Jeter Thompson 1930 - 2017

Pianist Jeter Thompson, whose leadership of the groups Quartette Trés Bien and Trio Trés Bien made him a significant figure on the St. Louis jazz scene from the Gaslight Square era into the 21st century, died on Friday, December 1. He was 87 years old.

Born in St. Louis on March 16, 1930, Thompson (pictured, top left) started playing piano at five years old, and made his first professional appearance at age 16 in 1946, performing with saxophonist Emmett Carter at a downtown club called the Coconut Grove.

He went to Sumner High School, where in 1948 he was senior class president, and subsequently attended Stowe College for two years, earning an associates degree. He then joined the U. S. Air Force, serving in Korea.

Returning home in 1954, Thompson played various local gigs until the formation in 1959 of Quartette Trés Bien, which in its best-known lineup included bassist Richard Simmons, drummer Albert St. James, and percussionist Percy James.

The group (pictured, center left) became a popular attraction in the then-booming Gaslight Square entertainment district, serving as the house band at The Dark Side, where in 1962 they were filmed as part of an episode of the CBS drama Route 66.

In 1963, Thompson and his bandmates became partners in the Trés Bien Club, located on the south side of Olive St. near the Gaslight Club. Around that same time, they were approached by Norman Wienstroer to record for his St. Louis-based label Norman Records.

The group made two albums for Norman, Boss Trés Bien and Kilimanjaro, and in 1965 also backed singer Jeanne Trevor on her debut recording for the label. Wienstroer subsequently helped the Quartette gain the attention of Decca Records, which re-issued their first two albums and would release eight more recordings of them over the next few years.

With an assist from fellow St. Louisan Dick Gregory, whose standup comedy career was peaking at the same time, Quartette Trés Bien also became a touring band. They appeared with Gregory at the Apollo in Harlem; on a bill with Thelonious Monk at the It Club in Los Angeles (where Monk would make a famous live recording for Columbia Records); and as headliners at storied jazz spots of the 1960s including the Plugged Nickel in Chicago, Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit, Crawford's Grill in Pittsburgh, The Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, CA, and many others.

Back home in St. Louis, they performed with singer Sarah Vaughan at Powell Hall, and appeared on bills with singer Nancy Wilson and the Count Basie Orchestra.

In 1973, with Gaslight Square a distant memory and jazz clubs closing around the nation, Quartette Tres Bien dissolved. Thompson worked as a cartographer for the U.S. Defense Mapping Agency and as a real estate agent, and went on to form Trio Tres Bien with his brothers, bassist Harold Thompson and drummer Howard Thompson.

Trio Trés Bien (pictured, bottom left) found ample work locally playing clubs, concerts and private events, and in 2004 issued a self-released album, Coming Together. They continued to perform into the 2010s, sometimes with Harold's daughter, vocalist Danita Mumphard.

In 2014, Trio Trés Bien was inducted into the St. Louis Jazz Hall of Fame at Harris-Stowe State University's Wolfe Jazz Institute.

In addition to his brothers and niece, Jeter Thompson is survived by his wife, Louisa; his daughters Donna Patton and Pamela Cobb; his sister, Patricia Whitelocke; and, to quote his obituary in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "a host of grandchildren and great-grandchildren."

Arrangements were by Austin Layne Normandy Chapel, and a funeral was held on Friday, December 8 at St. Louis Bible Way Baptist Church.

Information for this story came from City of Gabriels: The History of Jazz in St. Louis 1895-1973 by Dennis Owsley; That St. Louis Thing, Part 2 by Bruce R. Olson; and http://www.tresbienmusic.com/.

StLJN Audio Archive: Quartette Tres Bien - Stepping Out

For this week's Audio Archive post, we revisit Stepping Out!, a 1966 release by the popular St. Louis group Quartette Trés Bien.

A groove-oriented piano-trio-plus-percussionist, the QTB rose to fame during the Gaslight Square era, right around the same time that Ramsey Lewis and Young-Holt Unlimited were successfully purveying similar sounds up in Chicago.

The band's fifth album to get national distribution as part of their deal with Decca Records, Stepping Out! has been out of print for decades and apparently never has been reissued on CD.

The personnel is the familiar QTB lineup of Jeter Thompson on piano, Richard Simmons on bass, Albert St. James on drums and Percy James on bongos & congas. The album's tracks include "Watusi Warrior," "Summertime," "Stay, My Love," "A Taste Of Honey," "More (Theme from "Mondo Cane")," "Sheryl Likes Bananas" and "Brazil (Aquarela Do Brazil)"

From the original liner notes by Stanley Dance:

"'Emotion' is a word that Jeter Thompson returns to in conversation, for it is a quality he and the others seek to project on original compositions as well as in their playing, and this determines the playing of their most characteristic effects. The astonishing 'Watusi Warrior', for instance, is another example of Thompson's gift for descriptive writing with an African motif, its predecessors including 'Kilimanjaro' and 'Rhodesian Chant' on Decca DL 4548 and DL 4547 respectively.

He insists that this evocative piece, which seems so wild, exciting, barbaric and abandoned, was 'all worked out' beforehand. Such a performance is made possible by the Quartette's élan, and by the intuitive understanding each musician has - after playing together for seven years - of the others' ways of thought and expression."

The 320K .mp3 rip of Stepping Out! comes from the now-inactive music sharing blog Arkadin's Ark, and you can download a copy of it for free here. You can see the Quartette's successor Trio Tres Bien, which features Jeter Thompason along with his brothers Harold and Howard on bass and drums, perform live at this year's U City Jazz Festival on Saturday, September 22 in Heman Park.

