British jazz musician: saxophonist Barbara Thompson dies

British jazz saxophonist Barbara Thompson has died aged 77. She is known for her work on his musicals “Cats” and “Starlight Express”.

Barbara Thompson studied saxophone and classical composition at the Royal College of Music in London, but then discovered her love for jazz. Apparently, the music of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane was primarily responsible for her concentrating on the style from then on.

Thompson formed three bands beginning in 1975: the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble, in which her husband, drummer and music producer Jon Hiseman also played, Barbara Thompson’s Jubiaba, and Barbara Thompson’s Paraphernalia, a band in which her husband was also a drummer. Thompson wrote some of the songs for these bands, but she also wrote classical music and music for film and television.

Collaboration on “Cats” and “Starlight Express”

In 1978 she met the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and worked with him on his musicals “Cats” and “Starlight Express”. In 1996 the saxophonist was awarded a medal by the British royal family for her services to music. Just a year later, Thompson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

Her daughter, singer-songwriter Ana Gracey, said in a statement. “My mother had an extraordinary spirit – she never gave up, but her body eventually let her down – after more than 25 years of battling Parkinson’s.”