Fred Tompkins Quartet

Fred Tompkins Quartet

Fred Tompkins Quartet specializes in the art of free improvisation.  Yet being keenly aware of overall form, this group makes a conscious effort, from one improv to another, to vary its formats, moods and tempos and to project a sense of overall destination with each outing.

For this event the group has reached out to audio/visual artist, Kevin Harris, to add still another element, specifically the visual dimension, to its palette.  With Kevin’s deep experience collaborating with musicians, and the group’s concern with form and direction, the results will be expansive yet focused.

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Fred Tompkins

Flutist and composer Fred Tompkins began his musical studies in 1964 at the St. Louis Institute of music, but early on, his equal interest in both classical composition and jazz led him ultimately to move to New York City and work in a “Third Stream” style, which would involve the musicianship of such top players as Elvin Jones, Joe Farrell, Richard Davis and many other greats.

Now back in St. Louis he continues to compose in his own style, employing all the best local musicians, but also to pursue the art of free improvisation with his own group, featuring pianist Greg Mills, Moog synthesist Jim Hegarty and percussionist Glen ‘Papa’ Wright, Jr.  Tompkins has recorded 14 albums under his own name, most of which are available from his website, tompkinsjazz.com, and the best of his most recent compositions and improvisations with his current group can be heard on Fred’s Bandcamp site.

Tompkins JazzFred’s Bandcamp

Greg Mills

Virtuoso free improv pianist Greg Mills has performed and recorded in a broad range of settings, mostly in his home town of St. Louis, over his 50+ years of creative work.  In the 1980’s he teamed up with saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Jay Zelenka to perform and record music influenced by far reaching and eclectic sources.

Since then, he has expanded his ambitions to include collaborations with many touring musicians and such local and regional artists as cellist Tracy Andreotti, clarinetist Eric Mandat, and more recently synthesist Jim Hegarty, percussionist Glen “Papa” Wright, Jr., and most prolifically with flutist Fred Tompkins.  For full discography on the Freedonia label, please visit the label’s bandcamp page:

Freedonia Music

Glen “Papa” Wright, Jr.

“Papa” is a percussionist who has been teaching and performing in the St. Louis area for over fifty years.  He has accompanied local poets such as the late Poet Laureates Shirley LeFlore and Michael Castro, and East St. Louis’s Poet Laureate Eugene Redmond.  He has also played with instrumentalists Julius Hemphill, J.D. Parran, Baikida and many other greats as well as with Rich O’Donnell and his presenting organization HEARding Cats Collective.  “Papa” is currently a teaching artist with his “Wright Rhythms for Small Hands” workshops.  In addition, with his wife Jackie, they formed “The ‘Wright’ Entertainment for Children,” offering puppet shows, children’s percussion workshops, and storytelling.

Most recently, he recorded the avant-garde CD Kuvuka featuring Greg Mills on piano, and he has both performed and recorded with The Fred Tompkins Quartet, featuring Greg Mills, synthesist Jim Hegarty, and Tompkins on flutes.

Jim Hegarty

Jim Hegarty is a composer, producer, pianist and electronic musician.  He was a Kranzberg Arts Foundation Artist in Residence from 2021-2023.  As a composer he has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Missouri Regional Arts Commission.  Hegarty was the founder and leader of the St. Louis Free Jazz Collective as well as other experimental jazz and electronic ensembles in St. Louis since the late ’90s.

He has performed at the St. Louis Art Museum, Sheldon Concert Hall, Holmes Lounge, Elastic Arts (Chicago), and the Here Arts Center (NYC).  His electronic music has been on concerts in Europe, the US, and Australia.  Hegarty is also an active music educator and arts advocate.  He founded the music technology program at SLCC Forest Park and is currently a professor of music at Principia College.

Kevin Harris

Kevin Harris (b. 1975, Oklahoma City) lives and works in St. Louis as an artist, curator, composer, and engineer.  His practice broadly focuses on using multimedia performances and installations to establish methods of communication and communal conditions by which to explore the psychological manifestations of contemporary life under industry and empire.  Harris is known for his ambitious large-scale work involving sound, video, electronics, kinetics, and sculpture.

He was artist in residence at The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis where he curated the sound art series, Audible Interruptions.  He is currently program director at the non-profit performing arts organization, HEARding Cats Collective and serves as artistic director of The Center for Aesthetic Research.  His most recent solo exhibition, An Investigation into the Origins and Subsequent Qualitative Inner Life of Universal Media, constructed a universal graphic symbol language as a way to transcend language barriers associated with international forms of resistance, which was realized as a multimedia kinetic installation.  His current focus is on designing a trilogy of multimedia performance systems for video, dance, sound, kinetics, and sculpture.  The first system, Dream Phase, was premiered at The Luminary in 2024.  The second system, Endometric, was commissioned by The Charlotte Street Foundation 2026.