Clayton Thomas is an Australian double bass player, improviser and composer, resident in Sydney’s Inner West, living on Gadigal land. He has been part of the global improvised music scene for over 20 years, working with some of the world’s most renowned creative musicians. He is a founder of the Splinter and Splitter Orchestra, Sound the Alarm, the NOW now, and the Inner West Jazz Fest, which he curates and organises with friend and colleague Laurence Pike.
The double bass is big, heavy and often the low pitched but powerful background instrument in an ensemble or orchestra. What motivated you to choose it as your preferred instrument?
OK! HERE WE GO!!! The bass called to me from a stage in 2000. I was watching William Parker play, and I knew instinctively that I was watching my future. Technically, it has an enormous range of possibilities, from that foundational, powerful ensemble voice, to a percussive or even high-pitched and melodic one. A bass can be the heart of the music, while being a lynchpin for other people’s invention. It glows.
When and how did you know that you were going to have a career in music? What sort of background and training did you have?
I’m not sure I have what I’d call a career in music, but I do have a life in music that has taken me around the world and connected me with thousands of musicians. I’ve been an avid jazz fan since I was 11 years old, but I didn’t pick up the double bass until I was 24. I had lessons with Wilber Morris, William Parker, Peter Kowald and Henry Grimes in New York. Far more than technical instruction, they gave me an introduction into the cultural and spiritual aspects of bass playing, and a connection to a long and potent history of the bass in its musical / social role.

You use improvisation a great deal in performance. Is it a form of composition? What does or can happen when you improvise?
Everyone will have a different take on this, but personally, I think improvising is a means of sharing responsibility and building an experience in real time. I view composition as a ‘pre-determination’ of events. And as the events we make when we improvise aren’t planned beforehand, I judge improvisation and composition as separate. As our first role as players who are improvising is to listen, it’s an interesting nexus between being present, and making decisions with intention. In communities where ‘composition’ has greater cultural status, improvisers tend to compare the two.
What does or can happen? Anything and everything dependent on the colleagues you are working with, the situation you’re in and the sound of the room. The risk is that improvisation is an effective tool for making the worst music in the world, but then it can also bring you face to face with the universe.
"key qualities are empathy and curiosity. Trust is built over time and enriches the music no-end!"
It must depend a lot on empathy and trust between the performers. How do you choose who’s in with you?
I think one of my lucky-to-have gifts as a musician is a strong sense of who to play with, and how to bring people together. Their key qualities are empathy and curiosity. Trust is built over time and enriches the music no-end!
Who do you play for? That’s easy! Nature’s God.
You have established several ensembles, creative music orchestras and events. Can you talk about your entrepreneurial spirit? What motivates you and what satisfaction do you get from being an instigator?
All of my musical and cultural heroes are organisers. People who make change don’t do it for themselves or by themselves, whether it’s Malcolm X or Peter Kowald. For improvisers making music outside of any established economies, it has always been necessary to organise, promote and mobilise for the music to exist. "For improvisers making music outside of any established economies, it has always been necessary to organise, promote and mobilise for the music to exist".
Large ensembles have always been part of creative music communities – an outgrowth of both the jazz and classical traditions. So, any community of improvisers tends to do that kind of work too. So really I’m in a tradition that stretches back a long way. I feel very fortunate that Splinter Orchestra, Splitter Orchester (in Berlin) and Sound the Alarm are all active ensembles with very different intentions and processes.
Clare Cooper and I founded the Splinter Orchestra in 2002, as a community improvising endeavour with a simple focus – how can we play as a big, quiet band, with no scores. The ensemble has since taken on a life of its own and meets weekly and has an ever-evolving membership.
Splitter Orchester was founded in Berlin, as a band with set membership working within compositional frameworks, designed to test sonic ideas and collaborative invention. It continues to perform and release new music without my explicit involvement. We released our first album of our own compositions in 2024. We’ve previously worked with George Lewis, Matthias Spahlinger, Jean-Luc Guionnet and Øyvind Torvund composing for the group.
Sound The Alarm was formed as a response to the genocide in Palestine as a community action to raise funds for UNWRA and MSF, as well as to raise awareness of the horror taking place under the occupation.
I also run the Inner West Jazz Fest with my friend and colleague Laurence Pike, and the idea there is to showcase music that could be played on any stage in the world, made by musicians in the Inner West. When young musicians see that level of artistry close to home, they see what’s possible and hopefully find the inspiration to push themselves.
What have you learned in living and working overseas? How do things compare with what you find in Australia?
I’ve been touring internationally, or living overseas for about 20 years, so there is a lot of experience in that. This is a Pandora's Box question so I’ll keep it personal. I’ve learned I can trust my instincts. And that Australia’s weird, alien, out-of-place, historically avoidant musicality suits in-the-moment music making with people from the most diverse cultural backgrounds. For all of our faults as a nation, the best parts of our character suit the act of improvising, of being open, flexible, and ethically aware.
Is there a reason for you living and working in the Inner West?
I’m from outer western Sydney – Liverpool. I moved to Enmore in 1995 and it’s been the only place in Australia that I’ve ever wanted to live. I didn’t know the Shire existed until I was 40.
I think that it’s an amazing initiative in a space-poor, high-rent city. As someone who believes in the importance of creating events and making things happen IRL (as opposed to IG), the initiative, for its faults, will hopefully play an important role in the creative life of the city.
My band BELIEVE have done two concerts at Ashfield Town Hall, and I’ve organised shows at Herb Greedy Hall in Marrickville. I think the challenge is navigating the ticketing limits because for professional musicians / people who pay rent from their gig income, it’s hard to make the most of the initiative with the $5 ticket limit (or do paperwork required to get the discount and charge a functional ticket price).
The Inner West has a lot of small funky performance venues. What do you think of what they enable to happen?
Small spaces are the best places to try out ideas, and test new ensembles or projects. The more spaces that feel good with 20-30 people in them, the more genuinely ground-breaking work can take the next step into reality.
What more would you like to see the Inner West Council do to foster a strong music environment?
I think that making it easy to apply for money is always the thing. Clarifying intentions, broadening the aesthetic insight of the panels that do the allocation of funding, and putting on events that go beyond the idea of ‘community arts’ to recognise the fact that this is a community of world class artists, would be hot.
What career advice would you give to other aspiring Inner West musicians? If you were starting again, would you make the same decisions?
Oh! I think try and be in control, or at least, aware of the full context and implications of what you do. Who does the music or art serve? How does it help change things for the better? What does it represent in the long arc of time? How does it lift lives? Where does it come from?
What would be your dream gig? Where does your heart lie?
I would love to take BELIEVE to the Vision Festival in New York, with William Parker in the audience – just to say thank you for changing my life.
MUSIC BY CLAYTON THOMAS available on Bandcamp

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Image credits
Lead: Clayton Thomas by Peter Gannushkin
article images:
William Parker by Eva Kapanadze
Inner West Jazz Fest logo
Clayton Thomas by Nat Cartney courtesy The Living Room Theatre