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Lucky Thompson
A legendary tenor and soprano saxophonist who took his place among the elite improvisers of jazz from the 1940's to the 1960's and then quit music. Lucky Thompson connected the swing era to the more cerebral and complex bebop style. His sophisticated, harmonically abstract approach to the tenor saxophone endeared him to the beboppers, but he was also a beautiful balladeer.
Thompson was born in Columbia, South Carolina, but grew up on Detroit's East Side. He saved to buy a saxophone study book, practicing on a simulated instrument carved from a broomstick. He finally acquired a saxophone when he was 15, practiced eight hours a day and, within a month, was playing around town, most notably with the King's Aces big band, among who was vibraphonist Milt Jackson, later a frequent associate. Thompson left Cass high school early to join ex-Lunceford altoist Ted Buckner at Club 666, a top spot in the black section of Detroit.
He left the city in August 1943 with Lionel Hampton's orchestra, touring for four months before settling in New York. He was soon playing for exacting bandleaders such as Don Redman and Lucky Millinder, performing on 52nd street with drummer Big Sid Catlett, and making his recording debut in March 1944 with trumpeter Hot Lips Page.
After a run with Billy Eckstine's big band, then a hotbed of modernism, Thompson spent a fruitful year with the Count Basie orchestra. By October 1945, he was in Los Angeles, and stayed for two years, taking on the mantle of local hero and participating in more than 100 recording sessions, with everyone from Dinah Washington to Boyd Raeburn. When Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker made their legendary visit to Billy Berg's club in Los Angeles, Thompson was retained to cover for the errant Parker. Lucky played on one of Parker's most celebrated recording sessions, for Dial Records on March 28, 1946.
Back in New York by 1948, Thompson began a period of varied activity, fronting groups at the Savoy Ballroom, appearing at the Nice festival, recording with Thelonious Monk and playing on the heralded Miles Davis album, “Walkin'.” In 1956, he toured Europe with Stan Kenton, then chose to live abroad for extended periods, from 1957 to 1962, making a number of recordings with groups while overseas.
His skepticism about the jazz business may have kept him from a broader career recording as a bandleader; but there was “Tricotism,” from 1953, with the Lucky Seven. Then in 1962 Thompson came back to New York, where he signed with Prestige and recorded the sessions for albums “Happy Days Are Here Again,” “Plays Jerome Kern and No More,” and “Lucky Strikes,” from 1964, thought to be his highlight album. He did other sides for various labels as in the ’65 joining with Tommy Flanagan “Lucky Meets Tommy.” His last recordings were “Goodbye Yesterday,” (1972) and “I Offer You,” (1973), made for the Groove Merchant label.
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Charlie Parker: Birth Of Bebop - Celebrating Bird At 100
by Mark Corroto
Let's face it, there is absolutely nothing new to say about the music of Charlie Parker, unless (insert joke here) you happen to be Phil Schaap. Lao Tzu's quote “The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long" is fitting. John Coltrane was 40 when he died in 1967, Eric Dolphy 36 in 1964, and Clifford Brown died at 25 in 1956. Parker was dead at the age of thirty-five in 1955. His legend has grown larger with ...
Continue ReadingLucky Thompson: New York City (1964-65)
by George Kanzler
Eli “Lucky" Thompson should be remembered as one of the premier tenor saxophonists of the bebop/hard bop era, right along with Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. Before Rollins, he had recorded with piano-less trios; before Coltrane he had taken up, and mastered, the soprano sax. And he appeared on one of Miles Davis' most influential record dates: the sextet session that produced those templates of hard bop, Walkin' and Blue 'N Boogie. But Thompson was labeled as “difficult," easily making ...
Continue ReadingLucky Thompson: Lucky is Back! (Then, So Is Love) & The World Awakes
by George Kanzler
Lucky Thompson Lucky is Back! (Then, So Is Love) Rivoli-Fresh Sound 2008 Michael Blake The World Awakes Stunt 2008
Eli “Lucky" Thompson is best known for his tenor sax on Miles Davis Walkin' album in the mid '50s; Thompson applied the big tone and vibrato of Swing tenors like Coleman Hawkins ...
