A Tribute to Lucky Thompson at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola

On a cold, blustery Friday night, exactly one week before Christmas—on the eve of the worst December snowstorm to hit New York in several decades—there was a buzz of anticipation at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center (streamlined nightclub in the TimeWarner Building). Four supremely accomplished jazz musicians were about to pay homage to the music of a largely forgotten titan.

Left to right: Playing live at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola were Eric Reed on piano, Reuben Rogers on bass, Victor Goines on sax, and Rodney Green on drums. Photo © Frank Stewart/Jazz at Lincoln Center.

The occasion was a musical celebration of the legendary saxophonist Eli “Lucky” Thompson who, despite his nickname, was anything but lucky. Notwithstanding a career playing with the bands of Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Don Redman and Billy Eckstine, as well as with groups led by Kenny Clarke, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Milt Jackson. Thompson was also a leader on albums recorded for ABC Paramount and Prestige, but he was still an angry, embittered man. He constantly butted heads with the “vultures,” as he called club managers and record executives and he could not abide the racism, be it tacit or overt, he routinely encountered in stateside gigs. For this reason, in the mid-60’s he moved to Lausanne, Switzerland. From this base he gigged throughout Europe and recorded several albums, among which is the memorable “A Lucky Songbook in Europe.”

He returned to America in the early 70’s, and in 1973, he accepted a teaching position at Dartmouth College where he taught for two years. However, his disdain for, and mistrust of the business side of jazz remained, and in 1975, he abandoned jazz completely having moved to the Pacific Northwest. He died in Seattle in 2005, unjustly reduced to a footnote to more illustrious careers of Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster.

Close-up of Reuben Rogers and Rodney Green. Photo © Frank Stewart/Jazz at Lincoln Center.

On this night, the gifted, charismatic pianist Eric Reed has assembled three esteemed sidemen to join him in honoring the legacy of Lucky Thompson. The musicians were: saxophonist Victor Goines, bassist Reuben Rogers and drummer Rodney Green. In fact, Reed was the impetus behind the celebration, not only did he arrange all the music and transcriptions, he personally selected the band members, the songs to be performed and how each set was organized. In addition, he provided historical and personal commentary in between numbers.

The quartet opened the set with “The World Awakes,” which Thompson recorded live on his album “New York City 1964-65.” After the introduction of the post-bop theme, bassist Rogers soloed first, setting the table for Victor Goines’ sinuous soprano solo, filled with wit and reverence. Then Reed aggressively riffed on the theme’s Latin beat, propelled, in no small measure, by Green’s strong rhythmic accompaniment. Reed’s timing was phenomenal; as the musical director of Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Todd Barkan points out in an email exchange a few days after the gig, “[Eric] is one of our best living jazz pianists, playing better and stronger, and more fully realized, as each year passes.” In between numbers, Reed, with a combination of warmth and a generosity of spirit, fills in some of the biographical blanks in Thompson’s life and career. “By all accounts, and not without cause, he was a rather bitter man.” Although every jazz musician of color was exposed to the sources of this bitterness, it seems to have had an unshakably profound effect on Thompson. While it certainly affected his professional life, thankfully it did not diminish his unique talent. To quote Barkan again: “[Lucky] was a true virtuoso jazzman and a remarkably compelling composer.”

Left to right: Eric Reed and Victor Goines. Photo © Frank Stewart/Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Thompson’s compositional chops are abundantly evident in the final number of the set, “Bobi My Boy,” written for Thompson’s son. The piece opens with a sprightly bass solo from Reuben Rogers, followed by Goines’ jubilant sax, Reed’s muscular piano and a tasty and climactic drum solo by Green. At one point during the set, Reed had remarked how important it is to “keep jazz alive.” Judging by the exceptional performances of the musicians on the stand this night, jazz is alive and kickin’.