"Artists worked with him not so they could have someone hold down a root note in 4/4 on an electric bass; they hired him to be Danny Thompson. And Danny Thompson was extraordinary: a man who played the upright double bass as if it were a lead instrument, who may have been an accompanist but who was never a sideman."
"He made his first bass from a tea chest when he was 13, using stolen piano wire for strings and fitting a hinged neck so he could fold it to catch the bus. By 16 he was playing in Soho clubs, and after his two years' national service he went on tour playing electric bass for Roy Orbison — the only time he ever played electric bass."
"Although his first recording was with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, on the album Red Hot from Alex in 1964, unlike so many young musicians of the British blues boom he was no purist: playing was his job. He loved both jazz and folk, and Soho in the mid-60s gave him an ideal chance to straddle the two scenes. His freewheeling, melodic, propulsive style was an accident: he simply didn't have an ear for root notes, so his fingers went where his ears led him."
Danny Thompson was an English upright double bassist renowned for a distinctive, melodic, lead-like style that shaped British folk, jazz and pop recordings. He made his first bass from a tea chest at 13 and was playing Soho clubs by 16, later touring once on electric bass with Roy Orbison. His first recording was with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated in 1964. He co-founded Pentangle and collaborated widely, adding gravitas and unique voice to sessions for John Martyn, Nick Drake, June Tabor, the Incredible String Band and numerous pop and experimental artists. His playing always sounded like itself; he accompanied yet was never merely a sideman. He died aged 86.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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