CD review: Eddie Thompson trio

Published on Sunday 16 August 2009 18:51

EDDIE THOMPSON TRIO: THE UNFORGETTABLE 1982 CONCERT **** HEP RECORDS, £11.74

ALASTAIR Robertson has been a long-standing champion of the work of the late Eddie Thompson on his HEP label, and has come up with something of a gem in this well-recorded live date. Not only is the blind pianist in sparkling and inventive form on the kind of standard repertoire selections he loved, but he is playing a superb piano provided especially for the gig, a Bosendorfer Imperial with extended keyboard in the bottom register. He makes substantial use of that, and unleashes his full array of stylistic twists and turns in the course of two unaccompanied solos (Moten Swing and Autumn Leaves) and seven trio selections with his empathic partners, bassist Len Skeat and drummer Jim Hall.