Saxophonist: Barbara Thompson Cause Of Death

Barbara Gracey Thompson MBE was a jazz saxophonist from England. Thompson died on July 9, 2022, following a 25-year battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Barbara was married to Colosseum drummer Jon Hiseman from 1967 until he died in 2018. They had two children.

Barbara Thompson studied classical composition and saxophone at the Royal College of Music, but the music of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane influenced her to focus on jazz and saxophone.

In 1996, she was awarded the MBE for music services. She retired as an active saxophonist in 2001 with a farewell tour due to Parkinson’s disease, which she was diagnosed with in 1997.

In 2003, she returned to the stage after working solely as a composer. Thompson collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber on musicals like Cats and Starlight Express, as well as his Requiem and Lloyd Webber’s 1978 classical-fusion album Variations.

She has written music for film and television, a musical, and songs for the United Jazz and Rock Ensemble, Barbara Thompson’s Paraphernalia, and her big band Moving Parts.