Biography
For many years the British saxophonist and flutist Barbara Thompson served as both leader and supporting player within forward-looking jazz and jazz-rock groups operating in the United Kingdom and across continental Europe. Although she received a classical training at the Royal College of Music, jazz ultimately claimed her attention, prompting her to enter Neil Ardley’s New Jazz Orchestra in the middle of the 1960s; there she encountered Colosseum drummer Jon Hiseman, whom she married in 1967. She also appeared and recorded with Colosseum from time to time and joined the ensemble as a permanent member in 2004. During the 1970s Thompson became part of the United Jazz + Rock Ensemble, the ten-piece unit that also featured Wolfgang Dauner, Ian Carr, Kenny Wheeler, Albert Mangelsdorff, Charlie Mariano, and Hiseman, while simultaneously launching her own jazz-rock group Paraphernalia and the Latin-flavored project Jubiaba. Her recorded work encompassed jazz-rock fusion, contemporary creative jazz, world music, folk traditions, and modern classical composition; she likewise supplied scores for theatrical productions, beginning a sustained partnership with Andrew Lloyd Webber in 1978, and created music for film and television. The rank of MBE was conferred on her in 1996 in recognition of her services to music. Although Parkinson’s disease was diagnosed in 1997, she maintained an active schedule of recording and touring well into the new century while directing much of her creative effort toward composition. Releases from the 2000s included Barbara Thompson and Friends' In the Eye of a Storm (2003) and Paraphernalia’s Never Say Goodbye (2007), both issued on the Intuition label. Barbara Thompson died on July 9, 2022, at the age of 77 after living with Parkinson’s disease for twenty-five years.
Albums
