Daniel Henry Edward 'Danny' Thompson (born 4 April 1939, Teignmouth

Teignmouth

Teignmouth is a town and civil parish in Teignbridge in the English county of Devon, situated on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign about 14 miles south of Exeter. It has a population of 14,413. In 1690, it was the last place in England to be invaded by a foreign power...

, Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

) is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 multi-instrumentalist

Multi-instrumentalist

A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...

 best known as a double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

ist and businessman. He has had a long musical career playing with a large variety of other musicians, particularly Richard Thompson (no relation) and John Martyn, but including many others: at various times has for example played with Nick Drake

Nick Drake

Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician. Though he is best known for his sombre guitar based songs, Drake was also proficient at piano, clarinet and saxophone...

, Roy Orbison

Roy Orbison

Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...

, Julie Felix

Julie Felix

Julie Ann Felix is a folk rock recording artist, who was notably produced by Mickie Most on his RAK Records label.-Career:...

, Freddie and the Dreamers

Freddie and the Dreamers

Freddie and the Dreamers were an English band who had a number of hit records between May 1963 and November 1965. Their stage act was based around the comic antics of the 5-foot-3-inch-tall Freddie Garrity, who would bounce around the stage with arms and legs flying. The group remained active...

, Tubby Hayes

Tubby Hayes

Edward Brian "Tubby" Hayes was an English jazz multi-instrumentalist, best known for his tenor saxophone playing in groups with fellow sax player Ronnie Scott and with trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest British jazz instrumentalists.- Early life :Hayes was born...

, Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott was an English jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner.-Life and career:Ronnie Scott was born in Aldgate, east London, into a family of Russian Jewish descent on his father's side, and Portuguese antecedents on his mother's. Scott began playing in small jazz clubs at the age of...

, Tom Paxton

Tom Paxton

Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...

, Donovan

Donovan

Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...

, Vivian Stanshall

Vivian Stanshall

Vivian Stanshall was an English singer-songwriter, painter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his surreal exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for narrating Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.-The great...

, David Sylvian

David Sylvian

David Sylvian is an English singer-songwriter and musician who came to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead vocalist and main songwriter in the group Japan...

, Kate Bush

Kate Bush

Kate Bush is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.In 1978, at the age of 19, Bush topped the UK Singles Chart...

, Mary Hopkin

Mary Hopkin

Mary Hopkin , credited on some recordings as Mary Visconti, is a Welsh folk singer best known for her 1968 UK number one single "Those Were The Days". She was one of the first musicians to sign to The Beatles' Apple label....

, Loreena McKennitt

Loreena McKennitt

Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt, CM, OM, is a Canadian singer, composer, harpist, accordionist and pianist who writes, records and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern themes. McKennitt is known for her refined, clear soprano vocals...

, Tim Buckley

Tim Buckley

Timothy Charles Buckley III was an American vocalist, and musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years; his first album was mostly folk oriented, but over time his music incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde and an evolving "voice as instrument," sound...

, and Davey Graham

Davey Graham

David Michael Gordon "Davey" Graham, originally spelled Davy Graham, , was a British guitarist and one of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk revival...

. For five years, he was a member of Alexis Korner

Alexis Korner

Alexis Korner was a blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a Founding Father of British Blues"...

's Blues Incorporated, and he was a founding member of the British folk rock

Folk rock

Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...

 band Pentangle

Pentangle (band)

Pentangle are a British folk rock band with some folk jazz influences. The original band were active in the late 1960s and early 1970s and a later version has been active since the early 1980s...

. Since 1987, he has also recorded four solo albums. He converted to Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 in 1990.

Biography and career

His father, a miner, joined the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 at the start of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 and was lost in action whilst crewing submarines. When Thompson was aged 6, the family moved to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and he was brought up in the working-class area of Battersea

Battersea

Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...

. At school he excelled at football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 and played as a junior for Chelsea

Chelsea F.C.

Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...

, the team he has supported ever since. Whilst at school he learnt guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, mandolin

Mandolin

A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

, trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

 and trombone

Trombone

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...

 before settling on the Upright bass as his instrument of choice.