StLJN Audio Archive: Quartette Trés Bien - Kilimanjaro

Our first Audio Archive post of 2012 comes courtesy of the music-sharing blog Soundological Investimagations, and features Quartette Trés Bien's Kilimanjaro, originally issued on LP by Decca in 1965 as a follow-up to their major label debut Boss Trés Bien.

Kilimanjaro features the classic QTB lineup of Jeter Thompson on piano, Richard Simmons on bass, Albert St. James on drums and Percy James on percussion, performing the title track, "I Left My Heart In San Francisco," "Secretly," "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," "My Favorite Things," "My One And Only Love," "Ramblin' Rose" and, fittingly enough, "You Came A Long Way From St. Louis."

To download a copy, go to the original post here, scroll down and look for the sentence "You can climb Kilimanjaro's snow-capped peak with your Soundological sherpa HERE or HERE," which includes links to the file on both Megaupload and Sharebee.

The StLJN Audio Archive links only to recordings that are out-of-print or that never have been commercially available. The purpose of the Audio Archive is to encourage discussion, appreciation and knowledge of St. Louis jazz artists, and we urge you to support them (or their estates) by purchasing authorized recordings and merchandise and, whenever possible, attending live performances.

StLJN Audio Archive: Pow! Jeanne Trevor Sings!!

For this week's Audio Archive post, we reach back to 1965 for the first full-length recording by one of St. Louis' longtime favorites, singer Jeanne Trevor. Pow! Jeanne Trevor Sings!! originally was released on the Mainstream label and is revived here courtesy of the music-sharing blog Soundological Investimigations.

Drawing inspiration from the classic tradition of female jazz vocalists, most notably Ella Fizgerald, Trevor has been a staple on St. Louis stages for close to 50 years, and continues to perform today. In fact, she's on the bill for next Saturday's inaugural U City Jazz Festival.

For those interested in St. Louis' Gaslight Square era, this album is a must-hear, for it brings together three well-known acts from that time period on one recording. In addition to Trevor on vocals, Pow! also features the Quartette Trés Bien - Jeter Thompson (piano), Richard Simmons (bass), Albert St. James (drums), and Percy James (percussion), who are uncredited on the sleeve for contractual reasons - plus the ever-versatile Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum on tenor sax.

The album includes 12 tracks: "People Will Say We're In Love," "Don't Blame Me," "Get Out Of My Life," "I've Got You Under My Skin," "Four," "Lady With A Painted Smile," "Moonlight Serenade," "The Last Moment," "I Know That You Know," "From An Ancient Proverb," "The Lady's In Love With You," and "Visit Me."

Pow! Jeanne Trevor Sings!! never has been issued on CD, and vinyl copies recently have sold for $50 or more on various online auction sites. You can download it for free by going here and scrolling down to the first comment. You'll see three links, representing the file storage sites Sharebee, Multiupload, and Flameupload. Choose one, click on it, and follow the instructions.

The StLJN Audio Archive links only to recordings that are out-of-print or that never have been commercially available. The purpose of the Audio Archive is encourage discussion, appreciation and knowledge of St. Louis jazz artists, and we encourage you to support them (or their estates) by purchasing authorized recordings and merchandise or, whenever possible, attending live performances.

(Edited 9/22/11 to fix a typo.)

StLJN Audio Archive: Quartette Tres Bien - Boss Tres Bien

Today's Audio Archive post features the Quartette Tres Bien's debut recording for a national label, and comes to us via the blog Soundological Investimigations.

QTB were one of the better known groups of St. Louis' Gaslight Square era, and were sometimes compared with Ramsey Lewis, the Three Sounds, and other piano-based groups playing groove-oriented music.

The members of the group as heard on Boss Tres Bien were Jeter Thompson (piano), Richard Simmons (bass), Albert St. James (drums) and Percy James (percussion). (Thompson continues to perform with his brothers Howard and Harold in a successor group, Trio Tres Bien.)

Boss Tres Bien (pictured, upper left) was recorded for and originally issued in 1964 by the St. Louis-based Norman label, for which QTB recorded several sides. When the group signed with Decca later that same year, the LP was given new cover art (pictured, lower left) and reissued as their first effort for the label. Here's what Dusty Groove had to say about it:

"A landmark blend of soul jazz and bossa nova – cut by the legendary Quartette Tres Bien back in the 60s! The group are kind of a "piano trio plus" – an outfit with piano, bass, and drums in the lead – but also plenty of conga and added percussion – a style used here to really underscore the bossa inspiration of the set – often in ways that are more driving and more complicated than original 60s bossa recordings themselves! The feel is really unique – almost equally inspired by African rhythms in parts – and even when the group are playing familiar numbers, then manage to transform the tracks completely with their inventive approach to rhythms and super-searing work on piano!"

The tracks on the album are "Boss Tres Bien,""Rhodesian Chant", "Always on Saturday", "The Sweetest Sounds", "I Love Paris", "Lover Come Back To Me", and "Days Of Wine & Roses"

To download a free copy of Boss Tres Bien, go here, select one of the download sites from the menu displayed, click on it, and follow the instructions from there.

The StLJN Audio Archive links only to recordings that are out-of-print or that never have been commercially available. The purpose of the Audio Archive is encourage discussion, appreciation and knowledge of St. Louis jazz artists, and we encourage you to support them (or their estates) by purchasing authorized recordings and merchandise or, whenever possible, attending live performances.