Rick Haydon, Reggie & Mardra Thomas release Eastern Central Pacific

Guitarist Rick Haydon, keyboardist Reggie Thomas and singer Mardra Thomas have collaborated on a new CD released by the St. Louis-based Victoria Records label.

Titled Eastern Central Pacific, the disc features jazz standards performed by Haydon and the Thomases with help from drummer Harold Jones, a jazz veteran who has played with stars including Count Basie, Eddie Harris and Tony Bennett, and bassist Jeff Campbell, a member of the Rochester (NY) Philharmonic Orchestra and a faculty member at Eastman School of Music. Campbell also is the program director at the Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Wisconsin, and that's where the group, dubbed Standard Time for purposes of the CD, came together while the various members were teaching summer sessions there.

Eastern Central Pacific can be purchased via the Victoria Records site, and also may be available at select local retailers such as Webster Records, which seems to carry many Victoria releases. You can read more about Haydon and the making of Eastern Central Pacific in this article written by Vicky Bennington for the Alton Telegraph.