Continue ReadingBackgrounder: Lucky Thompson + Oscar Pettiford
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
After I posted Tuesday on saxophonist Lucky Thompson, the emails poured in. So I decided to make my Backgrounder this week one of the Thompson albums I love dearly: Lucky Thompson Featuring Oscar Pettiford. The material was recorded in January and February 1956. The four January tracks are Bo-Bi My Boy, OP Meets LT, Tricotism and Body and Soul. The trio was Lucky Thompson (ts), Skeeter Best (g) and Oscar Pettiford (b). The four February tracks are Tom-Kattin, Old Reliable, ...
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Video and Audio: Lucky Thompson
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In February 1960, Lucky Thompson led an octet at the Paris Blue Note. Featured on stage were Thompson (ts,ss) backed by Leonard C. Johnson (tp), Jimmy Cleveland (tb), Marcel Rasko, Joe Rasko and Sahib Shihab (saxophones), Buddy Catlett (b) and Kenny Clarke (d), with Thelma Thompson on vocals. Thelma was Lucky's wife and would die three years later from a stroke. I'll show you their performance in a moment. Lucky Thompson had moved to Paris in 1957 and would remain ...
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Lucky Thompson: Paris 1956-59
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Eli “Lucky" Thompson was one of jazz's most confident and gifted tenor saxophonists. On recordings, his imagination on solos was so fast and bountiful that he filled virtually every spare space with warm tones. Over the course of his career, Thompson was most at home in Paris, as evidenced by his exhilarating slippery and smokey sound on recordings made there. In recent years, Thompson's Paris recordings have been released on a wide range of French and American labels that have ...
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Lucky Thompson on MPS
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In 1968, saxophonist Lucky Thompson moved back to Europe with his family after a five-year stay in the States. He settled in Lausanne, Switzerland, which allowed him to tour in European cities where he found the most work. A year later, in March 1969, he recorded A Lucky Songbook in Europe for MPS, one of the Continent's great labels. The album would become one of Thompson's finest works. Lucky Thompson's first trip to Europe came in 1956 while he was ...
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Lucky Thompson + Henri Renaud
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
In late February 1956, tenor saxophonist Lucky Thompson relocated to Paris. Disenchanted with the American recording scene and the executives on the business side who routinely and happily took advantage of artists, Thompson sought refuge among French musicians who admired and respected him. A deeply romantic player with a strong, husky tone reminiscent of Don Byas, Thompson was an experienced sight-reader, having played in Boyd Raeburn's band in 1945 and with George Handy in '46—both of whom featured challenging arrangements. ...
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Lucky Thompson + Hank Jones
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
When jazz musicians are paired perfectly, they sound like a key sliding into a lock. To the listener, the combination is magic, especially as each plays off the other. Examples include Lester Young and Billie Holiday, Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, Red Garland and Miles Davis, and Jim Hall and Paul Desmond. Add saxophonist Lucky Thompson and pianist Hank Jones to the list. Lucky Thompson Plays Jerome Kern and No More, with Thompson on tenor and soprano sax, remains the finest ...
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Not so Lucky at Life
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Riffs on Jazz by John Anderson
Saxophonist Eli “Lucky" Thompson was born on this date in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1924, and spent his formative years in Detroit. He played tenor in the swing orchestras of Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, and Billy Eckstine in the mid-1940s. Thompson's main influences were Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, and Don Byas. He was also the sax player that Dizzy Gillespie hired at this time to substitute for Charlie Parker, who was an erratic presence due to his drug problems (Parker ...
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Lucky Thompson Long-Silent Jazzman
Source:
Michael Ricci
Mid-1960s music by Lucky Thompson has surfaced.
The great saxophonist Lucky Thompson died in 2005, at 81. In musical terms his silence began much earlier: he gave his last known performances in the 1970s, after which he more or less disappeared, leading an itinerant life. (His outspoken disdain for the music business is often cited as motivation.) New York City, 1964-65 (Uptown) captures him a decade before his self-exile, around the time of his landmark album Lucky Strikes. The newly ...
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Announcing the Winners of the "Lucky Thompson - New York City 1964-65" Giveaway!
Source:
All About Jazz
Enter the Uptown Jazz "Lucky Thompson - New York City, 1964-65" Giveaway Contest
Source:
All About Jazz
All About Jazz members are invited to enter the Uptown Jazz “Lucky Thompson - New York City, 1964-65“ giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE lucky winners at the conclusion of the contest on March 22nd. Click here to enter the contest
(Following Lucky Thompson at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.)
Good luck! Your Friends at Uptown Jazz
A legendary tenor and soprano saxophonist who took his place among the elite improvisers of jazz ...
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