Born as Daniel Henry Edward Thompson in Teignmouth, Devon (UK) on 4 April 1939, Danny Thompson is best known as a double bassist. His father, a miner, joined the Royal Navy at the start of World War II and was lost in action whilst crewing submarines. At age 6, his family moved to London. Whilst at school he learnt guitar, mandolin, trumpet and trombone before settling on the upright bass as his instrument of choice.
Between 1964 and 1967 he was a member of Alexis Komer’s Blues Incorporated. In 1968 he founded the British folk-jazz band Pentangle. This band released seven studio albums between 1968 and 1985. While releasing his own solo albums in the 1980’s and 1990’s, he also was a session musician contributing to many other artists’ recordings such as ABC, Everything But The Girl, Boo Hewerdine, Cliff Richard, Rod Stewart and Talk Talk. For Kate, Thompson played string bass on the song Pull Out The Pin, and double bass on the song Watching You Without Me.
In 2007, he received a Lifetime achievement award in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