While he has his own album releases Thompson is predominantly a session musician contributing to other artists, his highest profile recordings are currently with Richard Thompson e.g. Mirror Blue, The Old Kit Bag, and the concert DVD release Richard Thompson Live in Austin Texas, from the Austin City Limits

Austin City Limits

Austin City Limits is an American public television music program recorded live in Austin, Texas by Public Broadcasting Service Public television member station KLRU, and broadcast on many PBS stations around the United States...

televised concerts.

Like many musicians, Danny Thompson's life has featured brushes with substance abuse

Substance abuse

A substance-related disorder is an umbrella term used to describe several different conditions associated with several different substances .A substance related disorder is a condition in which an individual uses or abuses a...

. During his partnership with John Martyn, their drinking and the excessive behaviour it spawned became the stuff of legend. In one incident related by Martyn, he woke up after passing out on a hotel room floor, to find himself under a rug which Thompson had nailed down, leaving only Martyn's head exposed. Thompson went about his business, eating breakfast etc., ignoring Martyn's pleas to let him loose.

Danny Thompson spent some time living in Clopton, Suffolk

Clopton, Suffolk

Clopton is a village in Suffolk. It is located between Ipswich and Debenham two kilometres north of Grundisburgh on the River Lark. A road with houses on each side is the extent of the village, surrounded by farm land....

 in Suffolk during the late 1970s early 80's with his wife Daphne and son Dan (Danny Junior who went on to be the drummer with Hawkwind

Hawkwind

Hawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock and now are considered a link between the hippie and punk cultures....

) The lifestyle was that of a rock star with a country manor and a Bentley and eventually a recording studio in the grounds of Manor House. Thompson loved the fame and fortune but made time for everyone he encountered and spent time socializing with the parishioners of The Clopton

Clopton, Suffolk

Clopton is a village in Suffolk. It is located between Ipswich and Debenham two kilometres north of Grundisburgh on the River Lark. A road with houses on each side is the extent of the village, surrounded by farm land....

 Crown and The Otley, Suffolk

Otley, Suffolk

Otley is a village located in the county of Suffolk, England, about eight miles north of Ipswich. The village is home to Otley Hall, a 16th century, Grade I listed house which was historically the seat of the family of Bartholomew Gosnold, and Otley College, offering vocationally focused courses...

 White Hart. Early in the 1980s he moved away from Suffolk and back to London as a base to work from. Thompson regularly watches Watford F.C.

Watford F.C.

Watford Football Club is an English professional football club based in Watford, Hertfordshire. It is often referred to as Watford F.C., Watford, or by the team's nickname The Hornets . Watford Rovers, Founded in 1881, entered the FA Cup for the first time in 1886, and the Southern League a decade...

 with his friend Ralph McTell

Ralph McTell

Ralph McTell is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s....

.

Thompson received a Lifetime achievement award in the 2007 BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

 Folk Awards. An acclaimed biography of Thompson was written by John Hillarby.

"Victoria"

Danny Thompson's initial experience of bass playing was with a skiffle

Skiffle

Skiffle is a type of popular music with jazz, blues, folk, roots and country influences, usually using homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a term in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, it became popular again in the UK in the 1950s, where it was mainly...

 group, with whom he played a tea chest bass (a bass he built himself out of a tea chest, which folded up so he could carry it). In the early 1960s he bought a second-hand double bass from an old man in Battersea who let him have the instrument for £5 (despite the fact that it was worth much more than that), on the basis of his keenness to play it. He christened the instrument "Victoria" and it has remained his instrument of choice ever since. The bass was built by Gand, a French luthier

Luthier

A luthier is someone who makes or repairs lutes and other string instruments. In the United States, the term is used interchangeably with a term for the specialty of each maker, such as violinmaker, guitar maker, lute maker, etc...

, in 1865.

Victoria has been Thompson's sole instrument for the majority of his career, aside from three tours playing bass guitar for Roy Orbison

Roy Orbison

Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...

 in 1963. In response to increasingly stringent airline luggage regulations, Danny acquired a Czech-Ease travel bass in early 2007. Victoria is now used for all his work in the UK, with the new bass, named "Alfie", used for all international engagements.

In the early part of the 1980s he worked closely with documentary film-maker, Roy Deverell and composed music for two of his award-winning films, Echo of the Wild and A Passion to Protect. The films are about John Aspinall

John Aspinall (zoo owner)

John Victor Aspinall was a British zoo owner and gambler. He was born in Delhi, India, but was a citizen of the United Kingdom.-Biography:...

