He recorded with Dennis Ferrer in 2002[4] and played live alongside Roy Hargrove at The Trumpet Shall Sound series at the Jazz Gallery in New York.

[12] During 2007 Thomas featured as a special guest at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem where he worked with children alongside host, Loren Schoenberg.

In 2010 Thomas performed live with Bilal in South Africa and released two new independent recordings of his own, Around You; a jazz instrumental project and Juxtaposed; an "utterly creative, if not partially bizarre, venture into the inventive mind of a masterful genre-bender".

[1] Moneo's next short film featured Thomas as a credited cast member as he plays “a down and out trumpet player in New York City that suffers numerous humiliations on the way to personal redemption.”[17] Around this time he began receiving attention for his composition Strange As It May Seem, that appeared on Dirty Draws Vol.

Thomas had previously paid homage to his teacher with his composition Doc Morgan [12] and participated in the event, the New York Times reviewing his performance as "intermittently hilarious, his set fishtailed through jazz and rock and funk".

[22] Gaining attention on Australian radio station RRR, his ballad Love For Life featured on Triple R's Ennio Styles' compilation Stylin' 500 in 2011.

[24] Contributing a composition, Thomas recorded his vocals alongside Gretchen Parlato[25] in the ballad Leaves Rebirth that featured on the benefit album HOME, gift of music to aid in the Japan earthquake and tsunami relief,[26] the track also gained radio play in the UK.

[28] Thomas featured his live band (Taylor Eigsti, Ben Williams, Michael Veleanu, Dana Hawkins) at a Gilles Peterson event produced by Giant Step in New York.

[36] Thomas released his ninth independent project Whatever in September 2013, garnering much attention for his stellar line-up and straight ahead swing compositions and tone.

[37] Throughout 2013 Thomas also performed with Jason Moran's Fats Waller Dance Party in several states and at the Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal Jazz Festivals.

[38] Thomas also appeared on Moran's Grammy nominated All Rise: A Joyful Elegy for Fats Waller album, released on Blue Note Records, well received as the "great crooner"[39] with his "excellent vocals".

[44] Thomas also continued to tour internationally with Jason Moran's Fats Waller Dance Party[45] and Guts throughout 2015 while developing a new album of his own, to be released on the Heavenly Sweetness label.

[10] His tone on the trumpet has been referred to as pure,[14] warm and broad,[22] his vocals linked with raw emotion,[1] at times with bedroom-eyed delivery[20] in croons and yelps[22] Thomas has mentioned many artists that offer him inspiration including Frank Zappa, David Bowie, George Clinton, James Brown, Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis, Herbie Nichols and Frankie Beverly.