The sweetness & buoyant rhythm
of New Orleans music
took hold of Butch & never let go.

1943 - 2022

BUTCH'S STORY

Born in a small Minnesota river town, Thompson played Christmas carols on his mother’s upright piano by age three, and began formal lessons at six. He studied clarinet in high school, and as a teenager led his first professional jazz group, Shirt Thompson & His Sleeves.

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Butch Thompson plays Orchestra Hall
Photo: Travis Anderson

Star Tribune article 8/15/2022 by Jon Bream, "Minnesota piano giant Butch Thompson dies at 78".

Butch Thompson's Life in Music Celebration Slideshow. Click here.

*Scroll to bottom of page to listen to clips of Butch playing with the Minnesota Orchestra.

Butch Thompson plays with Raymond Burke and Cie Frazier in New Orleans
Vintage CD from 1992 - Butch playing in New Orleans with Raymond Burke and Cie Frazier. Play Honky Tonk Town

THE MUSIC

Evolving Jazz Tradition

Butch brings his own voice to the classic jazz repertoire of blues, stomps, ragtime and pop songs. From Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag to Duke Ellington's Mood Indigo, from Jelly Roll Morton's New Orleans jazz to the virtuosic stride piano of 1920s Harlem, Butch has played his personal style from Cairo to Kansas City.
MUSIC FOR ALL OCCASIONS

Whether he's working solo, with his well-known trio, or other ensembles around home or in New Orleans, Butch delivers variety and the pure, contagious joy of music making.
Jelly Roll Morton said it best

Jazz was born in New Orleans, he said, from a gumbo of "everything from blues to opera. Jazz music is to be played sweet, soft, plenty rhythm. When you have your plenty rhythm with your plenty swing, it becomes beautiful."