On the back of Retro’s post about Danny Thompson, here’s something that doesn’t exist. I offered it freely to the label you would all think most likely to say yes and they said no – needing 2,000 sales to make something like this viable and not believing they’d get that. I think they’re mistaken about that non-viability, but it’s no skin off my nose. If anyone here wishes to offer it to other parties, go ahead. I can supply the unreleased audio. I think I’ve proved how badly wrong the existing archive music labels can be in deciding on viability with the current no-labels-involved-cos-they-didn’t-get-it Dick Gaughan box set (and associated releases) project.
That said, I offered it to a man at Ace three weeks ago via a mutual friend and he hasn’t had the courtesy to reply yet. I offered it to Earth a week ago. Fill in the next sentence yourself.
It seems like end times for the archive music labels (in the wake of Universal hiking their third-party licensing percentages up and fewer people buying physical music) if they’re all chasing easy-option licenses and re-re-re-packaging a smaller pool of music and taking no ‘risks’ / using no imagination to create products that serve a genuine purpose. In this case, a partial career summary and memorial volume to a widely regarded – and musically astounding – musician.
John Thurlow at the estimable not-for-profit Jazz In Britain label has already publically shared on social media his plans for a 3CD set of 1960s and early 90s jazz-focused recordings by Danny Thompson, almost all unreleased – the Danny Thompson Trio (1967-68) and Whatever (1990-92) and all depending on agreements with all the musicians and estates concerned, of course.
Danny didn’t like me – and I won’t comment any further on that, so don’t ask – but 37 years ago, at the beginning of the CD era, I did suggest a compilation of his session work to him and suggested the the title ‘Victoriana’, which he loved. Regardless of waters under bridges, I love his playing as much as anyone – and he deserves a memorial volume like this.
So if there are any labels out there with any backbone left, here’s the proposal – pursue it if you wish.
Danny Thompson
Victoriana: 1963–75 / 1987
A representative 3CD sample of Danny’s 1963–75 work on record and in concert, with selections generally featuring him prominently, including two co-compositions (‘Dafina Querida’, ‘No Love is Sorrow’).
· 41 tracks
· 15 previously unreleased (c.85 minutes of music)
Disc 1: On Record 1964–73
1. Haitian Fight Song 3:33 1964 Alexis Korner’s Blues Inc (BMG)
2. Little Boy Blue 2:31 1965 Duffy Power (Marquis)
3. See See Rider 2:52 1967 Gerry Lockran (Universal)
4. No More My Lord 2:25 1967 Dorris Henderson (Fontana)
5. Freight Train Blues 4:04 1968 Davy Graham (Universal)
6. Waltz 5:05 1968 Pentangle (BMG)
7. Dafina Querida 6:16 1969 John Cameron Quartet (Universal)
8. Man in a Shed 3:51 1969 Nick Drake (Universal)
9. Poison 3:20 1969 Bert Jansch (BMG)
10. BC People 2:16 1970 Nadia Cattouse (Sony)
11. Celia of the Seals 3:04 1971 Donovan (BMG)
12. Faro Annie 3:27 1971 John Renbourn (BMG)
13. Man’s Confidence 2:56 1971 Stefan Grossman (BMG)
14. City’s Cry 2:29 1971 Shelagh McDonald (B&C)
15. When I Was a Cowboy 3:56 1972 Ralph McTell (Ralph)
16. No Love is Sorrow 2:47 1972 Pentangle (SGO/Pentangle)
17. I’d Rather be the Devil 6:17 1973 John Martyn (Universal)
18. Reflection 11:11 1972 Pentangle (BMG)
19. Way Back in the 1960s 3:10 1967 Incredible String Band (Warner)
Disc total: 75:30
Disc 2: Live 1963–75
Fat John Quartet, live recording at Pye Studios, 12/63 (Cherry Red)
From 1963 live in studio recordings made to test equipment at Pye Studios, session unreleased until Honesty 2CD (Turtle/Cherry Red) in 2019. Danny’s earliest recordings. Band: Fat John (dr), Danny (bass), Chris Pyne (trom), Ray Warleigh (sax/flute), Tony Roberts (sax, flute, clarinet), Peter Lemer (piano)
1. Sister Sadie 7:18
Tubby Hayes Quartet, the Dancing Slipper, Nottingham, 28/3/66 (Hayes estate)
THQ: Tubby (sax), Danny T (bass), Mike Pyne (piano), Danny (bass), Tony Levin (drums). From Live at the Dancing Slipper (Harkit) in 2006. License from Tubby Hayes estate (son Richard).
2. What is this Thing Called Love? 11:58
Danny Thompson Trio, live at Camden Festival, 13/3/68 (introduced by Johnny Dankworth) (Thompson estate)
DT Trio: Danny, John McLaughlin, Tony Roberts. Previously unreleased.
