More Info on Lucky ThompsonSimilar Undetermined MusicSearch Artistopia
Biography
for|the professional skydiver|Eli Thompson (skydiver)Infobox musical artist| name = Lucky Thompson| image = Lucky Thompson Hilda A. Taylor and Al McKibbon.jpg| caption = Al McKibbon , Lucky Thompson and Hilda A. Taylor at the Three Deuces, New York, 1947. Photo: William P. Gottlieb . | image_size = | background = non_vocal_instrumentalist | birth_name = Eli Thompson | alias = | birth_date = June 16, 1924 | birth_place = Columbia, South Carolina|Columbia , South Carolina , United States | death_date = dda|2005|7|30|1924|6|16|mf=y| death_place = Seattle , Washington (state) |Washington | origin = Detroit , Michigan | instrument = Tenor saxophone , soprano saxophone | genre = Jazz | occupation = Saxophone|Saxophonist | years_active = 1942–1970s | label = | associated_acts = Lionel Hampton , Don Redman , Billy Eckstine , Lucky Millinder , Count Basie , Dizzy Gillespie , Charlie Parker | website = | current_members = | past_members = | notable_instruments =
Eli "Lucky" Thompson (June 16, 1924 & mdash; July 30, 2005)Cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/05/arts/05thompson.html | title=Lucky Thompson, Jazz Saxophonist, Is Dead at 81 | last=Ratliff | first=Ben | date=2005-08-05 | newspaper= The New York Times | accessdate=2012-01-16 was a United States jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist . While John Coltrane usually receives the most credit for bringing the soprano saxophone out of obsolescence in the early 1960s, Lucky Thompson, along with Steve Lacy , played it in a more advanced bebop format.Allmusic|class=artist|id=p7680|tab=biography|last=Ankeny|first=Jason|accessdate=2012-01-17Failed verification|date=January 2012
Early life
Thompson was born in Columbia, South Carolina|Columbia , South Carolina and moved to Detroit , Michigan during his childhood.Cite news | url= http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2002423784_thompsonobit06.html | title=Jazz great Eli Thompson soared for 3 decades, fell silent | last=Chia Hui Hsu | first=Judy | newspaper= The Seattle Times | date=2005-08-06 | accessdate=2012-01-16 Thompson had to raise his siblings after his mother died, and he practiced saxophone fingerings on a broom handle before acquiring his first instrument.cite book|last = Cook|first = Richard|authorlink = Richard Cook|coauthors = Brian Morton (Scottish writer)|Brian Morton |title = The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings|origyear = 1992|edition = 9th|series = The Penguin Guide to Jazz |year = 2008|publisher = Penguin|location = New York|isbn = 978-0-14-103401-0|pages = 1397–1398 He joined Erskine Hawkins ' band in 1942 upon graduating from high school.
Career
After playing with the swing music|swing orchestras of Lionel Hampton , Don Redman , Billy Eckstine (alongside Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker ), Lucky Millinder , and Count Basie , he worked in rhythm and blues and then established a career in bebop and hard bop , working with Kenny Clarke , Miles Davis , Dizzy Gillespie and Milt Jackson .
Ben Ratliff notes that Thompson "connected the swing era to the more cerebral and complex bebop style. His sophisticated, harmonically abstract approach to the tenor saxophone built off that of Don Byas and Coleman Hawkins ; he played with beboppers, but resisted Charlie Parker's pervasive influence." He showed these capabilities as sideman on many albums recorded during the mid-1950s, such as Stan Kenton 's Cuban Fire! , and those under his own name. He appeared on Charlie Parker 's Los Angeles Dial Records sessions and on Miles Davis’s hard bop '' Walkin' session. Thompson recorded albums as leader for ABC Records|ABC Paramount and Prestige Records|Prestige and as a sideman on records for Savoy|Savoy Records with Milt Jackson as leader.
Thompson was strongly critical of the music business , later describing Promoter (entertainment)|promoter s, Music producer|producer s and record companies as "parasites" or "vultures." This, in part, led him to move to Paris , where he lived and made several recordings between 1957 and 1962. During this time, he began playing soprano saxophone.
Thompson returned to New York, then lived in Lausanne, Switzerland from 1968 until 1970, and recorded several albums there including A Lucky Songbook in Europe . He taught at Dartmouth College in 1973 and 1974, then completely left the music business.
Later life
In his last years he lived in Seattle, Washington . Acquaintances reported that Thompson was Homelessness|homeless by the early 1990s, and lived as a hermit . Thompson died in an assisted living facility on July 30, 2005.