's pioneering work with endangered mammals.

Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated

• Red Hot From Alex (1964)
• Live at the Cavern (1964)
• Sky High (1966)
• Blues Incorporated (1967 - re-issue of Sky High)
• I Wonder Who (1967)
• 'A New Generation of Blues (1968)

Pentangle

• The Pentangle
  The Pentangle
  The Pentangle was the 1968 debut album of the band Pentangle: Terry Cox, Bert Jansch, Jacqui McShee, John Renbourn and Danny Thompson. It brought together their separate influences of folk, jazz, blues, early music and contemporary song-writing into a unique sound...
  
  (1968)
• Sweet Child
  Sweet Child
  Sweet Child was a 1968 double album by the British folk-rock band Pentangle: Terry Cox, Bert Jansch, Jacqui McShee, John Renbourn and Danny Thompson. One album was recorded at Pentangle's live concert in the Royal Festival Hall, which took place on 29 June 1968: the other was recorded in the studio...
  
  (1968)
• Basket of Light
  Basket of Light
  Basket of Light is a 1969 album by the folk rock group Pentangle. It reached #5 on the UK charts largely on the basis of the single "Light Flight" , the theme from BBC1's first colour drama series Take Three Girls.-A side:-B side:...
  
  (1969)
• Cruel Sister
  Cruel Sister
  Cruel Sister was an album recorded in 1970 by folk-rock band Pentangle. It was the most folk-based of the albums recorded by the band, with all the tracks being versions of traditional songs...
  
  (1970)
• Reflection (1971)
• Solomon's Seal
  Solomon's Seal (album)
  Solomon's Seal was an album recorded in 1972 by folk-rock band Pentangle: Terry Cox, Bert Jansch, Jacqui McShee, John Renbourn and Danny Thompson. It was the last album recorded by the original Pentangle line-up, before the band split in 1973. Jacqui McShee has stated that it is her favourite...
  
  (1972)
• Open the Door
  Open the Door (Pentangle album)
  Open the Door is an album by Pentangle. The band had split in 1973 and reformed in the early 1980s. By the time this album was recorded, John Renbourn had left the band to enroll in a music degree course and his place was taken by Mike Piggott...
  
  (1985)

Danny Thompson

• Whatever (1987)
• Whatever Next (1989)
• Elemental (1990)
• Whatever’s Best (1995)
• Danny Thompson & Peter Knight (1995)

Richard Thompson and Danny Thompson

• Live At Crawley
  Live at Crawley
  Live at Crawley is a live album by Richard Thompson recorded in 1993 and released in 1995.Thompson is a widely bootlegged artist. He is vociferous in his opposition to bootlegs on the grounds that not only does the artist not gain by them, but that they also deprive the artist of control over the...
  
  (1995)
• Industry
  Industry (album)
  Industry is an album by Richard Thompson and Danny Thompson released in 1997.The two unrelated Thompsons had known each other since the late sixties, and had toured together throughout the nineties...
  
  (1997)

Others

Danny Thompson has played on dozens of albums and singles during his career. The following is only a small selection.

• Vic Abram: The Folk Singer (1980)
• ABC (band)
  ABC (band)
  ABC are an English band, that charted ten UK and five US Top 40 singles between 1981 and 1990. The band continues to tour and released a new album, Traffic, in 2008.-Formation:...
  
  : Alphabet City (1987)
• Mike Lindup
  Mike Lindup
  Mike Lindup is best known as the keyboard player and falsetto voiced singer, who joined with Mark King and brothers Phil and Boon Gould to form the 1980s - 1990s British funk/rock/pop band, Level 42....
  
  : Changes (1990)
• Richard Barbieri
  Richard Barbieri
  Richard Barbieri, is an English synthesiser player, keyboardist and composer. He was educated at Catford Boys' School, Catford, South East London...
  
  : Stranger Inside (2008)
• The Blind Boys of Alabama
  The Blind Boys of Alabama
  The Blind Boys of Alabama are a gospel group from Alabama that first formed at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind at Talladega, Alabama in 1939. The three main vocalists of the group and their drummer/percussionist are all blind....
  
