Lucky Thomspon is a loner. His career has been so broken with obstacles, usually caused by his intractable refusal to compromise a principle, that his nickname has for a long time been an irony among musicians. Since Lucky is a strong and proud man, he learned during the times of bleakest scuffling to do for himself, to search into his reservoir of capacity and somehow face and at least hold to a draw each visitation of despair. Lucky has worked in a self — revealing variety of musical situations, not all of them to his delight; but he has never deliberately played music he would have been ashamed to be reminded of. Because, however, he has so often had to go his own way, he has trained himself through the years to be a thorough professional who can not only handle but enliven any assignment. Lucky has recorded and worked with, among many others, Count Basie, Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, Lionel Hampton and his own band at the Savoy ballroom. He controls the rare ability to make each of these scenes in a way that satisfies the ethos of the particular band and/or leader while still retaining his own firmly personal voice. There are some complete professionals who are, by contrast, chameleons and blend into each different context so facilely that it is as if they wear a succession of masks and at some point have forgotten whatbecame of the face beneath. Lucky works accurately and valuably for a Miles Davis or a Kenton-and that’s a long divide — while losing neither his identity nor his integrity...
Nat Hentoff (from the original Liner Notes)
Lucky Thompson
Featuring
Oscar Pettiford, vol. II
Tracks
1 N R #2 3:11
2 Once There Was 4:08
3 Dancing Sunbeam 3:10
4 N R #1 4:48
5 Little Tenderfoot 2:49
6 The Plain But The Simple Truth 4:50
7 Mister Man 3:38
8 Good Luck 4:38
All Compositions by Lucky Thompson
*
Personnel
[# 1, 4 & 8] Quintet
Lucky Thompson - ts
Jimmy Cleveland - tb
Hank Jones or Don Abney [# 1, 4 & 8] - p
Oscar Pettiford - b
Osie Johnson - dr
Recorded on December 12, 1956
[# 2, 3, 5-7] Trio
Lucky Thompson - ts
Skeeter Best - g [# 2 out]
Don Abney - p [# 2]
Oscar Pettiford - b
Recorded on December 11, 1956