Family
Thompson was married to Thelma Thompson, who died in 1963.cite journal |editor1-first=John H. |editor1-last=Johnson |editor1-link=John H. Johnson |date=August 15, 1963 |title=New York Beat |journal= Jet (magazine)|JET |volume=24 |issue=17 |page=64|publisher= Johnson Publishing Company|Johnson |location= Chicago |issn=0021-5996 |url= http://books.google.com/books? id=BcEDAAAAMBAJ& lpg=PA64& dq=lucky%20thompson& pg=PA64#v=onepage& q=lucky%20thompson& f=false |accessdate=2011-04-26 |quote=Thelma Thompson, who died of a stroke, was the wife of tenor saxophonist Lucky Thompson. They had been separated for over a year… Thompson's son, guitarist Daryl Thompson, played with Peter Tosh and Black Uhuru before embarking on a jazz career in the late 1980s.cite journal |editor1-first=John H. |editor1-last=Johnson |editor1-link=John H. Johnson |date=September 25, 1989 |title=New Image |journal= Jet (magazine)|JET |volume=76 |issue=25 |page=18|publisher= Johnson Publishing Company|Johnson |location= Chicago |issn=0021-5996 |url= http://books.google.com/books? id=s7sDAAAAMBAJ& lpg=PA18& dq=lucky%20thompson& pg=PA18#v=onepage& q=lucky%20thompson& f=false |accessdate=2011-04-26 Thompson also had a daughter, Jade Thompson-Fredericks, and two grandchildren.
Discography
Accent On Tenor Sax ( FSR , 1954)
Tricotism ( Impulse , 1956)
Brown Rose ( Xanadu Records|Xanadu , 1956)
Lord, Lord, Am I Ever Gonna Know? ( Candid Records|Candid , 1961)
Lucky Strikes ( Prestige Records|Prestige / Original Jazz Classics , 1964)
Happy Days (Prestige, 1965)
Lucky Meets Tommy , 1965 Rivoli Records|Rivoli recordings with Tommy Flanagan ( Fresh Sound )
Body & Soul ( Nessa Records|Nessa , 1970)
Paris Blue , with Sammy Price ( Concord Jazz , 2000)
Modern Jazz Group ( EmArcy Records|EmArcy , no date/ Sunnyside Records|Sunnyside , 2000)
Jazz in Paris , with Dave Pochonet All Stars (Sunnyside, 2001)
''Home Comin' (2003)
As sideman
expand section|date=January 2012 ;With Oscar Pettiford
O.P. Big Band: Deep Passion (GRP, 1956–57) with Tommy Flanagan, David Amram, Julius Watkins, David Kurtzer, Jerome Richardson, Osie Johnson, Gigi Gryce, Lucky Thompson, Art Farmer, Danny Bank, Jimmy Cleveland, Ernie Royal, Janet Putnam u.a.
The Oscar Pettiford Orchestra in Hi-Fi, Vol. 1 (1956) & Vol. 2 (1957) with Tommy Flanagan, David Amram, Ed London, Art Farmer, Gigi Gryce, Betty Glamamm, Jimmy Cleveland, Osie Johnson, Danny Bank, Jerome Richardson, Lucky Thompson, Ernie Royal.
Mellow Mama , 1945 Apollo Records (1944)|Apollo Records recordings ( Delmark Records|Delmark , 1992)Allmusic | class=album | label=Mellow Mama | id=r149797 | last=Yanow | first=Scott | authorlink=Scott Yanow | accessdate=2012-01-18
References
Reflist Persondata | NAME =Thompson, Lucky | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION =Jazz saxophonist | DATE OF BIRTH =June 16, 1924 | PLACE OF BIRTH =Columbia, South Carolina | DATE OF DEATH =July 30, 2005 | PLACE OF DEATH =Seattle, Washington DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Lucky Category:1924 births Category:2005 deaths Category:African American musicians Category:American expatriates in Switzerland Category:American jazz tenor saxophonists Category:Bebop saxophonists Category:Cass Technical High School alumni Category:Chess Records artists Category:Count Basie Orchestra members Category:Dartmouth College faculty Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Category:Hard bop saxophonists Category:Nessa Records artists Category:People from Columbia, South Carolina Category:Post-bop saxophonists Category:Prestige Records artists Category:Xanadu Records artists Category:Candid Records artists Category:American expatriates in France Category:American jazz soprano saxophonists Category:Homeless people Category:Swing saxophonists
