I was saddened to hear that Danny Thompson died this week. He was 86.

“Legendary acoustic bass player Danny Thompson died peacefully yesterday at his home in Rickmansworth, UK. A musician who was both beloved and admired by everybody he worked with, his body of work is unparalleled in its quality and also in the incredibly varied number of musicians he worked with. Danny was a force of nature. A player who served the song and who enriched the lives of every single person he met. He will be sorely missed.”

The official announcement, 2025-09-24.

You can find a few tributes in this article on the UK Jazz News website. And there are a number of obituaries, including this one in The Guardian.

Danny’s bass playing burst into my consciousness from the very first notes of Pentangle’s 1972 album, Solomon’s Seal. His interpretation of the traditional-sounding folk song, Sally Free and Easy, was both original and perfect for the arrangement.

Over time, in addition to several Pentangle albums, the Crotchety collection accumulated Danny Thompson’s debut solo album, Whatever, and his name kept cropping up on miscellaneous other acquisitions. It seemed mysterious at first, but the reason is obvious when you think about it …

… if you saw Danny Thompson’s name on an album, you knew it would be good.