A leading name in Jazz for more than 20 years now: british saxophone player Barbara Thompson.

When she formed her band Paraphernalia in 1977, Barbara Thompson was quite the novelty: A woman entering the male dominated world of jazz was considered a baffling exception. Thankfully, that sort of view has in the meantime become an exception itself (even thought there STILL are some dinosaurs left who think it a compliment when they say "she plays like a man"); and the amiable englishwoman has long defined her position in the pantheon of modern Jazz beyond questions of sex anyway. Only few artists can look back onto a career of 2 decades and still inspire an audience as large to undiminished enthusiasm like Barbara Thompson does on a regular basis. This (and the ever growing number of her fan community) is most likely to be attributed to her enourmous versatility, fueled by an undying creative curiousity which drove her across cross musical borders from the beginning of her professional career. Not only did she excel in the fields of Jazz and Rock (with her own band or with the 'Untied Jazz And Rock Ensemble), but also with ambitioned projects of 'classical' nature like e.g. her ''Concerto For Saxophone And Symphony Orchestra", her much-lauded Kurt Weill-interpretations (with the Medici String Quartet) or her adaptions of texts by english poet Philipp Larkin under the headline ''Love Songs in Age''. Her work as author of movie scores and her collaboration/s with soundtrack- and Musical-Mogul Andrew Lloyd Webber complete the picture of the alround musician Barbara Thompson. Which makes it palpable why she was assigned ''Member Of The British Empire'' in appreciation of her ''services to music'' by the Queen in 1995.

LATEST NEWS New release Best Of "Chapter And Verse" on the 17th of Oct. Barbara Thompson & Paraphernalia "Never Say Goodbye Tour" in Germany will start in November. Please have a look in the German tourdate section