  : Spirit of the Century (2001)
• Tim Buckley
  Tim Buckley
  Timothy Charles Buckley III was an American vocalist, and musician. His music and style changed considerably through the years; his first album was mostly folk oriented, but over time his music incorporated jazz, psychedelia, funk, soul, avant-garde and an evolving "voice as instrument," sound...
  
  : Dream Letter: Live in London (1968)
• Kate Bush
  Kate Bush
  Kate Bush is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years.In 1978, at the age of 19, Bush topped the UK Singles Chart...
  
  : The Dreaming
  The Dreaming (album)
  -Personnel:*Stewart Arnold: vocals, background vocals*Jimmy Bain: bass*Ian Bairnson: acoustic guitar, vocals, background vocals*John Barrett: assistant engineer*Brian Bath: electric guitar*Haydn Bendall: engineer...
  
  (1982); Hounds of Love
  Hounds of Love
  Hounds of Love is a 1985 album by the British singer Kate Bush. It was Bush's fifth studio album, and her second no. 1. It has since been certified Double Platinum in the UK...
  
  (1985)
• Christine Collister
  Christine Collister
  Christine Collister is a Manx folk, blues and jazz singer-songwriter. She was born and grew up on the Isle of Man and first came to public attention in 1986 as the singer of the theme song for the BBC's television adaptation of Fay Weldon's book The Life and Loves of a She-Devil.Prior to this, in...
  
  : The Dark Gift Of Time (1998); An Equal Love (2001)
• Graham Coxon
  Graham Coxon
  Graham Leslie Coxon is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter. He came to prominence as the lead guitarist, backing vocalist and occasional lead vocalist of rock band Blur, and is also a critically acclaimed solo artist, having recorded seven solo albums...
  
  : The Spinning Top (2009)
• Barbara Dickson
  Barbara Dickson
  Barbara Ruth Dickson, OBE is a Scottish singer whose hits include "I Know Him So Well" and "January February"...
  
  : Don’t Think Twice (1992); Dark End of The Street (1995)
• Donovan
  Donovan
  Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
  
  : There Is a Mountain
  There Is a Mountain
  "There is a Mountain" is a song and single by Donovan, released in 1967. It charted in the USA and UK .Featured musicians are Donovan , Tony Carr on percussion, Harold McNair on flute and arrangement and Danny Thompson on bass.Chart positions: # 11 , # 9 , # 11 , # 8 The Allman...
  
   (single) (1967)
• Nick Drake
  Nick Drake
  Nicholas Rodney "Nick" Drake was an English singer-songwriter and musician. Though he is best known for his sombre guitar based songs, Drake was also proficient at piano, clarinet and saxophone...
  
  : Five Leaves Left
  Five Leaves Left
  Five Leaves Left, recorded in 1969, was the first of three albums by British folk musician Nick Drake. Like Bryter Layter but unlike Pink Moon, this album contains no completely solo songs...
  
  (1969)
• Marvin Etzioni: Marvin The Mandolin Man (1992)
• Everything But The Girl
  Everything but the Girl
  Everything but the Girl was a two-person English band, formed in Hull during 1981, consisting of lead singer and occasional guitarist Tracey Thorn and guitarist, keyboardist, and singer Ben Watt . They are currently inactive although vocalist Tracey Thorn hinted that they may reform someday...
  
  : Amplified Heart
  Amplified Heart
  Amplified Heart is the eighth studio album by Everything But The Girl.Primarily an acoustic-driven set, Amplified Heart brought Everything But The Girl to mainstream audiences via the dance-floor remix of "Missing"...
  
  (1994)
• Marianne Faithfull
  Marianne Faithfull
  Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....
  
  : North Country Maid (1966); The World of Marianne Faithfull (1970)
• Peter Gabriel
  Peter Gabriel
  Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
  
  : Up
  Up (Peter Gabriel album)
  Up is the seventh studio and 13th album overall released by the British progressive rock musician Peter Gabriel.-Pre-release:In the Spring of 1995, Gabriel began work on the album. Its name was Up from the start, though at one point it was considered to be called I/O...
  
  (2002)
• Davey Graham
  Davey Graham
  David Michael Gordon "Davey" Graham, originally spelled Davy Graham, , was a British guitarist and one of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk revival...
  
