Danny Thompson RIP

My old acquaintance Ian A. Anderson posted the following on Facebook: Legendary acoustic bass player Danny Thompson died peacefully yesterday at his home in Rickmansworth, UK. A musician who was both beloved and admired by everybody he worked with, his body of work is unparalleled in its quality and also in the incredibly varied number of musicians he worked with. From Kate Bush and John Martyn, to his role as a founding member of the legendary band Pentangle; from featuring on the Thunderbirds theme tune, and playing bass for Roy Orbison when The Beatles were still the opening act; to collaborations with jazz greats like Tubby Hayes and Stan Tracey, as well as work with Donovan, June Tabor, Nick Drake, Richard Thompson, and The Blind Boys of Alabama. Danny was a force of nature. A player who served the song and who enriched the lives of every single person he met. He will be sorely missed.

For me, he was the bassist who played with Nick Drake and John Martyn in the 70s; in the 90s he played with Richard Thompson (no relation) in a series of non-official duo performances that set fire to the strings. 

At the 1997 Cropredy festival, I (and twenty thousand other people) were recorded singing "Happy birthday" to Danny on the occasion of his 58th birthday, making him 86 years old at the time of his death. I admit that I hadn't given much thought to him recently, although I have known for several years that his health was not good.

Guardian obit here.

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Today of course is emigration day¹; I was thinking about this yesterday and about the various junction points in my life that caused me to end up where I am now. I realised that I probably would not be the same person that I am now had my life taken a different course.

Internal links
[1] 1174

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This day in blog history:

Blog #	Date	Title	Tags
202	25/09/2009	Defining my laptop computer's wireless IP settings	Computer
286	25/09/2010	Terezin	Holiday, Holocaust, Terezin
634	25/09/2013	Emigration	Israel, Kibbutz
1174	25/09/2018	It was 40 years ago today	Israel, Personal
1339	25/09/2020	Accordion	Musical instruments
1530	25/09/2022	Two films	Films
1667	25/09/2023	Emigration day	Israel, Personal
1826	25/09/2024	The guitar returns	Jewish holidays, Guitars, Musical group