Biography

July 27th 1944. Born Barbara Gracey Thompson in Oxford, England. Her father, David Richard Thompson, was the Registrar of the Court of Criminal Appeal, and his father, William Thompson was an accomplished pianist. Her grandmother on her mother’s side, was also an accomplished cellist. Bosworth, the famous music publishing company, was owned and run by Albert Bosworth, who was her great uncle on her mother’s side.

1949. Learnt recorder at primary school, Highbury Corner played at school assembly and learnt to read music
1955-1962. Queen’s College, Harley Street. Learnt clarinet with Miss Collingwood  and piano with Miss Greenslade.
1957. Passed Grade 8 on clarinet with distinction. Miss Collingwood told her that she would have to pass her onto a more advanced teacher, so she took private lessons from Hale Hambleton.  From the age of 13 – 17 she played in the London Schools Symphony Orchestra.
1957-1962. Played clarinet in the London Schools’ Symphony Orchestra  conducted by Dr. Lesley Russell – other contemporaries included Tristam Fry on percussion, Paul Buckmaster on cello, Sue Milan & Graham Mayger on flutes
1963. Secretarial work – in the meantime took up the alto saxophone.
1964. May-September, joined the Ivy Benson All Girl Band for a season in the Isle of Man.
1964–1967. 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 of couse 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.

1967-1968. Played in the on-stage band with the show ”Cabaret” at the Palace Theatre, London. 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.

The Bands she has worked with include:

1964 on. New Jazz Orchestra
1969. Bill Le Sage Trio – resident for many years with him & Art Theman at the Bull’s head, Barnes.
1970. Don Rendell & Barbara Thompson Quintet played at Ronnie Scott’s opposite Oscar Perterson
1974. John Dankworth
1975. Greatest Swing Band In The World (Stan Reynolds) played for a week at Ronnie Scotts
1975-2006. The United Jazz & Rock Ensemble.  A 10-piece group including: Wolfgang Dauner, Ack Van Rooyen,Ian Carr, Kenny Wheeler, Jon Hiseman ,Albert Mangelsdorf and Charlie Mariano. Barbara originally played Tenor sax and Flute but Christof Lauer took over from Charlie and they swapped saxophone chairs, him playing tenor sax and she alto
1975-83. Barbara Thompson’s Jubiaba (9 piece Latin/Rock band)
1975-2006. Barbara Thompson’s “Paraphernalia” – the currently working band starting off with Colin Dudman on keyboards, Dill Kattz on bass & Harold Fisher on Drums.  Current members of the band are Billy Thompson on violin, Peter Lemer on keyboards, Dave Ball on bass & Jon Hiseman on drums
1976. Manfred Mann’s ‘Roaring Silence’ – Manfred had heard Barbara’s solo on Neil Ardley’s ‘Kalaidoscope of Rainbows’ and asked her to solo on this album. This was to be the beginning of a long, musical collaboration and she has been featured on most of his subsequent albums including ‘2006’ the most recent.  Incidentally ‘Roaring Silence’ went gold
1978. Barbara was signed by MCA and recorded  5 albums at Morgan Studios, London
1978. Met and worked with Andrew Lloyd-Webber for the first time. This musical relationship lasted for many years, recording and playing live on a variety of Andrew’s works including Variations, Requiem, Cricket, Cats, Starlite Express & Tell Me On A Sunday

1988. Freiburg Festival – 1st performance of her Saxophone Concerto  with the Freiburg Festival Orchestra and  subsequently broadcast in the Autumn with the Hannover Radio Symphony Orchestra.
June 1991. Songs From The Centre of the Earth – album featuring solo saxophone recorded in the medieval Abbeye du Thoronet in Provence.  Subsequently used for the main title theme of “A Touch of Frost”, one of the most popular TV series in the UK
September 1991. BREATHLESS, Paraphernalia’s 7th album climbed to no.4 in the German CD Jazz Charts
1989-1994. Moving Parts, Barbara Thompson’s 19 piece big band including musicians such as Derek Nash, Dave O’ Higgins, Nigel Hitchcock, Scott Garland, Mark Nightingale, Noel Langley and members of “Paraphernalia” The band performed at festivals in Freiburg, Folkestone, and the Bristol Harbour Festival, where she was commissioned to write the Bristol Harbour Suite. In July, 1992,  the band was featured on BBC Radio Two’s Jazz Parade

