Butch Thompson
b.28 November 1943, Marine, Minnesota, USA. Thompson began playing piano as a child and in his late teens became a member of a popular New Orleans-style band in Minneapolis. The band regularly accompanied such leading New Orleans jazzmen as George Lewis, Kid Thomas and Pops Foster. Thompson also formed his own small group which worked extensively on radio, achieving considerable popularity. During the '70s Thompson began to tour internationally. He also worked with the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra and his own band dedicated to the music of King Oliver. Thompson's dedication to a tradition that was vintage long before he was born, has ensured that an important strand of jazz piano history remains extant. A sparkling player in the idiom of New Orleans, Thompson regularly revives the music of Jelly Roll Morton, Oliver and other past masters. In recent years he has often worked with several unsung musicians with similarly dedicated concepts, including cornetist Charles DeVore and drummer Hal Smith.