  : Folk Blues & Beyond (1965); Large As Life & Twice As Natural (1968); Hat (1969); Fire In The Soul (1999)
• Boo Hewerdine
  Boo Hewerdine
  Boo Hewerdine is an English singer-songwriter. His work includes lead singer and creative force behind The Bible, formed in the 1980s, and reformed in 1994, as well as solo recordings and work for film. He lives in Ely....
  
  : Baptist Hospital (1995)
• Mary Hopkin
  Mary Hopkin
  Mary Hopkin , credited on some recordings as Mary Visconti, is a Welsh folk singer best known for her 1968 UK number one single "Those Were The Days". She was one of the first musicians to sign to The Beatles' Apple label....
  
  : Earth Song / Ocean Song (1971); Live at The Royal Festival Hall 1972 (2005)
• Hunter Muskett
  Hunter Muskett
  -Beginnings:The group was formed at Avery Hill College in South London when Terry Hiscock and Chris George were joined by fellow student Doug Morter. The band’s name was taken from an anecdote about an eccentric Cornishman....
  
  : Every Time You Move (1970)
• The Incredible String Band: The 5000 Spirits
  The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion
  -Personnel:* Robin Williamson - Vocals, guitar, mandolin, oud, bowed and bass gimbri, flute, percussion * Mike Heron - Vocals, guitar, harmonica* Licorice McKechnie - Vocals, percussion* Danny Thompson - Double bass* John Hopkins - Piano...
  
  (1967); Hard Rope & Silken Twine (1973)
• Bert Jansch
  Bert Jansch
  Herbert "Bert" Jansch was a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s, as an acoustic guitarist, as well as a singer-songwriter...
  
  : Birthday Blues (1969); Moonshine (1972); L.A. Turnaround (1974); Avocet (1979); Sketches (1990)
• John Martyn: Bless the Weather
  Bless the Weather
  Bless the Weather is a 1971 album by John Martyn and marks his return as a solo artist having released two albums with his wife Beverley Martyn. When it was released it garnered his best reviews to date, and remains a firm favourite among fans, featuring such standards as "Head and Heart" and the...
  
   (1972); Solid Air
  Solid Air
  Solid Air is a folk jazz album released in 1973 by John Martyn on Island Records.Contemporary reviews were favourable with music paper Sounds declaring that Solid Air flows beautifully and shows the entire spectrum of music that John Martyn has at his fingertips." The album has continued to...
  
  (1973); Inside Out
  Inside Out (John Martyn album)
  Inside Out is an album released in 1973 by British singer-songwriter John Martyn. It was his fifth solo album, and his seventh if one includes the albums he made with his wife, Beverley...
  
  (1973); Sunday's Child
  Sunday's Child
  Sunday's Child is a John Martyn album released in 1975. John Martyn's follow-up to 1973's Inside Out is a more song-oriented, less experimental album. His eighth record, including two with his wife Beverley Martyn, shows the many facets of Martyn's playing, from his effects-driven electric guitar...
  
  (1975); Live At Leeds
  Live At Leeds (John Martyn album)
  Live at Leeds is a John Martyn album. He independently released this album himself in an initial run of 10,000. The working title was "Ringside Seat", photos of Martyn and bassist Danny Thompson in a boxing ring were taken for a prospective cover, though never used...
  
  (1975); One World
  One World (John Martyn album)
  One World is a 1977 album by John Martyn. One of his more experimental works, it features atmospheric, reggae influenced rhythms and free-flowing, jazzy arrangements. Acclaimed for its collaborative spirit, the album includes contributions from Lee Perry on "Big Muff", and Steve Winwood...
  
  (1977); On the Cobbles
  On the Cobbles
  On the Cobbles was the final studio album by John Martyn released during his lifetime , released in 2004...
  
  (2004)
• John & Beverley Martyn
  Beverley Martyn
  Beverley Martyn is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist.While still a student, she was picked to front The Levee Breakers, a jug band who played the folk circuit in South East England...
  
  : The Road To Ruin (1970)
• Loreena McKennitt
  Loreena McKennitt
  Loreena Isabel Irene McKennitt, CM, OM, is a Canadian singer, composer, harpist, accordionist and pianist who writes, records and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern themes. McKennitt is known for her refined, clear soprano vocals...
  
