Eli "Lucky" Thompson (June 16, 1924 – July 30, 2005)[1] was an American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist whose playing combined elements of swing and bebop.

[1][5] Thompson had to raise his siblings after his mother died, and he practiced saxophone fingerings on a broom handle before acquiring his first instrument.

[1][8] After playing with the swing orchestras of Lionel Hampton,[1] Don Redman, Billy Eckstine (alongside Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker),[1] Lucky Millinder, and Count Basie, he worked in rhythm and blues and then established a career in bebop and hard bop, working with Kenny Clarke, Miles Davis, Gillespie and Milt Jackson.

His sophisticated, harmonically abstract approach to the tenor saxophone built off that of Don Byas and Coleman Hawkins; he played with beboppers, but resisted Charlie Parker's pervasive influence.

[1] With Louis Armstrong With Harry Arnold With Art Blakey With Benny Carter With Kenny Clarke With Jimmy Cleveland With Johnny Dankworth With Miles Davis With Dizzy Gillespie With Milt Jackson With Quincy Jones With Stan Kenton With John Lewis With Thelonious Monk With Oscar Pettiford With Ralph Sharon With Martial Solal With Dinah Washington Sources:[13][14][15]