Thin Ice – Eli "Lucky" Thompson
An elegant "rhythm changes" head with a pedal point intro and coda, first recorded in a chordless trio setting.
- Recording: Lucky Thompson - Thompson Plays For Thomson
- Recorded on: February 22, 1956
- Label: Ducretet-Thomson (D93098)
- Concert Key: B-flat
- Style: Swing (medium up)
- Tenor Sax - Lucky Thompson
- Bass - Benoit Quersin
- Drums - Gerard "Dave" Pochonet
Video
- THIN ICE - Lucky Thompson Octet: Modern Jazz At the Blue Note No. 4 - Lucky Thompson's Special Show Lucky Thompson - tenor sax; Buddy Catlett - bass; Kenny Clarke - drums. February 13, 1960. (Click on play button, it will work!)
An elegant and mellow "rhythm changes" head in that classic Lucky Thompson style. There's a 16-measure intro, with an energetic blues-scale melody over an F pedal point in the bass. The coda features a similar melody, though starting in a different place rhythmically, again over an F pedal for 16 measures. Our lead sheet does not show specific chord symbols on the A section; instead we simply indicate "rhythm changes." This song was recorded in an open-ended, chordless trio setting; most of the standard variations of "rhythm changes" can be used by a comping pianist or guitarist with this head.
This recording was surely one of the earliest to feature a chordless trio with only sax, bass and drums; Sonny Rollins' classic trio album "Way Out West" was recorded a year later. Lucky returned to this instrumentation to record Thin Ice on a TV broadcast in 1960, with bassist Buddy Catlett and drummer Kenny Clarke. This TV version is quite different from the original recording: it's a much faster uptempo "burner" without the pedal point intro and coda. Lucky improvises on the bridge in both in and out heads; after the drum solo, the out melody is taken from the bridge with a loose tag ending.
Eli "Lucky" Thompson
June 16, 1923 – July 30, 2005
Saxophonist Lucky Thompson is one of the great treasures of jazz. He was born in Columbia, South Carolina, but was raised in Detroit, Michigan. He played in local groups with Hank Jones, Sonny Stitt and others. In August, 1943, when he was 19, he left Detroit with Lionel Hampton's Orchestra, eventually arriving in New York City. Still a teenager, his first recording date was with Hot Lips Page on March 18, 1944. Later in 1944 he started recording with both Lucky Millinder and Count Basie. Read more...