Though Rene Thomas was not a prolific compositor, his compositions always were interestings and you will see that one of the most significative things is that they often are dedicated to someone.

Autobuzz - 1954 : probably dedicated to trumpet player Buzz Gardner. Based on the harmonies of the standard Fine And Dandy.

Ballad For Leo - 1971 : dedicated to his pianist friend Leo Flechet, this is a modal tune, like Thomas liked to play in the seventies. In a way, the introduction is similar to Be Like Bud, and TPL.

Ballad For My Dad - 1971 : written with Eddy Louiss, this beautiful ballad is a gift of Rene Thomas to Stan Getz for the death of Getz's father, in 1971. Rene liked to improvised on it in a unusual way, that maked it sound quite far from jazz.

Be Like Bud - 1962 : a composition for Bud Powell who associated with Thomas during his Canadian period. This is a blues with an out tempo theme-intro probably inspired by Ornette Coleman ; it was played for example at Ronnie's Scotts with Bobby Jaspar, January 1962.

Florence - 1966 : dedicated to his daughter Florence, there exists only one live version of it.

Guitaristic - 1954 : written with Henri Renaud. Based on chord progressions of standard There Will Never Be Another You, but in G Major and the 6 last bars are originals.

Indicatif - 1962 : the oldest available recording of this title is the one on Bobby Jaspar Quartet 1962 at Ronnie Scott's. Both versions on Enfin ! are half a tone higher and are at the end of each side of the LP, which let us think that they have been rised in pitch to decrease the lenght of the LP. Before it has been recorded, this composition was nammed Theme For Quartet.

I Remember Sonny - 1962 : this recollection of the sessions with Sonny Rollins is a 16-bar minor blues that Rene used for some extended chorus. The first recorded version with Bobby Jaspar and the quintet is a must, in the Coltrane's hard-bop style. Curiously, Rene rarely played it after Bobby's death, except a long version at Laren Festival 1973.

Juliette - 1973 : a wonderful ballad composed on the piano for his sister Juliette during his stay in Montreal, december 1973. Jacques Pelzer, who recorded it with Thomas on TPL, played it at the tribute concert for Rene's death.

L'imbecile - 1954 : based on I Never Knew, probably dedicated to someone, who knows ?

Meeting - 1963 : a pure bop composition, probably one of his nicest and the most often played. It's the kind of tunes that could have been in Miles Davis repertoire in the mid-fifties, and the signature tune of the LP Meeting Mister Thomas.

My Wife Mary - 1972 : a kind of modal tune, for his wife Marie. Unfortunetly, he didn't have the time to record it on a LP. However, you can listen it on the live recording Hommage a ... Rene Thomas.

Relaxin' At The Grand Balcon - 1954 : The Grand Balcon was a hotel in Paris where Rene and Bobby were living during their stay in Paris. The tune is based on standard All God's Children Got Rhythm.

Rene's Theme - 1968 : it's the tune that Larry Coryell plays on his album Spaces. The story of this composition is quite funny : one day, Rene Thomas had to be telephoned from the USA to be told to register urgently the rights of the draft agreement for his composition on which Larry Coryell and John Mac Laughlin had chosen to record together. In fact, Coryell's version is nothing but the tune Ballad For Leo ; it seems that Rene showed him the chords one day in Liege and Larry Coryell only remembered the middle part, so he dropped the intro and outro in his recording.

Song For Jo - 1968 : this composition dedicated to Jo Verthe has never been on an official recording.

Theme For Manuel - 1970 : as far as I know, this song has been played firstly in 1968, but it was not exactly the same structure as the recorded version on Eddy Louiss Trio . The solos were indeed ad lib in Em in the first version when there was a middle part in Cm/F7 in the last version. This song is dedicated to Florence's friend Manuel (say Manouel) and is sometimes called Theme For Emmanuel but that's just a mistake.

Theme For Freddie - 1962 : this song is dedicated to Freddie Mac Hugh who often was the bass player in Thomas' band in Canada. It's a beautiful ballad, the theme is usually played by a flutist, Bobby Jaspar or Jacques Pelzer, except a fantastic version by Chet Baker and Rene Thomas for a BRT recording (issued on Stella By Starlight CD). Moreover, it's the reference tune that the Thomas-Pelzer group played at Comblain festivals.

The Real Cat - 1956 : based on the chord progressions of standard You Stepped Out Of A Dream in a way similar to Raney's Motion composition.

Thomasia - 1954 : written with Henri Renaud. Really similar to Body And Soul (especially on the bridge played by Buzz Gardner).

TPL - 1974 : written with Michel Portal and Eddy Louiss and has 3 parts with a beautiful intro played by Rene and Jacques Pelzer.

Finally, as Rene's style can be divided in 3 periods, his compositions follow this evolution : the fifties years with some tunes based on standards, exploring the beginnings of bop and cool, the early sixities with a more personnal touch (Theme For Freddie, Indicatif), but inspired by the giants (I Remember Sonny, Meeting) and the late sixties-early seventies years which have been a real change of style for Rene with a lot of caracteristic tunes, often composed with an out tempo intro, a middle modal part on a few chords with long improvisations, and the coda similar to the intro (TPL, Theme For Leo, Theme For Manuel).