Afounder member of the British folk-rock band Pentangle, the double bass player Danny Thompson also added depth and resonance to recordings by artists as varied as Nick Drake and Kate Bush, Cliff Richard and Everything But the Girl, Graham Coxon and John Martyn – to name a handful among the hundreds of sessions he played on from the early 1960s into the 21st century.
Thompson, who has died aged 86, was a musician’s musician, his bass always compl. His fluid playing enriched the albums Five Leaves Left (1969) by Drake and Solid Air (1973) by Martyn, and he went on to form a long working relationship with Martyn, and, later, the singer-songwriter Richard Thompson (no relation).
It was Lonnie Donegan’s hits of the mid-50s that first inspired Thompson as a young teenager to build a tea-chest bass and join a skiffle band. Working Soho clubs and US airbases in the 60s, he built a name as a capable bassist, and in 1964 he joined Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated.
As a band leader, Korner brought together a wealth of young British talent, including Ginger Baker, Charlie Watts, Eric Clapton and Brian Jones, and his stewardship led to Thompson engaging with many rising stars at Korner’s Marquee club base. He became the bassist of choice of jazz musicians such as John McLaughlin and Tubby Hayes, and folk artists such as Davey Graham.
In 1967, he and the drummer Terry Cox, also from Blues Incorporated, joined the guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, and vocalist Jacqui McShee, to complete the lineup of Pentangle. While initially branded a “folk” band, Pentangle employed jazz and classical elements as they reimagined traditional songs, with Thompson playing an important part in that experimentation.
The various members having established their names in the Soho folk and rock scene, the band’s first public concert, at the Royal Festival Hall in 1967, was a huge success, as was their debut album, The Pentangle, released the following year. Their 1969 album, Basket of Light, was even bigger commercially, containing the hit single Light Flight, used as the theme for a BBC TV drama, Take Three Girls. It was not the first theme tune for Thompson, who, having realised that recording sessions were more financially rewarding than playing live – “all the money I used to earn on jazz gigs used to get blown before I got home” – had in 1964 played on the recording for the theme music of the TV series Thunderbirds.
After Pentangle split in 1972, Thompson chose not to join another group, but to concentrate on playing sessions – the record producer Joe Boyd having already paired him with Drake for Five Leaves Left, did the same with Martyn and Solid Air.
Thompson and Martyn were kindred spirits, heavy drinkers who delighted in displays of disruptive, drunken behaviour while touring. Alcoholism would affect both men and led to a notable drop-off in session work for Thompson.
However, in the late 70s, Thompson sobered up, and the reverence his recordings with Drake and Martyn were now held in eventually found him again in demand as a session player: in the mid-80s David Sylvian, Bush, Talk Talk, The The, Everything But the Girl, Coxon and Skin all employed him for his lyrical playing.
In 1987 Thompson released his debut solo album, Whatever, leading a jazz trio playing the muscular fusion he loved. He released five more low-key solo jazz albums over the next quarter century, alongside continuing to work prodigiously with others, most notably Richard Thompson, the two veterans of the 60s folk scene recording 14 albums together. Last year, he performed at Richard’s 75th birthday concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
Danny was born in Teignmouth, Devon. He never knew his father, a miner who enrolled in the Royal Navy at the start of the second world war and was killed in action. Danny’s sister died soon after and he and his mother moved to Battersea, south-west London, where he attended Salesian college. He excelled in boxing and football as well as playing a variety of instruments, before settling on the upright bass.
Having left school and home aged 15, Thompson earned a living playing bass in Soho strip clubs. After a year, he began working the American airbase circuit. Aged 18, he was arrested for failing to turn up for national service, and three days before being sent to Winchester barracks, married his girlfriend, Daphne Davis. He was then posted to Penang, Malaysia, for two years, where, against orders, he became involved with the local music scene.
Returning to England in 1963 he took a job backing the American singer Roy Orbison – playing electric bass for the only time in his life – on a UK tour while watching headliners the Beatles kick off Beatlemania. In 1964 he spent £5 on buying his acoustic bass, Victoria – which he used his entire career – before joining Korner’s Blues Incorporated.
Thompson was known for his warmth and good humour. He continued to practise for an hour a day. His mantra remained: “Music is like a religion, if you want to do something you have to work at it, you have to practise.”
After embracing sobriety, Thompson set up Hero Productions to produce TV documentaries. His 1983 wildlife film A Passion to Protect (directed by Roy Deverell) won a Hugo award at the Chicago film festival. He converted to Islam in 1990, taking the Muslim name Hamza, and in 1999 he was interviewed for the BBC TV series Faces of Islam. The following year he travelled to Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem as the presenter of the documentary The Furthest Mosque.
Thompson underwent major heart surgery in 1998, during which he suffered a stroke. Three months after his operation he organised an all-star charity concert in Sarajevo and he continued performing until ill health forced him to slow down several years ago.
Thompson’s first marriage ended in divorce in the late 70s. In 1990 he married his partner Sylvia. She survives him, as does his son, Danny Jr, from his first marriage.
• Daniel Henry Edward Thompson, musician and film producer, born 4 April 1939; died 23 September 2025
