Ed Thigpen

Biography

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Thigpen was raised in Los Angeles and attended Thomas Jefferson High School, where Art Farmer, Dexter Gordon and Chico Hamilton also attended. After majoring in sociology at Los Angeles City College, Thigpen returned to East St. Louis for one year to pursue music while living with his father who had been playing with Andy Kirk's Clouds of Joy. His father, Ben Thigpen, was a drummer who played with Andy Kirk for sixteen years during the 1930s and 1940s.

Thigpen first worked professionally in New York City with the Cootie Williams orchestra from 1951 to 1952 at the Savoy Ballroom. During this time he played with musicians such as Dinah Washington, Gil Mellé, Oscar Pettiford, Eddie Vinson, Paul Quinichette, Ernie Wilkins, Charlie Rouse, Lennie Tristano, Jutta Hipp, Johnny Hodges, Dorothy Ashby, Bud Powell, and Billy Taylor.

In 1959 he replaced guitarist Herb Ellis in the Oscar Peterson Trio in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 1961 he recorded in Los Angeles, featuring on the Teddy Edwards–Howard McGhee Quintet album entitled Together Again for the Contemporary label with Phineas Newborn, Jr. and Ray Brown. After leaving Peterson, Thigpen recorded the album Out of the Storm as a leader for Verve in 1966. He then went on to tour with Ella Fitzgerald from 1967 to 1972.

In 1974 Thigpen moved to Copenhagen, joining several other American jazz musicians who had settled in that city over the previous two decades. There he worked with fellow American expatriates, including Kenny Drew, Ernie Wilkins, Thad Jones, as well as leading Danish jazz musicians such as Svend Asmussen, Mads Vinding, Alex Riel and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen. He also played with a variety of other leading musicians of the time, such as Clark Terry, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Milt Jackson and Monty Alexander.

Ed Thigpen died peacefully after a brief period in Hvidovre Hospital (Copenhagen, Denmark) on January 13, 2010. He is buried at Vestre Kirkegård.

Awards and recognition

Thigpen was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 2002.

As leader

As sideman

With Gene Ammons

With Dorothy Ashby

With Kenny Burrell

With Kenny Drew

With Art Farmer

With Dexter Gordon

With Johnny Griffin

with Jutta Hipp

With Duke Jordan

With Mundell Lowe

With Howard McGhee an Teddy Edwards

with Gil Mellé

with Oscar Pettiford

with Oscar Peterson

With Paul Quinichette

with Teddy Charles

with Tony Ortega

with Frank Minion

with Teddy Edwards–Howard McGhee Quintet

with Ella Fitzgerald:

with Horace Parlan

With Charlie Rouse and Paul Quinichette

With Billy Taylor

with Paul Quinichette and Charlie Rouse

with Eddie Vinson

with Svend Asmussen

with Jack van Poll:

with Oliver Jones:

with John Lindberg, Albert Mangelsdorff & Eric Watson:

with Eric Watson and Mark Dresser:

with Ernie Wilkins on the Everest label:

with Kresten Osgood

With Webster Young