Barbara Thompson born 27 July 1944

Barbara Gracey Thompson MBE (27 July 1944 – 9 July 2022) was an English virtuoso saxophonist, flautist, composer and bandleader who played everything from English country music to modern jazz.

Barbara was born in Oxford and educated at Queens College, Harley Street, London and the Royal College of Music, where she studied clarinet, piano, flute and composition. Whilst retaining a strong interest in classical music, Barbara was captivated by the jazz work of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane and developed a consuming passion for the saxophone.

In 1964 Barbara was accepted and given a grant for the performer’s course at the Royal College of Music.  Studied clarinet with Syd Fell, flute with John Francis, & piano with Peter Element at the RCM and saxophone with Charles Chapman outside. During this time she played in many student bands run by people such as Gordon Rose, Bill Geldard, Alan Cohen, and Graham Collier. She was particularly helped and encouraged by Don Rendell, Art Themen, Bill Le Sage, Mike Gibbs, Jon Hiseman and especially by Neil Ardley.

During this time played with the all girl pop group ‘The She Trinity’ playing gigs abroad as well as in the UK, supporting ‘the Who’ on three occasions. Joined the New Jazz Orchestra led by Neil Ardley where she met future luminaries of the British Jazz Scene including Dave Gelly, Ian Carr, Mike Gibbs, Trevor Watts, Paul Rutherwood, Michael Garrick, Jack Bruce and drummer Jon Hiseman, whom she married in 1967. Throughout this period she was busy gaining experience with Graham Bond, Georgie Fame, John Mayall, Mike Taylor, Ian Carr and many others.

She Played in the on-stage band with the show” Cabaret” at the Palace Theatre, London from 1967 -1968. This was such a shocking experience that she vowed to play creative music at any cost and from then on wrote her own music and started her own bands – the money from this show enabled Jon to put together his band Colosseum.

                                   

Around 1970, Thompson was part of Neil Ardley's New Jazz Orchestra and appeared on albums by Colosseum. Beginning in 1975, she was involved in the foundation of three bands:- 1) United Jazz and Rock Ensemble, (1975 – 2006)  2) Barbara Thompson's Jubiaba (1975 – 1983)   (9-piece Latin/rock band) 3) Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia, (1975 – 2006). 

The band, still touring and recording despite Barbara being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1997, became one of the major instrumental attractions on the European concert scene. Barbara’s original and inventive compositions and soaring saxophone and flute improvisations, earned her international acclaim, while the originality of the music appealed to a wider audience than solely contemporary jazz buffs.

Thompson worked closely with Andrew Lloyd Webber on musicals such as Cats and Starlight Express, his Requiem, and Lloyd Webber's 1978 classical-fusion album Variations. She wrote several classical compositions, music for film and television, a musical of her own and songs for the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble, Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia and her big band Moving Parts. She was a regular, along with her husband drummer Jon Hiseman and bassist David "Dill" Katz in the underground "Cellar Bar" at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell during the late 1970s and 1980s.

She was awarded the MBE in 1996 for services to music. Due to Parkinson's disease, which was diagnosed in 1997, she retired as an active saxophonist in 2001 with a farewell tour. After a period of working as a composer xclusively, she returned to the stage in 2003 for a tour with Colosseum.  She played the incidental music in the ITV police series A Touch of Frost, starring David Jason. She also played flute on Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.

After she was hospitalised with atrial fibrillation, her attendance in an accident and emergency department was featured in an episode of the Channel 4 fly-on-the-wall television documentary 24 Hours in A&E in October 2020. An autobiography, Journey to a Destination Unknown, was published during that same year.

Barbara Thompson passed away peacefully on the morning of Saturday 9th July 2022, after a 25 year battle with Parkinson’s disease alongside complications with her heart in recent years. She was just 18 days shy of her 78th birthday.

(Edited mainly from Wikipedia)