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Barbara Thompson - 27 July 1944 – 9 July 2022

Barbara Gracey Thompson MBE was an English jazz saxophonist. She
studied saxophone and classical composition at the Royal College of
Music, but the music of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane made her
shift her interests to jazz and saxophone. She was married to
drummer Jon Hiseman of Colosseum from 1967 until his death in
2018.

Following a stint with the Ivy Benson Orchestra, Barbara started her
studies at the Royal College of Music in 1964. In the New Jazz Orchestra,
from 1965, and in guest appearances with a huge range of 1960s star musicians
from Manfred Mann to Keef Hartley and Keith Emerson, and later with Andrew Lloyd Webber,
she brought her magic touch to a diverse array of recordings, but it was in her own bands
Paraphernalia and Jubiaba, both formed in the 70s, that she really shone.

In 1997—the year she was awarded an
MBE for services to music—she was
diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.

In November 1999, from the Bull’s Head
in Barnes, Radio 3 presented what was
generally thought to have been her

farewell concert with Paraphernalia.
However, following the unexpected
death of Dick Heckstall-Smith in 2004
she stepped into the breach with
Hiseman’s Colosseum. Not only did she
learn all the parts in double-quick time,
she also joined the band on a gruelling
trajectory across Europe.

Although she retired from live perfor-
mance in 2015, Barbara continued to
compose, and after Jon Hiseman’s
untimely death, she devoted herself to
her autobiography, Journey To A
Destination Unknown.

In a statement, Thompson's daughter,
singer-songwriter Ana Gracey said: "My
mum had the most extraordinary spirit -
she never gave up, however, her body
finally let her down after a valiant battle
with Parkinson’s over the course of 25
years alongside complications with her
heart towards the end. We dearly hope
that she and our father have found each other once again."

Ian K McKenzie