If you’ve ever listened to Mountain Stage, that gem of a live music, public radio show produced by West Virginia Public Radio for nearly 40 years, you’ve already heard the piano playing of Bob Thompson. The program can be heard every week on more than 280 stations across America, and around the world via NPR Music. Recorded in front of a live audience, each show begins with a single note played by Bob Thompson. That note summons the show’s theme song, “A Simple Song”, written by original show host, Larry Groce. The new host, Kathy Mattea, steps in and sings, “There’s a spring, in the mountain, and flows down to the town….” The Mountain Stage band follows Thompson’s graceful playing to accompany the tune, and so begins another program of “music from the Mountain State of West Virginia”, as the show introduction informs. Every show also features a Bob Thompson solo spot, playing jazz style interludes for the audience, while the stage is rearranged. In these short, tasty pieces of music his playing is always exceptional, his tone, touch, and technique exquisite.
When Thompson was inducted into the WMHOF in 2015, Larry Groce told the crowd he speculated that Bob Thompson had probably played more gigs in West Virginia than any other artist in its history.
A New York City native who moved to West Virginia in the mid-60’s to attend West Virginia State College on a scholarship to study trumpet and music education, around this time Bob Thompson made two decisions. One, switch from a trumpet player to a piano player. And two, decide to take up residence in West Virginia. It seems to have worked out. Nowadays he is often referred to as “the state’s best-loved musician and ambassador of Jazz.”
Bob makes his home in Charleston, WV, and has enjoyed a long and active career as a performer, composer, arranger, and educator.
Since the 1970’s, Thompson and his bands have recorded and released multiple CD and albums, and toured nationally and internationally, performing in Europe, Africa, and South America. Throughout the 1980’s he released a series of widely acclaimed solo albums, first through his own label, Rainbow Records, and later on Capitol’s Intima jazz label.
Thompson is co-producer and host of the annual “Joy to The World” holiday jazz show that airs on public radio stations across the nation, and is heard internationally on Voice of America.
Bob makes his home in Charleston, WV, and has enjoyed a long and active career as a performer, composer, arranger, and educator.
His bio informs, “When not performing on Mountain Stage or touring, Thompson continues to perform in clubs in Charleston for smaller, more intimate audiences.”
West Virginians are very happy Bob Thompson decided to stay in West Virginia. He has become woven into the fabric this state’s music, forever and ever.
The Bob Thompson Unit will be appearing as part of the Born & Bred Concert Series, on January 20, 2024, at the Robinson Grand Performing Arts Center in Clarksburg, WV. Get your tickets HERE!
RECOMMENDED LISTENING – by the author.
1. Bob Thompson “Live” On Mountain Stage. (2007) A collection of Bob Thompson recordings, “live from the Mountain State” as played on the Mountain Stage radio program. “Willow Weep For Me” shows off all of BT’s talents in one song.
2. More Joy to the World: A Christmas Celebration with Bob Thompson. (2007) This gets played around my house every year about this time.
3. Smile by The Bob Thompson Unit. (2010) This playful, tuneful album is created by the musical aggregation Thompson will be playing with on January 20, The Bob Thompson Unit. Check out his version of “Monk-Main Title Theme”.
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