Chester Thompson | Chester Thompson Biography
Chester Thompson (Full name: Chester Cortez Thompson) is an American drummer, percussionist, session musician, producer, and teacher.
He performed with Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention from 1973 to 1975 and with the progressive rock band Genesis from 1977 to 1992, and again in 2007. He is a current member of his jazz group, the Chester Thompson Trio, formed in 2011.
Thompson practiced by playing along with albums by jazz musicians Miles Davis, Max Roach, and Art Blakey. From there, he moved on to studying records by drummer Elvin Jones, whom Thompson cites as a major musical influence along with Tony Williams.
While attending high school, he studied privately with drummer and percussionist Tony Ames of the National Symphony Orchestra for one semester. His’s practice focused on mastering drumming rudiments using a book published by the National Association of Rudimental Drummers.
He started to play his first live gigs two years later in local venues. Still underage, Thompson went as far as to draw a mustache on his upper lip using an eyebrow pencil “because the club owners were worried about me playing there”. He played as many as three jam sessions a week.
Chester Thompson Age
Chester Cortez Thompson is an American drummer, percussionist, session musician, producer, and teacher. December 11. 1948 Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Thompson has 70 years old as of 2019.
Chester Thompson Family
Thompson was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He has an older brother, who played in the drum corps. Unfortunately, he grew up without a father.
At elementary school, he learned to play the flute and read music. At eleven, he took up the drums, receiving lessons from James Harrison, a professional jazz drummer from whom he learned his rudiments. He grew up in Baltimore and has worked as an instructor at Belmont University’s School of Music in Nashville.
Chester Thompson Wife
In 1980, Thompson became a Christian. He married his wife who he first met during his time playing in The Wiz in 1976. They have one son together.
Chester Thompson Net Worth | Chester Thompson Drummer Net Worth
Thompson is an American drummer, percussionist, session musician, producer, and teacher. He has an estimated Net Worth of $ 1 million dollars as of 2019. Chester Thompson’s income source is mostly from being a successful Drummer. He has worked with Phil Collins, playing drums for Genesis on tours from 1977 to 2007.
Chester Thompson Drummer |Chester Thompson Drum | Chester Thompson Drums | Chester Thompson Phil Collins | Chester Thompson Genesis
Just two weeks into Santana rehearsals, Thompson was invited by Genesis drummer and singer Phil Collins to join the band as their touring drummer after their current drummer, Bill Bruford, wished to move on. Collins wished to pick an American drummer and heard Thompson’s playing on Zappa’s live album Roxy & Elsewhere (1974) which featured Thompson playing in tandem with drummer Ralph Humphrey.
Thompson had heard of Genesis’s music from bassist Alphonso Johnson and agreed to join the band for rehearsals in November 1976 for their upcoming tour supporting Wind & Wuthering (1976). “The first day of rehearsal, we just started jamming as everybody was setting up gear, we were just going for it”. Thompson was shown the drum part to “Afterglow” and at first, had difficulty in playing its straightforward beat.
From 1976–2007, Thompson played with Genesis as their touring drummer. Thompson is featured on the live albums Seconds Out (1977), Three Sides Live (1982), The Way We Walk, Volume One: The Shorts (1992), The Way We Walk, Volume Two: The Longs (1993), and Live over Europe 2007 (2007).
After the 1992 tour, Thompson stepped down as their touring drummer in order to spend more time with his family. He talked with Genesis bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford about the possibility of playing the drums on their final studio album, Calling All Stations (1997).
However, since Collins had left the band, Thompson wanted to become a full-time member of the band, and not just a sideman. However, Genesis continued without Thompson for the album and tour. Thompson played an impromptu jam at Collins’s wedding in 1999, which made him realize how much he had missed his Genesis bandmates.
He joined Phil Collins as the drummer for Collins’s solo concert tours, drumming on the 1982/83 Hello, I Must Be Going! tour, 1985 No Jacket Required tour, 1990 …But Seriously tour The Tarzan Premiere tour of 1999 and The Final Farewell tour of 2004/05. He also appears on Collins’ Serious Hits… Live! (1990) live album and DVD.
In 1988, Thompson was invited to play the drums for former boss Frank Zappa’s final concert tour before his death. Thompson declined the offer. By this time, Thompson had become a devout Christian, and Zappa’s anti-religious sentiments and lyrics conflicted with his own religious beliefs.