  : The Book of Secrets
  The Book of Secrets
  The Book of Secrets is an album by Loreena McKennitt released in 1997. It reached #17 on the Billboard 200. Its single "The Mummers' Dance," remixed by DNA, was released during the winter of 1997–98, and peaked at #18 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #17 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart.The album is...
  
  (1997)
• Ralph McTell
  Ralph McTell
  Ralph McTell is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s....
  
  : Easy (1974)
• Alison Moyet
  Alison Moyet
  Alison Moyet , is an English singer, songwriter and performer noted for her bluesy voice.Her UK album sales have reached a certified 2.3 million, with 800,000 singles sold, all in the UK, where all seven of her studio albums and three compilation albums have charted in the Top 40 UK Album Chart,...
  
  : Hoodoo (1991)
• Deva Premal
  Deva Premal
  Deva Premal , is a musician known for her meditative spiritual New Age music, which puts ancient Sanskrit mantras into atmospheric, contemporary settings....
  
  : Dakshina (2005)
• Cliff Richard
  Cliff Richard
  Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
  
  : Congratulations (1968)
• Darrell Scott
  Darrell Scott
  James Darrell Scott known as Darrell Scott , the son of musician Wayne Scott with whom he has collaborated, is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He moved as a child to East Gary, Indiana. He was playing professionally by his teens in Southern California, later living in...
  
  : Theater of the Unheard (2003)
• Ayuo
  Ayuo
  Ayuo is a Japanese-American composer, poet, lyricist, singer and performer of plucked string instruments including guitar, bouzouki, Irish harp, Chinese zheng, Japanese koto,and medieval European psaltery...
  
  : Songs from a Eurasian Journey (1997)
• Songhai
  Songhai (musical collaboration)
  Songhai was a musical collaboration between the Spanish flamenco group Ketama, Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté, and English bass player Danny Thompson...
  
  . Collaboration with Flamenco group Ketama
  Ketama
  Ketama are a Spanish flamenco group in the fusion flamenco style. The leaders of what has been called New Flamenco, they brought a style that was somewhere between flamenco and pop salsa onto the musical scene that drew as much criticism as praise, but which has won over the young public and has...
  
   and Kora player Toumani Diabate
  Toumani Diabaté
  Toumani Diabaté is a Malian kora player. In addition to performing the traditional music of Mali, he has also been involved in cross-cultural collaborations with flamenco, blues, jazz, and other international styles.-Biography:...
  
  : Songhai
  Songhai (album)
  Songhai is a fusion flamenco album by Spanish band Ketama, working in collaboration with Malian kora player Toumani Diabaté and other musicians.*For further information see Songhai -Track listing:#"Jarabi"...
  
  (1988); Songhai 2 (1994)
• S. E. Rogie
  S. E. Rogie
  S. E. Rogie was a highlife and palm wine guitarist and singer from Sierra Leone. He was born in 1926 and began performing early, while supporting himself as a tailor. In the 1960s, he became a professional musician, singing in four languages. His hits include "Koneh Pehlawo", "Go Easy with Me"...
  
  : Dead Men Don't Smoke Marijuana
  Dead Men Don't Smoke Marijuana
  Dead Men Don't Smoke Marijuana is the last album by Sierra Leonean highlife and palm wine musician S. E. Rogie, featuring the double bassist, Danny Thompson...
  
  (1997)
• Rod Stewart
  Rod Stewart
  Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
  
  : Every Picture Tells a Story
  Every Picture Tells a Story
  Every Picture Tells a Story is the third album by Rod Stewart, released in the middle of 1971. It went to number one on both the UK and U.S. charts and finished third in the Pazz & Jop critics' poll for best album of 1971...
  
  (1971)
• David Sylvian
  David Sylvian
  David Sylvian is an English singer-songwriter and musician who came to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead vocalist and main songwriter in the group Japan...
  
  : Brilliant Trees (1984)
• Talk Talk
  Talk Talk
  Talk Talk were an English musical group, active from 1981 to 1991. The group had a string of international hit singles including "Today", "Talk Talk", "It's My Life", "Such a Shame", "Dum Dum Girl", "Life's What You Make It" and "Living in Another World"....
  
