Lucky Thompson

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Lucky Thompson

| image = Lucky Thompson (cropped).jpg

| caption = Lucky Thompson at the Three Deuces, New York, 1947

Photo: William P. Gottlieb

| image_size =

| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist

| birth_name = Eli Thompson

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1924|6|16}}

| birth_place = Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.

| death_date = {{dda|2005|7|30|1924|6|16|mf=y}}

| death_place = Seattle, Washington, U.S.

| origin = Detroit, Michigan, U.S.

| instrument = {{hlist|Tenor saxophone|soprano saxophone}}

| genre = Jazz

| occupation = Musician

| years_active = 1942–1970s

| label =

| associated_acts = {{hlist|Lionel Hampton|Don Redman|Billy Eckstine|Lucky Millinder|Count Basie|Dizzy Gillespie|Charlie Parker}}

}}

Eli "Lucky" Thompson (June 16, 1924 – 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 | access-date=2012-01-16 }} was an American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist whose playing combined elements of swing and bebop.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/lucky-thompson-mn0000302799/biography|title=Lucky Thompson | Biography & History|website=AllMusic|access-date=August 2, 2021}} Although John Coltrane usually receives the most credit for bringing the soprano saxophone out of obsolescence in the early 1960s, Thompson (along with Steve Lacy) embraced the instrument earlier than Coltrane.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/happy-days-mw0000126497|title=Happy Days - Lucky Thompson | Songs, Reviews, Credits |website=AllMusic|access-date=August 2, 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/lucky-strikes-mw0000649753|title=Lucky Strikes - Lucky Thompson | Songs, Reviews, Credits |website=AllMusic|access-date=August 2, 2021}}

Early life

Thompson was born in Columbia, South Carolina and moved to Detroit, Michigan during his childhood.{{Cite news | url=http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/jazz-great-eli-thompson-soared-for-3-decades-fell-silent | title=Jazz great Eli Thompson soared for 3 decades, fell silent | last=Chia Hui Hsu | first=Judy | work=The Seattle Times | date=2005-08-06 | access-date=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.{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p7680|tab=biography|last=Ankeny|first=Jason|access-date=2012-01-17}}{{cite book|last = Cook|first = Richard|author-link = Richard Cook (journalist)|author2=Brian Morton |author-link2=Brian Morton (Scottish writer) |title = The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings|edition = 9th|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 Cass Technical High School.{{Cite AV media notes |title="Dancing Sunbeam" |title-link= |last=Porter |first=Bob |author-link=Bob Porter (record producer) |others= |url= |date=1975 |access-date= |chapter= |page= |pages= |at= |type=liner notes |publisher=ABC Records |id=ASH-9307-2 |location= }}

Career

After playing with the 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, Gillespie and Milt Jackson.

Ben Ratliff observed 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 recorded with Parker (on two Los Angeles Dial Records sessions) and on Miles Davis's hard bop Walkin' session. Thompson recorded albums as leader for Disques Vogue (in Paris), ABC Paramount and Prestige and as a sideman on records for Savoy Records with Jackson as leader.

Thompson was strongly critical of the music business, later describing promoters, music producers 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

Thompson's whereabouts after the mid-1970s are unclear; he is believed to have lived briefly on Manitoulin Island in Canada and in Savannah, Georgia.

In his last years, he lived in Seattle, Washington. Acquaintances reported that Thompson was homeless by the early 1990s, and lived as a hermit.

Thompson died from Alzheimer's disease in an assisted living facility on July 30, 2005.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/oct/05/guardianobituaries.usa|title=Obituary: 'Lucky' Thompson|first=Peter|last=Vacher|date=5 October 2005|access-date=3 December 2017|website=Theguardian.com}}

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 |volume=24 |issue=17 |page=64|publisher=Johnson |location=Chicago |issn=0021-5996 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BcEDAAAAMBAJ&q=lucky+thompson&pg=PA64 |access-date=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 |volume=76 |issue=25 |page=18|publisher=Johnson |location=Chicago |issn=0021-5996 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s7sDAAAAMBAJ&q=lucky+thompson&pg=PA18 |access-date=2011-04-26}} Thompson also had a daughter, Jade Thompson-Fredericks, and two grandchildren.