1993. Sans Frontiers, an international group organised by Barbara as part of the European Festival  featuring Enrico Rava(Italy), Michael Urbaniak(Pol/USA), Jasper Van Hof(Hol) Bo Stief(Den) and Jon Hiseman, played a 10 date UK tour
1993-96. The Medici String Quartet – they first met Barbara in August 1993, when she played soprano sax with them on a recording of her composition “les Barricades Mysterieuses” for an album produced by George Martin released Sep 95 on the Classic FM label. Subsequently they had a three year collaboration making another album ‘Barbara Song’ released on the Virgin classics label and were featured on ‘Love Songs in Age’ commissioned by Radio 3 and broadcast live from the Queen Elizabeth hall in 1995

Other Activities:

Workshops in improvisation and contemporary music involving small groups and big band music in Austria, Switzerland ,Germany and the UK. Writing  for film, radio & television including the 2 hr BBC film ‘Sweet Nothing’, she also played the role of Sadie the saxophone player, whose saxophone gets run over in full view by a bulldozer!  She also wrote the music for the film Zischke, premiered in Berlin and shown throughout  Germany.  Other programmes include ‘Cat’s Eyes’, ‘A Touch of  Frost’ starring David Jason, and numerous projects with Director Peter Tabern for the school’s programmes  for Thames TV.

1995. Evelyn Glennie- Theatre Royal, Norwich performing Barbara’s 50 min. composition “Rhythms of the Gods”
1995. Featured with Sax Appeal at the Cork Festival
2006. Performed at Sydmonton,  Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s summer festival, with the Medici String Quartet playing the Barbara Song programme
2003-2006. Colosseum – when Colosseum’s saxophone player Dick Heckstall-Smith was taken ill in the Autumn of 2003, Barbara was asked to stand in at short  notice, and now with Dick’s unfortunate demise, she has become a regular member of the band
1996. Was awarded the MBE for services to Music

Commissions as Composer:

1972. 3 Commissions for Jazz in Britain, produced by John Muir for BBC Radio 4 including  ‘The Awakening’
1988. Freiburg Festival – 1st performance of her Saxophone Concerto  with the Freiburg Festival Orchestra-   subsequently broadcast in the Autumn with the Hanover Radio Symphony Orchestra
June 21st 1992. Concerto for 3 Saxophones – Freiburg Festival – 1st performance of  her Saxophone Symphony featuring 3 saxophones and chamber orchestra ‘From Darkness Into Light’
1992. Leaslowe Festival Commission ‘The Fly ‘with lyrics by William Blake1992 July,  Bristol Harbour Suite
1995. ‘Rhythms of the Gods’ commissioned by Norwich Arts Centre, and performed at the Theatre Royal by Evelyn Glenne on percussion,  Barbara on saxes/recorder, and Phillip Smith on grand piano
1995. ‘Love Songs in Age’ featuring the BBC Singers and Medici String Quartet commissioned by Radio 3 and broadcast live from the Queen Elizabeth Hall
1996.  Was presented with an MBE for services to music as a musician & composer
2001. the Apollo Saxophone Quartet commissioned Saxophone Quartet no 1 for the Brighton Festival

NDR Hamburg: The NDR big band have recorded just about all Barbara’s Big Band arrangements including an 0rchestral version of  ‘The Selfish Giant’ in 1980, Saxophone Concerto in 1988, and her Tuba Concerto for solo tuba and big band.

2001. Saxophone Quartet No.1 commissioned by the Apollo Saxophone Quartet for the Brighton Festival
2002. An Extended Farewell Tour from The United Jazz & Rock Ensemble
2002-2003. Big Sky, 100 voice choir rehearsed & performed  ‘Journey to a Destination Unknown’ commissioned by Norwich Arts to sell out performances in Norwich and St John’s Smith Sq., London
2004. Apollo Concerto No. 1 for Saxophone Quartet & String Ensemble commissioned by the Apollo Saxophone Quartet
2004. Camerata Bern Commission ‘Mirages’ Concerto No. 2 for Saxophone Quartet & String Ensemble
2006. Both Colosseum and Paraphernalia were busy touring  with trips to Japan & Russia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary. A DVD of Paraphernalia’s tour in Germany during November was  released in 2007, plus albums from both Paraphernalia ‘Never Say Goodbye’ and’ Colosseum Live 05′

2007. Freiburg Festival  featured some of Barbara’s music as part of their  20th anniversary celebratiogot together for the occasion
2012. Perpetual Motion waas released on Nimbus Alliance.  Dave Gelly wrote in the Sunday Observer :This is stretching the term “jazz” a bit, but nobody worries too much about that any more. Here’s something really new. Twelve saxophones, from tiny sopranino to mighty bass, make a terrific sound, especially when playing music composed by Barbara Thompson. In fact, she plays the soprano solo in one of these 10 pieces, despite having lived with Parkinson’s disease for the past 15 years. No composer understands this instrument better than Thompson does, and she really brings out the endlesss variety of tone, which is its greatest asset. The playing of the whole ensemble is quite sensational.