Malachi Thompson - 1980 - The Seventh Son

Malachi Thompson

1980

The Seventh Son

01. Two Nights In Malakal 9:47
02. Street Dance 5:14
03. West Side Stomp 4:35
04. The Quest 6:46
05. Denise 9:24
06. Kirk's Tune 4:35

Bass – Curtis Robinson, Jr.
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Malachi Thompson
Drums – Billy Salter
Piano, Electric Piano – Kirk Brown
Tenor Saxophone – Jesse Taylor

with:
Electric Piano – Harold Barney (1, 5)
Tuba – Aaron Dodd (2, 6)
Drums – Bob Crowder (3,4)
Guitar – John Thomas (3,4)
Tenor Saxophone – Sonny Seals (3,4)
Vocals – Penny Jeffries (4)

Malachi Thompson moved to Chicago as a child and credited his interest in the trumpet when he was 11 years old. Malachi worked in the rhythm and blues scene on Chicago’s South Side as a teen. In 1968, he joined the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), spending some time in the AACM big band.

Thompson worked with saxophonists Joe Henderson, Jackie McLean, Frank Foster, and Archie Shepp among other musicians while living in New York City. He formed his Freebop band in 1978, and eventually relocated to Washington, D.C. Thompson also worked with Lester Bowie's Hot Trumpets Repertory Company and formed Africa Brass, a group inspired by traditional New Orleans brass bands.

With a goal of preserving the Sutherland Theater on Chicago's South Side, Thompson founded the Sutherland Community Arts Initiative, a non-profit corporation, in 1991. He also wrote incidental music for a play about the theater.

Informed in 1989 that he suffered from T-cell lymphoma and had one year to live, Thompson claimed he was healed by radiation and reading about jazz. He died in Chicago, Illinois from a relapse of his cancer in 2006.

The first album from Chicago trumpeter Malachi Thomspon – and the hippest, too! The set was recorded in 1974 – much earlier than anything we've seen from Malachi on record – and it's got a vibe that would be right at home in the Strata East universe – especially in the way the rhythms come together with some really unusual instrumental phrasings!