Don Thompson

Don (Donald Winston) Thompson. Pianist, bassist,vibraphonist, drummer, composer, arranger, recordingengineer, b Powell River, north of Vancouver, 18 Jan 1940.After childhood piano lessons he took up the string bassand the vibraphone in his teens. He is essentially self-taughton all instruments. In Vancouver 1960-5 he was sideman toChris Gage (playing bass or vibraphone) and Dave Robbins(bass) and accompanied the visiting US jazzmen BarneyKessel, John Handy, and others in local nightclubs. With thedrummer Terry Clarke he joined Handy's quintet in the USAin 1965, touring widely and making two LPs, one of which,Live at Monterey, was among the most popular jazzrecordings of the 1960s.

Thompson returned to Vancouver in 1967 (after workingbriefly in Montreal with Lee Gagnon that year) and thenmoved to Toronto in 1969. He quickly became that city'sfirst-call studio bassist, a standing he maintained until heturned exclusively to jazz in the mid-1970s.

Thompson has been a member of the Boss Brass (bassist1969-82 and pianist as of 1988) and the bands of SonnyGreenwich (pianist 1970-82 and again as of 1990) and MoeKoffman (bassist 1970-4 and pianist 1975-8). He alsoplayed bass or drums for Lenny Breau and has maintaineda lengthy association with the guitarist Ed Bickert in variousjazz settings. Thompson's work as a bassist at the Torontojazz club Bourbon Street with (among others) the USguitarist Jim Hall and the US alto saxophonist PaulDesmond, documented by live recordings there in 1975 (forwhich Thompson served as recording engineer), renewedhis international profile. In 1976 he began touring with Hall(Japan, the USA and Europe) and 1982-7 he was concertpartner to the celebrated British pianist George Shearing,with whom he played both bass and piano. He was the soleaccompanist to Shearing and the singer Mel Tormé on TopDrawer, winner of a (US) Grammy award in 1984. Whileworking with Shearing, he began to teach each summer atthe Banff CA Jazz Workshop in 1982, and established theshort-lived record label, From Bebop to Now, in 1983.

Resuming his activities in Toronto in 1987, he has playedpiano in the Dave McMurdo Jazz Orchestra, accompaniedJane Bunnett, Trudy Desmond, and others locally, andtaught privately. His pupils have included the pianists HughFraser, James Gelfand, Jeff Johnston, Andy Milne, andDave Restivo, and the bassists George Mitchell and AlecWalkington. Thompson's own groups have appearedintermittently in Toronto clubs. One quartet, with the leaderat the piano, was heard in 1977 at the Laren's InternationalJazz Festival in Holland; another, with Thompson playing thevibraphone, appeared at several Canadian jazz festivals in1991.

Thompson's comparably impressive facility as a bassist,pianist and vibraphonist has few precedents in jazz. Hemoves easily from instrument to instrument and from idiomto idiom, bringing to each an instinctive rather than schooledmusicality. His recordings range from the mainstreamSecret Love to the relatively avant garde Don ThompsonQuartet Live. The albums Ed Bickert/Don Thompson and ABeautiful Friendship won Juno Awards (for best jazzrecording) in 1980 and 1985 respectively.

Thompson's diverse body of compositions includes Trio '85(for clarinet, double bass and piano, premiered by JamesCampbell and others), Journey to Skye (1987, for pipeband, recorded by the 78th Fraser Highlanders), Quartet '89(for four double basses, premiered at NMC by thecomposer with Joel Quarrington and others), and Abstract &Dreams (1989, for jazz and string quartets, recorded by JimHall in 1990).

His best-known composition is Days Gone By, which he hasarranged for big band and for symphony orchestra; it hasbeen recorded by Thompson himself, the Boss Brass, aCBC-organized 'All Star Jazz Sextet', Moe Koffman, PatLaBarbera and, with lyrics added, Jeff Dyer and ArleneSmith. Thompson also has written in the 12-tone idiom forbig band, including Pluto (1974), recorded by Koffman, andDon't (1970) and Winter Mist (1987), played as suite byMcMurdo. Other Thompson themes have been recorded(with the composer as a participant) by Hall (Circles),Koffman (Mercury, Bilbo, Wildlife), McMurdo (Blues for Jim-San, Ghoti), Doug Riley (Gandalf, Dreams), and Shearing(Stratford Stomp). Thompson has written several pieces intribute to other musicians - eg, For Chris Gage, Song forSonny [Greenwich], and For Scott LaFaro.

(biography courtesy of thecanadianencyclopedia.com)