That wasn’t available when I was in school.

Kids today are wearing Pink Floyd shirts. That means they done their homework and are educating themselves to what “real music’ is.

Why do you use R. Cocco strings?


I was turned on to the R. Cocco family of you, Ed and Alfonso by my bassist (and R, Cocco endorsee) Booker King. Quite frankly, R.Cocco’s are the best I’ve ever used. I used everything there is out there to use. String to string they are very balanced, stay in tune, consistent and long lasting.