In 1989, Thompson worked as the drummer for Bee Gees for their One for All World Tour (10.4.–7.12.1989), in support of their One (1989) album. He was later replaced by Michael Murphy in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Chester Thompson Songs
Land of Confusion Invisible Touch · 1986
I Can’t Dance We Can’t Dance · 1991
Follow You Follow Me …And Then There Were Three… · 1978
Invisible Touch Invisible Touch · 1986
Mama Genesis · 1983
Jesus He Knows Me We Can’t Dance · 1991
Hold On My Heart We Can’t Dance · ;
In Too Deep Invisible Touch · 1986
Home by the Sea Genesis · 1983
No Son of Mine We Can’t Dance · 1991
Tonight Tonight Tonight Invisible Touch · 1986
Throwing It All Away Invisible Touch · ;
Turn It On Again Duke · 1980
That’s All Genesis · 1983
Since I Lost You We Can’t Dance · 1991
Man on the Corner Abacab · 1981
Behind the Lines Duke · 1980
Abacab Abacab · 1981
Takin’ It All Too Hard Genesis · 1983
Many Too Many …And Then There Were Three… · 1978
Misunderstanding Duke · 1980
Fading Lights We Can’t Dance · 1991
Duchess Duke · 1980
Chester Thompson Twitter
Chester Thompson Organ | Chester Thompson Organist | Chester Thompson Trio
Santana veteran Chester Thompson will pay tribute to organ master Dr. Lonnie Smith. Among his first major jobs was a short tour, mainly across Canada, with jazz singer Ben E. King.
In 1970, he played with organist Jack McDuff, followed by gigs with other local groups before returning to Baltimore in 1971 to study at the Community College of Baltimore County. Thompson studied there for two years, including the flute, and coached a basketball team at the Rec Center. He played as part of the house band in a club that supported visiting soul artists.
His parents quickly recognized his innate talent and arranged for formal piano lessons. And, it wasn’t long before Thompson started playing both piano and organ for the choir at his church. By the age of 13, Thompson had discovered jazz, which became a major, life-long influence, and by the age of 16, he had switched almost exclusively to the Hammond organ and was playing in high school rock bands.
It was while still in high school that Thompson realized he could make a living as a professional musician. He’d been performing in bands at gigs throughout the state of Oklahoma for a couple of years when he caught the ear of Rudy Johnson. As he was losing his keyboardist, Johnson asked Thompson to join the Rudy Johnson Trio and, at age 19, Thompson packed his bags and spent the next three years touring the country with that group.
One of Thompson’s first performances with the Rudy Johnson Trio was in San Francisco. He liked the city enough to make it his home, and he moved to the Bay Area permanently when the band decided to split up in 1969. At first, he took a day job at a bank while he broke into the San Francisco music scene by playing clubs at night.
He spent the next few years playing around the Bay Area and landed a regular gig as the keyboardist with Jules Broussard, which eventually evolved into Thompson leading his own band. It was during this time that Thompson also released his first album under the Black Jazz label, a solo project titled, “Power House”.
In 1973, Thompson was playing at a club and was heard by a member of the Tower of Power. Although Thompson had ‘retired’ from the road, he was convinced to join the band as a keyboardist.
And, for the next ten years, Thompson not only filled out the band’s distinctive R & B/funk sound with his dynamic keyboard style, but he also wrote many of the group’s songs. In fact, he was responsible for most of Tower of Power’s instrumental hits during a period that most critics and fans agree was the group’s peak.
From 1983 to 2009 starting with his debut on “Beyond Appearances”, Thompson injected the band’s music with a powerful, creative energy that has added a new dimension to their sound. In addition, he has continued to make contributions in other areas.
He not only co-wrote, with Carlos, the songs on the instrumental album, “Blues for Salvador,” he also provided an inspirational spark during the recording of it’s Grammy Award-winning title track. In addition, Thompson also collaborated with Carlos on nine songs that were included on “Spirits Dancing In the Flesh”.
With the Santana Band, from 1983 to 2009 Chester Thompson found both the ideal steady gig–one that is a source of inspiration as well as a vehicle for expression as a musical artist. As an added bonus, he’s had opportunities to play with some of the other great musicians and groups, including Wayne Shorter, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Temptations and many others.
Hard-working, dedicated, and extremely versatile, he not only played the organ but commanded a full rack of emulators, synthesizers and keyboard controllers for recordings and in performance. And, in sharing his distinctive talents for writing, playing and performing, he has left a lasting impact upon the “the Santana sound.”