3. Spectrum Plectrum 5:45
Pentangle, Royal Festival Hall, 29/6/68 (BMG)
From Sweet Child (BMG) 1968
4. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat 3:50
5. The Time Has Come 4:04
Pentangle, Aberdeen Music Hall, 4/4/70 (BMG)
From Pentangle: The Albums
6. Pentangling 19:36
Duffy Power, live recording at Central Sound Studios, 1971 (White/Argent)
From disc 2 of Hell Hound: The Lost 1971 CBS Album (2025, license from producers Chris White/Rod Argent. ‘Sky is Crying’ features Danny intro ‘Let’s groove…’. Band on ‘Sky is Crying’: Duffy (voc), Danny Thompson, Rod Argent, Ollie Halsall
7. The Sky is Crying 5:40
John Martyn, Live at Leeds 1975 (Universal)
This is the true Leeds concert version from The Island Years (2013) 18CD set, which has only appeared within that set.
8. Outside In 18:57
Disc total: 77:08
Disc 3: Cropredy Festival 8/87 – John Martyn & DT reunion (Martyn & Thompson estates)
Previously unreleased, high-quality bootleg (not circulating online).
1. One Day Without You
2. Solid Air
3. Sweet Little Mystery
4. Bless the Weather
5. Make No Mistake
6. Dealer
7. Blue Monk
8. Jellyroll Blues
9. Spencer the Rover
10. May You Never
11. One World
12. Angeline
13. I’d Rather Be the Devil
14. Big Muff
Dan’s storming playing on Duffy Power’#s 1965 version of ‘Little Boy Blue’, with John McLaughlin (guitar) and Red Reece (drums). (There was a 1966 version with McLaughlin, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.) As Alexis Korner once said, ‘Danny make anything swing – he could make a dead man swing.’
And here’s a slower groove:
FWIW, I’d buy that set in a heartbeat!
Me too. Not enough quality material like this is being surfaced!
Worth another crowd fund? Or tiny niche labels? I’m thinking the team that put out the recent Dr Strangely Strange and the Duffy/Argent tapes, perhaps.
I would buy in a heartbeat too. I have the Whatever album and also the album he did with Toumani Diabate. The set with John Martyn is intriguing – I love the John Martyn rendition of Spencer the Rover.
I will suggest to Dan’s publisher and friend Stuart, who is keen on a memorial volume, that in the fullness of time he/the estate should consider hiring a freelance music biz project manager – and I have a lady with a complicated surname in mind, whom I’ll sound out – and do it themselves, via crowdfunding if they wish.
Aside from the musical content, these sort of projects can be the home of substantial written content – truly, a memorial with heft – and the family/publisher could hire whomever they wished to put some history down in a way that meets with approval. (The Gaughan box set I’m running will have 35,000 words of text / 160 pages of booklet, plus swatches of rare and unpublishged images.)
If that crowdfunding / freelance project manager model is pursued, there’s nothing to stop the family expanding the proposal and adding a further disc or discs (especially if there are recordings owned by the family/friends – soundboards, whatever (small ‘W’) . The music biz professional will be able to advise on what is realistically viable licensing-wise and production-wise.
I kept the above proposal tightly limited to 1963-75 because it feels like an ‘era’; the 1987 recording is all early 70s repertoire revisited, so still that ‘era’. (I was standing beside the man in the field with the Sony Professional tape recorder at that very Cropredy, and exchanged addresses to buy a copy of his (fabulous) recording. So it’s first generation. The family are welcome to it.)
I’m becoming intolerant of salaried record label people who can’t be arsed to reply to serious emails, or give flaccid shrugs, usually after glancing at the artist’s name and not bothering to look at the attached proposal.
The Dick Gaughan project has been an eye-opener – we don’t need them. Imaginative multi-licensor physical music projects can be achieved within a year by a small team of fans or individuals. Yes, it helps if one is VAT registered (I’m not), but it’s still doable if not. All you need is a content curator/researcher, a designer, a mastering engineer, a booklet author and (if selling beyond the crowdfunding pledgers) a distributor. All of those are easily acquired. Yes, it helps if one is in and around the music biz oneself and knows these sort of people – but (bar the music curation/research) it’s not really any different from wanting to get an extension built on your house: look up Google for architect, bricklayer, plumber, electrician and get on with it (planning approval assumed). If you want to hire a one-stop project manager who will themselves know and hire in these tradesmen, that’s the equivalent of hiring a freelance music biz project manager (who will know designers, engineers, licensing processes etc.).
Another aspect of this route is that it maximises revenue to the artist/estate.
I think it will become an option more widely used by others in due course.
@Colin-H
I know this question probably doesn’t fit into the time-frame you’ve outlined above, but I wonder if you know if any of the gigs Danny did with Ryley Walker were properly recorded?
I was lucky enough to witness their performance at St. Georges in Bristol a few years ago, and it was probably one of the top two or three gigs I’ve ever been to. Riveting stuff, riveted audience, massive ovation at the end, caught Ryley on the way out of the venue and blurted some sort of astonished appreciative drivel at him – Danny probably still in the dressing room, having a swift half.
Who knows?