Biography
Barbara Gracey Thompson, 27 July 1944, Oxford, England. Classically trained at the Royal College of Music in London, where she studied flute, clarinet, piano and composition between 1965 and 1968, Thompson had private tuition on the saxophone before joining Neil Ardley’s New Jazz Orchestra in 1965, her first professional jazz gig. She performed and recorded intermittently with the National Jazz Orchestra until 1978, and met her future husband, drummer Jon Hiseman, while both were members of the band. From 1969, Thompson led various groups of her own, working with musicians including John Dankworth, Don Rendell and Manfred Mann. In 1975 she formed the jazz rock group Paraphernalia, which has been the main outlet for her compositional and performing skills. Mixing a range of musics as diverse as Sri Lankan folk tunes, English country music and modern jazz, Paraphernalia has toured extensively throughout Europe and performed at many of the continent’s major...
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