Barbara Thompson (musician)

Barbara Thompson
Barbara Thompson in 2010
Background information
Birth name	Barbara Gracey Thompson
Born	(1944-07-27)July 27, 1944 Oxford, England
Genres	Jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer
Instruments	Saxophone
Years active	1964–present
Labels	MCA, Mood, Intuition
Associated acts	United Jazz + Rock Ensemble, Paraphernalia, Jubiaba, Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Moving Parts, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Colosseum
Website	www.temple-music.com

Barbara Gracey Thompson MBE is an English jazz saxophonist, flautist and composer. She studied clarinet, flute, piano and classical composition at the Royal College of Music, but the music of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane made her shift her interests to jazz and saxophone. Since 1967, she has been married to drummer Jon Hiseman of Colosseum.

Around 1970, Thompson was part of Neil Ardley's New Jazz Orchestra and appeared on albums by Colosseum. Starting in 1975, she was involved in the foundation of three bands:

She was awarded the MBE in 1996 for services to music. Due to Parkinson's disease diagnosed in 1997, she retired as an active saxophonist in 2001 with a farewell tour. After a period of working as a composer exclusively, she returned to the stage in 2003 to replace the unwell Dick Heckstall-Smith during Colosseum's "Tomorrow's Blues" tour, and in 2005 she performed live with Paraphernalia in their "Never Say Goodbye" tour. Since 2004 she has been a permanent member of Colosseum.

Thompson has worked closely with Andrew Lloyd Webber on musicals such as Cats and Starlight Express and on his Requiem. She has written several classical compositions, music for film and television, a musical of her own and songs for the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble, Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia and her big band Moving Parts.

She played the incidental music in the popular ITV police series A Touch of Frost starring David Jason. She also played flute on Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.