Quotes and Reviews

Quotes & Reviews

"Thompson articulates all the diverse strands of [Jelly Roll] Morton's jazz tapestry...ragtime, blues and, in a lovely but rhythmically tricky number called "The Crave," what Morton came to call the "Spanish tinge." Thompson added a surprise to the list: Morton's swinging version of "Miserere" from Verdi's "Il Trovatore," partly to show that "hit tunes" from Italian opera were part of the popular music of the day in New Orleans."

StarTribune

quotes

  • "...the premier player in traditional jazz today."

    Jazz Journal International

  • "The incomparable jazz piano of Butch Thompson."

    The Wall Street Journal

  • "Butch Thompson gets the soul of the song...fluid and easy, clever and brilliant"

    Boston Globe

  • ". . . Thompson is internationally acclaimed as perhaps the finest interpreter of early jazz piano . . . Over the two hours Thompson performed he ably demonstrated why he deserves such acclaim."

    Offbeat, New Orleans

  • "The music exudes for the listener time, race history and passion. As played by a player with the gifts of Thompson...it rolls you over. When Thompson strolled into the divine "Jelly's Blues" you were lost in the subtlety. Joy and blues made the night."

    Al-Ahram, Cairo

  • "Beguiling piano Americana from an interpreter who knows that Bix was more than an impressionist and Fats was more than a buffoon."

    The Village Voice

  • ". . . a full and powerful left hand as the rhythm section, and a dexterous, agile right hand for solo and harmonic work, Thompson's playing is orchestral itself."

    Muskegon Chronicle

  • "Where an almost superhuman technique is required, Thompson takes no back seat to anyone - even to [Jelly Roll] Morton himself."

    The Minneapolis StarTribune

  • "Mr. Thompson's timing, shading and coloristic runs are idiomatically Jelly Roll — exuberant, free and open..."

    The New York Times