Upcoming Ben Thomas Tango Project

Ben Thomas
Vibist/bandoneonist/composer Ben Thomas is one of the most in-demand musicians in the Pacific Northwest. Known for combining virtuosic technique with flowing lyricism, Thomas’s music spans from pyrotechnic improvisations to delicate soundscapes.

In addition to leading jazz and tango ensembles, Thomas performs as a sideman on mallets, percussion, and bandoneon with a wide variety of groups throughout the United States, including the Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto and the Atlas Tango Project. He currently has five albums of original compositions available on Origin Records: “Triskaidekaphobia”, “The Mystagogue”, “The Madman’s Difference”, “Yet What Is Any Ocean…”, and “Eternal Aporia”.

After falling in love with both tango music and dance, Thomas started playing bandoneon in 2006, traveling to Argentina and working with tango musicians from across the world. He was guest artist with the Eugene Opera in 2018 as the bandoneon soloist for Piazzolla’s “Maria de Buenos Aires”. He tours regularly with the Atlas Tango Project and can be heard on their most recent album, “Estaciones y Sueños”.

Over the years, Thomas has performed at the Stowe Tango Music Festival, Ballard Jazz Festival, Earshot Jazz Festival, Detroit-Montreaux Jazz Festival, Bumbershoot Arts Festival, Issaquah Jazz Festival, Anacortes Arts Festival, Ellensburg Jazz in the Valley Festival, Tacoma Maritime Festival, Bellingham Art of Jazz Series, and the Juneau Jazz and Classics Festival.

As a composer, Thomas has written for chamber groups, big bands, jazz combos, dance and theater. Thomas is on faculty at Highline College, where he has taught music theory, composition, and performance since 2001.

Eric Likkel
Eric Likkel is an active r eed player in the Seattle area, performing across a wide range of genres. He is featured live and on recordings with Origin Records, the Earshot Jazz Festival, Ballard Jazz Walk, Lynden Music Festival, Joy Street Orchestra, Smiling Scandinavians, Hereward, Ben Thomas Tango Project, and his own Crown Hill Combo. As a performer, arranger, and composer, Eric contributes new chamber works through the TORCH Quartet, and helped launch the Common Tone Music Festival in Moscow, Idaho. Before coming to Seattle in the mid 1990s, Eric graduated from Cincinnati Conservatory. He played with Cedar Point Live Shows, the Toledo Jazz Orchestra, Ernie Krivda’s Fat Tuesday Big Band in Cleveland, and was a member of the American/European Rome Festival Orchestra in Italy. In 2023, Eric was featured in the soundtrack of Nintendo’s Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, recording live tracks with four different instruments.

Gabe Hall Rodrigues
Gabe Hall-Rodrigues is a Seattle based accordionist, pianist, vocalist, and composer. Born in Mesa, Arizona, he has an undergraduate degree in Music Therapy and a Master’s Degree in Jazz Piano Performance from Arizona State University.

He has performed and played with an array of legendary artists including tubists Sam Pilafian and Pat Sheridan, accordionists Frank Morocco and Stas Venglevski, the indie rock band Jared and the Mill, Pat Sheridan with the Salt River Brass Band, and the Seattle Philharmonic.

In 2019, he won 2nd place in the International Open category at the largest accordion competition in the world, The Trophee Mondial in Loule, Portugal. In 2017 Hall-Rodrigues became co-conductor of the Rose City Accordion Club Silver Falls Camp. He is the current president of the North American Accordion Collaborative. Hall-Rodrigues is a Petosa and Harmonik artist.

Hall-Rodrigues’s most current projects are accordion duo Creosote and Seattle’s premier Brazilian forro band Foleada, with whom he has performed at countless accordion events throughout the country