Broadcast on 24-Jun-2013

Eli "Lucky" Thompson had a long career in Jazz music but not all of it was lucky. He was very respected in the community for his great talent on the tenor(and later the soprano) saxophone. He was a proud and determined man who rankled at some of the unjust treatment of Jazz artists.The Jazz Feature is from one of the peaks in Lucky's career. He had returned from a long period in Europe and recorded a few very fine albums for Prestige and then began his own record label....it was short-lived but our Feature comes from this period. We hear Lucky on tenor and soprano saxophones with the great Tommy Flanagan on piano, Willie Ruff on bass and Walter Perkins on drums. He plays some of his intriguing originals and some very well chosen standards. The music is on a very high level and makes us wonder why Mr. Thompson chose to sell his horns and give up music entirely ten years after these recordings were done in 1965. Thompson died poor and ill in Seattle in 2005 but at least in his last years he was in a care home. Lucky was one of the true Jazz Masters and proof is here on this date originally called "Lucky Is Back And So Is Love".