An art of time
Thom LaFond “An art of time”
Thom LaFond grew up in Albany, New York and began playing music on his mother’s guitar when he was nine years old. By the age of thirteen Thom was committed to being a professional musician. He had musical relatives that lived in New York City and across the river in Union City and would spend a fair amount of time there.
Most music education systems revolve around teaching classical music. However, Thom became obsessed with classic jazz around age 13 and was amazed, and somewhat obsessed, with the historic music of New Orleans. He feels the most historic American musical event was the fusion of European melodies and African rhythms in New Orleans.
Thom attended the State University Of New York (SUNY) in Schenectady which had a very good music program. While studying music, he was exposed to quite a bit of geography which caused a need for travel to learn more. His philosophy is “If you stay in one place, music will come to you but if one travels throughout the world, music will keep you inspired.”
While on the way to California, Thom stopped in Colorado and loved it. Thom moved to the Boulder area, formed a band and had a gig at the Hotel Boulderado Hotel for six years. Hotel Boulderado for six years. On Sundays, he would play piano in a corner of the bar area by himself. The hotel had some international travelers and was located close to the tourist area. In some ways, it was similar to Key West, Thom never knew who he would be jamming with.
When Thom first heard about Key West, he didn’t realize it was on a “land bridge 100 miles from the rest of Florida”. In March 2022, his psychedelic rock band had just come from a week in New Orleans and was booked for three days at Blue Heaven in Key West. It didn’t take long to understand their psychedelic set wouldn’t fit Blue Heaven but they also had a jazz set they could use. New Orleans had given the band a special appreciation for jazz. Now in Key West, both jazz and rock were encouraged and the audience’s energy was great.
While in Key West, they were booked for the December 2022 Coast is Clear concert where they were encouraged to play some of their original music. Thom now feels that both cities influenced his band’s future approach to music. They’re were now a rock band with serious classical jazz moments. He later played the next year Coast Is Clear concert solo.
Thom was amazed at the overall Key West music scene. Most places he had performed with bands were either ticketed events, had a cover charge or entrance fee – with almost no free events. According to Thom, Key West has the healthiest music scene he’s ever experienced. The lack of cover charges affects the wage scale to a degree but the wages and the music are steady.
He recently performed on Petronia Street’s “music corridor” and compares it to Frenchman Street, near Bourbon Street, in New Orleans. He loves to perform the classic 1930s jazz of Django Reinhardt with Key West violinist Martin Sedlak. This year, Thom has performed in Key West five times and continues to love booking work in Key West. He has made some very good musical associations with prominent Key West musicians. Thom loves playing classic New Orleans jazz and Bossa Nova, along with the Gypsy Jazz that he and Key West friends have been playing. He really loves mixing genres like performing a classic Marvin Gaye song in a samba or swing tune groove. The audiences in Key West love to mix and match and the talented musicians make it fun.
Thom has a number of recorded songs that haven’t been released and will be releasing some new songs in 2026. He feels recording is capturing a moment – it’s an art of time. The art involves making a song interesting as the listener moves through time. When you listen to a song, the pace of the song moves you along and is determined by how good or exciting the melody with the proper tempo keeps the listener’s attention.
It’s a moment that the songwriter can encapsulate the experience of time. He feels the songwriter has the responsibility to make the song experience through time feel fresh and interesting. He feels music and time is a beautiful canvas to paint on. Every song doesn’t need to be three minutes but every song should feel like it’s three minutes.
Thom loves the many great “little” music experiences he has in Key West. He has two recorded albums of music available: Lawless is a concept record with an exotic story and The Moon Leans In is a collection of songs are about the moon.
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