  : The Colour of Spring
  The Colour of Spring
  -Personnel:* Mark Hollis - Organ, Keyboards, Guitar, Piano, Vocals, Melodica, Mellotron* Lee Harris - Percussion, Drums* Paul Webb - Bass, vocals, backing vocals* Tim Friese-Greene - producer, Piano, keyboards, Mellotron, Kurzweil synthesizer...
  
  (1986); Spirit of Eden
  Spirit of Eden
  Spirit of Eden was the fourth album by the English band Talk Talk. The songs were written by Mark Hollis and Tim Friese-Greene, and performed by numerous musicians using a diverse combination of instruments. In 2008, Alan McGee of the Guardian wrote: "Spirit of Eden has not dated; it's remarkable...
  
  (1988)
• Richard Thompson: Amnesia
  Amnesia (album)
  Amnesia is an album by Richard Thompson, recorded and released in 1988.After Across a Crowded Room and Daring Adventures had not troubled the compilers of hit parades, Polydor declined their option to renew their contract with Thompson...
  
  (1988); Mirror Blue
  Mirror Blue
  Mirror Blue is an album by Richard Thompson released in 1994.The follow-up to 1991's successful Rumor And Sigh was recorded in January 1993 with Mitchell Froom once again in the producer’s chair. Despite the increase in sales for his previous two albums, Mirror Blue was held back...
  
  (1994); Live At Crawley
  Live at Crawley
  Live at Crawley is a live album by Richard Thompson recorded in 1993 and released in 1995.Thompson is a widely bootlegged artist. He is vociferous in his opposition to bootlegs on the grounds that not only does the artist not gain by them, but that they also deprive the artist of control over the...
  
  (1995); You? me? us?
  You? Me? Us?
  You? Me? Us? is an album by British singer-songwriter Richard Thompson released in April 1996 via Capitol Records. It was Thompson's fourth album for the label, his fifth with Mitchell Froom producing and his second to be nominated for a Grammy Award...
  
  (1996); Two Letter Words (1996); Celtschmerz (1998); Mock Tudor
  Mock Tudor (album)
  Mock Tudor is an album by Richard Thompson released in 1999.For this, his fifth album for Capitol Records, Thompson teamed up with producers Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf, and Mock Tudor had a more straightforward production than his preceding albums on Capitol which had been produced by Mitchell...
  
  (1999); Semi-detached Mock Tudor] (2002); The Old Kit Bag
  The Old Kit Bag
  The Old Kit Bag is an album released in 2003 by British guitarist Richard Thompson. The title refers to the World War I marching song "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag". When asked if the album had a theme, Thompson had no immediate answer, then said "I suppose the title is a theme of sorts...
  
  (2003); Ducknapped (2003); [Live From Austin (2005); [Sweet Warrior] (2007)
• Thunderbirds (TV series)
  Thunderbirds (TV series)
  Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...
  
  : (theme tune) (1964)
• Kathryn Tickell
  Kathryn Tickell
  Kathryn Tickell is an English player of the Northumbrian smallpipes and fiddle. She has recorded over a dozen albums, and toured widely.-Life and career:...
  
  : Common Ground (1988)
• T Rex
  T. Rex (band)
  T. Rex were a British rock band, formed in 1967 by singer/songwriter and guitarist Marc Bolan. The band formed as Tyrannosaurus Rex, releasing four folk albums under the name...
  
  : Light of Love (1974); Zinc Alloy & The Hidden Riders (1974)
• Loudon Wainwright III
  Loudon Wainwright III
  Loudon Snowden Wainwright III is a Grammy Award-winning American songwriter, folk singer, humorist, and actor. He is the father of musicians Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche, brother of Sloan Wainwright, and the former husband of the late folk singer Kate McGarrigle.To...
  
  : I’m Alright (1985); More Love Songs (1986); Therapy (1989)
• Dawud Wharnsby: Vacuous Waxing (2004)

External links

• The Official Danny Thompson Website
• Danny Thompson My Space
• The Danny Thompson Website
• Danny Thompson Cd's and Pristine Unplayed Vinyls
• Biography
• Thompson and Islam
• Worked extensively with John Martyn in the 1970s
• Some of the Notes Hurt Your Eyes - A musical conversation with Bassist Danny Thompson
• entry for Danny Thompson at allmusic.com
• 1 of several entries for Danny Thompson at allmusic.com with mixed-up data
• another of several entries for Danny Thompson at allmusic.com with mixed-up data