On the passing of wonderful double bassist Danny Thompson

The term “creative border crosser” is misleading. The people we like to honor as creative border crossers don’t balance on any borders. They don’t cross any borders either. No, they simply don’t know any borders. They simply feel at home everywhere. What are different worlds for others is, for them, a vast cosmos with infinite facets. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to speak of creative cosmopolitans.

One of them was Danny Thompson. Born in 1939 into a mining family, he was introduced to music at an early age by his father’s two brothers, who played in a brass band. After his father died in the war, the family moved with six-year-old Danny to London, where he learned several instruments, including the trombone. He eventually discovered his love for the double bass, which captivated him so much that he built his first instrument himself at the age of 13 – according to legend, from a tea chest and piano strings he “found by chance.” Critics said they could still hear the influence of the trombone in his later bass playing.

In his early to mid-twenties, Danny Thompson embarked on what would become an exceptional career. He played in the band of jazz saxophonist Tubby Hayes, joined Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, and finally, in 1967, was one of the founding members of Pentangle, the British band that effortlessly blended classic folk with jazz. It seemed only fitting that Thompson was also part of a trio around the future jazz-rock giant John McLaughlin (guitar). Blues, jazz, folk, and, of course, rock — Danny Thompson paid little attention to the criticism of the respective purists. He played what he wanted and with whomever he wanted. And this attitude catapulted him into a wide variety of musical spheres.

In the 1970s, the long-time highly esteemed string wizard went through difficult phases, was closely associated with brilliant eccentrics such as John Martyn and Nick Drake, the latter of whom died of an antidepressant overdose in 1974, and fell into alcoholism. From the 1980s onwards, having regained his footing, Danny Thompson also released his own music and increasingly contributed to albums by stars from a wide variety of genres. Only rarely were representatives of lighter pop music, such as Cliff Richard and Rod Stewart, included among his releases – mostly they were idiosyncratic artists who worked with as much vision and experimentation as he did. Talk Talk, David Sylvian, Peter Gabriel, Shelleyan Orphan, and Kate Bush are just a few of the many greats who enlisted his services. Through Peter Gabriel’s Real World label, he also participated in world music projects such as The Blind Boys of Alabama and S. E. Rogie.

It goes without saying that Danny Thompson was a virtuoso on his instrument. Furthermore, he developed a recognizable sound of his own, an almost poetic and consistently melodic style of playing, as well as the ability to absorb the music he contributed to while simultaneously enriching it with his personality. Danny Thompson never belonged to the army of ultimately interchangeable studio musicians, but was always a soulmate, a congenial artist who, with his bass playing, was known to elevate a production to the next level. You can hear it on many recordings – this bass, affectionately named Victoria by its keeper, is more than just a supporting instrument; Thompson plays it like a solo instrument, yet without obtrusively intruding on the foreground. An art mastered by few. 

Danny Thompson died on September 23rd at the age of 86. With him, the world loses a great musician, whose companions always acknowledged that he had an equally big heart.