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Lucky Thompson

Lucky Thompson
Lucky Thompson Hilda A. Taylor and Al McKibbon.jpg
Al McKibbon, Lucky Thompson, and Hilda Taylor, Three Deuces, New York, 1947
Photo: William P. Gottlieb
Background information
Birth name Eli Thompson
Born (1924-06-16)June 16, 1924
Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.
Origin Detroit, Michigan
Died July 30, 2005(2005-07-30) (aged 81)
Seattle, Washington
Genres Jazz
Occupation(s) Musician
Instruments Tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
Years active 1942–1970s
Associated acts Lionel Hampton, Don Redman, Billy Eckstine, Lucky Millinder, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker

Eli "Lucky" Thompson (June 16, 1924 – July 30, 2005) was an American 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, Thompson (along with Steve Lacy) embraced the instrument earlier than Coltrane.

Thompson was born in Columbia, South Carolina, and moved to Detroit, Michigan, during his childhood. Thompson had to raise his siblings after his mother died, and he practiced saxophone fingerings on a broom handle before acquiring his first instrument. He joined Erskine Hawkins' band in 1942 upon graduating from high school.

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 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 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 ABC Paramount and Prestige and as a sideman on records for Savoy Records with Jackson as leader.


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