Sir Charles Thompson

The elegantly nicknamed Sir Charles Thompson was one of the few musicians associated with swing who was able to make a graceful, wholehearted transition to bop at the time the revolution was happening. His piano style is light-fingered and spare in a witty, inventive, <a href="spotify:artist:2jFZlvIea42ZvcCw4OeEdA">Basie</a>-descended bop manner, and he was able to adapt it effectively to the organ. Thompson's first instrument was the violin, but the piano beckoned when he was a teenager, and he started working with territory bands in the midwest in the late 1930s. He briefly joined <a href="spotify:artist:2PjgZkwAEk7UTin4jP6HLP">Lionel Hampton</a> in 1940, but left in order to work with small groups and contribute arrangements to <a href="spotify:artist:2jFZlvIea42ZvcCw4OeEdA">Basie</a>, Hampton, <a href="spotify:artist:2ovJLSejirvJybNers2YG6">Fletcher Henderson</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3xPpQCRiTBxgmL4PD8J5ek">Jimmy Dorsey</a>, and other bands. While working in New York's 52nd St. clubs during World War II, he began to pick up on the beginnings of bop. In 1944-1945, Thompson played in the <a href="spotify:artist:0JM134st8VY7Ld9T2wQiH0">Coleman Hawkins</a>/<a href="spotify:artist:3z4qqrJqPWfTl9CSUNxb93">Howard McGhee</a> band, journeying to Hollywood with them to record several terrific swing/bop sides for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Capitol%22">Capitol</a> (now on Hollywood Stampede) and also his lively tune "Ladies' Lullaby" for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Asch%22">Asch</a>. So thoroughly had Thompson absorbed the language and ethos of bop that he was able to write one of the quintessential classics of the idiom, "Robbins' Nest," which became a hit for Sir Charles' next employer, <a href="spotify:artist:6HzzZqLS76PGbKaw6dIMHZ">Illinois Jacquet</a>, and inspired a haunting, pathbreaking <a href="spotify:artist:7g9DeYASD3RzlT4kDchsQZ">Gil Evans</a> arrangement for <a href="spotify:artist:6ThTN0WCRCAtG00Htf7CUW">Claude Thornhill</a> in 1947.

Thompson recorded a number of small group albums for Vanguard in the '50s, and two more for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Columbia%22">Columbia</a> in 1959 and 1960, and appeared as a sideman for <a href="spotify:artist:1rQ8RuN5MY5dBeBz81fIho">Buck Clayton</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:5oSx3uh0EaLA2xEywrMsCX">Jimmy Rushing</a>, but spent much of the '50s freelancing as an organist. He toured the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico in the '60s leading small groups, as well as Europe with <a href="spotify:artist:1rQ8RuN5MY5dBeBz81fIho">Clayton</a>. Following a bout of ill health, he returned to action in 1975. His early bop sides for <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Apollo%22">Apollo</a>, including some with <a href="spotify:artist:0JM134st8VY7Ld9T2wQiH0">Hawkins</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4Ww5mwS7BWYjoZTUIrMHfC">Charlie Parker</a>, are available on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Delmark%22">Delmark</a> reissue Takin' Off. ~ Richard S. Ginell, Rovi