LES THOMPSON

[BassHarper@xxxxxxx]

To Tom Ellis III, and all others interested, regarding Les Thompson.

Les just called me yesterday (Sunday) to tell me he had recently started
playing again after having retired for 9 or 10 years.  He is now playing
every Sunday afternoon at the famed Lighthouse in Long Beach, CA.

He is a be-bop musician (harmonicist) who pre-dated Toots Thielemans in the
genre, and has played with most of the jazz artists of that era.

As recently as 1982 and 1983, he was playing with Shelly Manne, Carmen McRae,
Jimmy Rowles, Monty Budwig, Barry Zeweig and Jack Sheldon and Jackie Kuhns.
 Jaye P Morgan was another artist with whom he made many appearances and
recordings over the years.

In 1972/1973 he recorded an album titled Mouth Organ Madness for the Jazz
Chronicles label that included "Avalon", "It's A Wonderful World", "But
Beautiful", "Lullaby of the Leaves", "Bye Bye Blackbird', "Undecided" and
"Honeysuckle Rose".  (He autographed a copy of the album for me in 1983.)
 Then in 1980 Les cut one track ("Change Your Mind") on an album (This Time)
with Al Jarreau, and in 1982 he backed Al Jarreau on a limited edition
Christmas greeting record for industry people - Mel Torme's Christmas Song.
 Obviously these recordings have been out of print for years.

I will be seeing Les soon, so will try to get more info, and will also see if
he will approve making a tape copy of his album.  I do also have a copy in my
7" reel collection of a very old album Les did, so I will also dig that one
out and update you as to the details on that one.

-  Danny Wilson (BassHarp)