Uptown\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s two-CD Thompson set, released in 2009, inspired a brief flurry of comment and soon slipped under the radar. It deserves renewed attention. The album documents two live appearances of a musician who reached less fame than his ability and importance warranted. Thompson worked in the 1940s and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc50s in Dizzy Gillespie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sextet and with the big bands of Billy Eckstine, Tom Talbert and Count Basie. Hank Jones, Oscar Pettiford and Milt Jackson were among the colleagues who cherished their relationships with him. Thompson became bitter about the business part of the music business. His life began to unravel in the sixties. In the early seventies, he played little. He eventually all but dropped out of performing to raise two sons as a I never knew Thompson, never saw him in live performance, but his work reached me from the first time I heard it on Charlie Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1946 Dial recordings<\/a>. In \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Moose The Mooche,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yardbird Suite,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ornithology\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Night in Tunisia,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Thompson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s solos suggested elements of Coleman Hawkins and Don Byas, but the surge and thrust of his invented lines and the swagger in his delivery\u00e2\u20ac\u201dparticularly on the master take of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tunisia\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201dset him apart from other tenor players. He was not, strictly speaking, one of the early bebop artists, but his playing fit perfectly with theirs. Later, I went back a step to 1944 to listen to Thompson on Count Basie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Taps Miller\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Avenue C\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/a> and found that he was a fully formed soloist at twenty, mixing smoothness and roughness in perfect balance.<\/p>\n If I were to recommend essential Thompson recordings to people unfamiliar with him, I would start with the Parker Dials, then refer them to the 1954 Miles Davis Walkin<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/a>session on Prestige, which has some of Thompson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s greatest solos. Of his own albums, I suggest Tricotimsm <\/em>(1956) on Impulse! and Lucky Strikes<\/em> <\/a>(1964) on Prestige. Tricotism <\/em>includes bassist Oscar Pettiford and pianist Hank Jones, with both of whom Thompson had special rapport. The album has been reissued<\/a> under a different title. Jones, with bassist Richard Davis and drummer Connie Kay, is also on Lucky Strikes<\/em>. In it, Thompson plays soprano saxophone in addition to tenor, and the album may well be his masterpiece. In the first disc of the Uptown album, recorded at a 1964 concert at the Little Theater in mid-town Manhattan, Thompson led an octet. The little-big-band format allowed him an outlet for his arranger\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s skills as well as his distinctive playing on tenor and soprano saxophones. With the superb rhythm section of Hank Jones, piano; Richard Davis, bass; and Al Dreares, drums, Thompson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fellow horns are trumpeter Dave Burns, alto saxophonist Still on soprano, Thompson eases into a relaxed solo, followed by Davis and Jones before the ensemble gives us the first passages of Thompson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intriguing arrangement. The voicings reflect his accumulation of bebop wisdom as well as his admiration for the French impressionists. His first tenor saxophone feature on this disc is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Twas Yesterday,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d highlighting what the late critic John S. Wilson once described as Thompson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153soft, furry, intimate tone.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Firebug\u00e2\u20ac\u009d brings spirited solos from Jones and Payne, a virtuosic and often very funny one from Powell, eight essential bebop choruses from the underrated Burns, then Thompson on tenor in a long solo in which each idea grows into the next; musical story-telling founded equally on logic and emotion. The ensemble accompanies Dreares, leaves him a few bars of solo space, then negotiates the intersecting contrapuntal lines of Thompson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arrangement to an abrupt conclusion that triggers chuckles on the bandstand and in the audience. <\/p>\n The second CD contains a 1965 quartet date broadcast from the Half Note in lower Manhattan. Thompson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s accompanists are bassist George Tucker, drummer Oliver Jackson and the excellent little-known pianist Paul Thompson remains on soprano for a gentle exploration of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s New,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d demonstrating the artistic strength to be found in restraint. Following the first chorus of Tadd Dameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lady Bird,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Neves drops out for a few choruses while Thompson indulges in one of his favorite tenor saxophone pursuits, strolling with bass and drums. When Neves reenters, the passion builds during a dozen more Thompson choruses and seven from Neves. Tucker makes the most of his only solo opportunity of the set. The last piece ends with a drum roll and Thompson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Paramount on Parade\u00e2\u20ac\u009d intro on soprano. They set the stage for an incendiary \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Strike Up the Band.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Thompson, on tenor, is the only soloist except for a sequence of power exchanges with Jackson, who is finally allowed to give full rein to his skills. It is a reminder of the versatility of a drummer who was equally effective in the range of jazz styles from traditional to modern.<\/p>\n The album recalls that, for all of the frustration he faced, the bitterness he felt and his sad end, Lucky Thompson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music transmitted confidence and joy. In his brief conversations at the Half note with broadcast host Alan Grant, Thompson’s intelligence and gentlemanliness are apparent.<\/p>\n In the CD’s booklet, Noal Cohen’s comprehensive notes provide an extensive history of Thompson’s career. The 44-page booklet has several photos of Thompson, pictures and brief bios of the sidemen, and information about the Little Theater concert and the Half Note broadcast. <\/p>\n (Photo of Paul Neves by Katherine Hanna courtesy of Irene Kubota Neves)<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [contextly_auto_sidebar id=”tjOgvMRMuLygyqwCnwUg5F2lb9aIFdLQ”] Lucky Thompson: New York City 1964-65 (Uptown) Uptown\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s two-CD Thompson set, released in 2009, inspired a brief flurry of comment and soon slipped under the radar. It deserves renewed attention. The album documents two live appearances of a musician who reached less fame than his ability and importance warranted. Thompson worked in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Thompson](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Thompson-NYC.jpg\")
<\/a> single father, developed dementia and in 2005 died all but forgotten. Kind strangers who admired his music looked after him in his last years.<\/p>\n
\nHe made a notable impact on Benny Golson in the early 1950s as Golson formed his style. Half a century later, the young saxophonist Chris Byars adopted Thompson as his model. When Thompson gets attention, it is invariably emphasized that his tenor saxophone style descended from Ben Webster and Don Byas and was inherited by Golson. That is true, but so simple an analysis overlooks the individuality, the recognizability, of his work. <\/p>\n![\"Hank](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Hank-Jones.jpg\")
<\/a>Danny Turner, baritone saxophonist Cecil Payne and trombonist Benny Powell—all among the elite of the post-bop New York scene. In Thompson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s writing, as in his playing, blues feeling predominates even when the composition\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s form, as in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Firebug,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is that of a 32-bar song. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The World Awakes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which in the sixties served Thompson as a sort of anthem, is a minor blues. His soprano solo combines intensity, light-heartedness and the penetrating tone that was an important element of his distinctiveness on the instrument. Jones (pictured left) solos, impeccably, of course, but Davis\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 12 choruses of walking bass practically steal the performance. <\/p>\n![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Paul-Neves.jpg\")
<\/a> Neves (pictured right), who appears here in one of only two recordings I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m aware of his having made. The other was Ahmed Abdul-Malik\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Spellbound<\/em><\/a>, which disappeared for a time but is again available. If anything, Thompson is even more fluid on soprano in this version of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The World Awakes,” spurred by Neves\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 emphatic comping. The pianist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s solos and his supportive accompaniment throughout make the attentive listener aware that we lost a substantial musician when he died in Puerto Rico in the 1980s. He was in his early fifties. A native of Boston, Neves was the brother of bassist John Neves, who worked with Jaki Byard, Stan Getz and the big bands of Herb Pomeroy and Maynard Ferguson. <\/p>\n