Sir Charles Thompson

Charles Phillip Thompson (March 21, 1918 – June 16, 2016) was an American swing and bebop pianist, organist, composer and arranger. Thompson was born in Springfield, Ohio. His father was a minister and his stepmother played the piano. "He first studied violin and briefly played tenor saxophone, but took up piano as a teenager." He moved with his family to Parsons, Kansas, and he attended a Kansas City high school. By the age of twelve, Thompson was playing private parties with Bennie Moten and his band in Colorado Springs.