Discography

=As leader/co-leader=

Accent On Tenor Saxophone (Urania, 1954; reissued by Fresh Sound)
Lucky Thompson Featuring Oscar Pettiford Vol. 1 (ABC-Paramount, 1956)
Lucky Thompson Featuring Oscar Pettiford Vol. 2 (ABC-Paramount, 1957)
Brown Rose (Xanadu, 1956)
Lord, Lord, Am I Ever Gonna Know? (Candid, 1961)
Lucky Thompson Plays Jerome Kern and No More (Moodsville, 1963)
Lucky Strikes (Prestige, 1964)
Lucky Thompson Plays Happy Days Are Here Again (Prestige, 1965)
Lucky is Back! (Rivoli, 1965)
Soul's Nite Out (Ensayo, 1970)
Goodbye Yesterday (Groove Merchant, 1973)
Concert: Friday the 13th - Cook County Jail (Groove Merchant, 1973) - split album with Jimmy McGriff
I Offer You (Groove Merchant, 1973)
Back to the World (51 West, 1979)
Lucky Thompson (Inner City Jazz Legacy, 1980)
Lucky Thompson: Sonny Lester Collection (LRC, 1991)
Paris Blue, with Sammy Price (Concord Jazz, 2000)
Modern Jazz Group (EmArcy, no date/Sunnyside, 2000)
Jazz in Paris, with Dave Pochonet All Stars (Sunnyside, 2001)
Home Comin{{'}} (2003)

=As sideman=

With Louis Armstrong

Louis and the Angels (Decca, 1957)

With Harry Arnold

Guest Book (Metronome, 1961)

With Art Blakey

Soul Finger (Limelight, 1965)

With Benny Carter

A Man Called Adam (Reprise, 1965)

With Kenny Clarke

Kenny Clarke Plays Pierre Michelot (Columbia, 1957)

With Jimmy Cleveland

Introducing Jimmy Cleveland and His All Stars (EmArcy, 1955)

With Johnny Dankworth

The Zodiac Variations (Fontana, 1964)

With Miles Davis

Walkin' (Prestige, 1954)

With Dizzy Gillespie

Afro (Norgran, 1954)
Dizzy and Strings (Norgran, 1954)

With Milt Jackson

Meet Milt Jackson (Savoy, 1956)
Roll 'Em Bags (Savoy, 1956)
Jackson's Ville (Savoy, 1956)
Ballads & Blues (Atlantic, 1956)
The Jazz Skyline (Savoy, 1956)
Plenty, Plenty Soul (Atlantic, 1957)

With Quincy Jones

I/We Had a Ball (Limelight, 1964)

With Stan Kenton

Cuban Fire! (Capitol, 1956)

With John Lewis

The Modern Jazz Society Presents a Concert of Contemporary Music (Norgran, 1955)

With Thelonious Monk

Genius of Modern Music: Volume 2 (Blue Note, 1952){{Cite web | url=http://www.bluenote.com/ArtistDiscography.aspx?ArtistId=904944&PromoId=&UPCCode=724353213923 | title=Monk, Thelonious Discography | publisher=Blue Note Records | access-date=2012-01-16 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105204138/http://bluenote.com/ArtistDiscography.aspx?ArtistId=904944&PromoId=&UPCCode=724353213923 | archive-date=2010-01-05 }}

With Oscar Pettiford

The Oscar Pettiford Orchestra in Hi-Fi (ABC-Paramount, 1956)
The Oscar Pettiford Orchestra in Hi-Fi Volume Two (ABC-Paramount, 1957)

With Ralph Sharon

Around the World in Jazz (Rama, 1957)

With Martial Solal

Martial Solal et Son Grand Orchestre (Swing, 1957)

With Dinah Washington

Mellow Mama (Delmark, 1945 [1992]) Apollo Records recordings

Sources:{{cite web |last=Cohen |first=Noal |date=November 12, 2018 |title=Lucky Thompson Discography: 1957-1974 |url=https://attictoys.com/lucky-thompson-discography-1957-1974/ |access-date=December 19, 2018}}{{cite web |last=Cohen |first=Noal |date=November 12, 2018 |title=Lucky Thompson Discography: 1951-1956 |url=https://attictoys.com/lucky-thompson-discography-1951-1956/ |access-date=December 19, 2018}}{{cite web |last=Cohen |first=Noal |date=November 8, 2018 |title=Lucky Thompson Discography: 1943-1950 |url=https://attictoys.com/lucky-thompson-discography-1943-1950/ |access-date=December 19, 2018}}