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HERSAL THOMAS

Hersal Thomas was born in Houston, Texas. According to different sources the year of his birth was 1909 or 1910. He was the youngest of 13 children born to George Washington Thomas, Sr., and his wife Fanny. His father was a deacon of Houston's Shiloh Baptist Church. The Thomas family was exceptionally talented musically and so Hercal grow up in a very musical houshold. He and his siblings had their earliest musical training in their father's church.

Houston, Texas around 1910

His more than 20 year old brother George Washington Thomas, Jr., was a skilled piano player and a remarkable barrelhouse pianist. Hersal displayed an early talent for blues piano playing and so George W., Jr., taught his young brother to play piano.

Hersal's life was intertwined with his older sister Beulah who in her maturity would come to be known as the sensationel blues singer Sippie Wallace. When he was a small child he gave his first public perfomances on the streets of Houston with his big sister.

Their older brother George W., Jr., became a successful pianist, songwriter and publisher in New Orleans and so in 1915 Beulah and Hersal joined him there. During their stay they met many of jazz musician like Joe 'King' Oliver and Louis Armstrong who were friends of George. Beulah and Hersal quickly adapted to the life of itinerant entertainers performing in nightclubs, tent shows and theatres throughout the South. In 1922 the two brothers published their composition The Fives.

In the following year Sippie and Hersal joined their older brother George W., Jr., who moved to Chicago a few years before. The two siblings began performing in cafes and cabaretts around town. Hersal became a very sought-after house-rent party pianist. Although he was a teenager his misical talent was soon well known throughout the city. Especially for The Fives and his own Suitcase Blues he was known very well. In those days a pianist had better not sit down at a piano in the Chicago area if he didn't know The Rocks and The Fives. Both titles were co-written by the Thomas brothers. In 1923 Hersal recorded The Fives and George W. made The Rocks recording in the same year. Both compositions deserve much credit for the development of modern boogie-woogie because some elements of this music style like bass lines can be pursued in these both recordings.

Hersal (sitting) with his brother George W. (standing)

In addition to playing in local venues the jazz piano prodigy Hersal was soon gigging with the region's top jazz players including Joe 'King' Oliver and Louis Armstrong.

On February 24, 1925 Hersal and "King" Oliver backed Sippie Wallace on three recordings and in April he accompanied his niece Hociel Thomas on her first records. In the same year he recorded his two only piano solos: Suitcase Blues in February 1925 and Hersal Blues in May 1925.

When Sippie, Hersal and the alto saxophonsit Rudolph 'Rudy' Jackson travelled to New York to cut more records in August 1925 Hersal did his only two recording sessions outside of the Chicago area.

Left to right: Hersal, his sister Beulah (Sippie Wallace), his niece Hociel and his brother George W., Jr., who was Hociel's father

On November 11, 1925 Hociel Thomas was accompanied by 'Louis Armstrong's Jazz Four' (Louis Armstrong (co), Jonny Dodds (cl), Jonny St. Cyr (bj), Hersal Thomas (p)). The following day the first "Hot Five" sides were made with Hociel Thomas (v). Louis Armstrong and Hersal Thomas worked together again accompanying Hociel (February 24, 1926) and Sippie Wallace (March 1, 1926 and March 3, 1926). One day after Hersal accompanied Lillian Miller on her recording of The Kitchen Blues.

Hersal's short life came to an abrupt end on July 3, 1926 while he was performing at 'Penny's Pleasure Palace' in Detroit. The exact cause of his sudden death has never been verfied, but speculations indicate either food poisoning or a toxic overload as cause of death.

Though he died at a young age Hersal Thomas was a major influence on the Chicago boogie-woogie school of pianists like Jimmy Yancey, Albert Ammons, Meade 'Lux' Lewis and many others. His most famous track is Suitcase Blues. Ammons and Lewis called The Fives as an essential boogie-woogie number. It was the Thomas brother's merit that the new of piano music later called boogie-woogie was set up in Chicago.