Malachi Richard Thompson (August 21, 1949, in Princeton, Kentucky — July 16, 2006), was an American avant-garde jazz trumpet player.
He credited his interest in the trumpet to hearing Count Basie's band at the Regal Theatre when he was 11 years old.
[1] He performed and toured with the Operation Breadbasket Big Band, which was affiliated with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
He worked with saxophonists Joe Henderson, Jackie McLean, Frank Foster, and Archie Shepp, among other musicians, while living in New York City.
[2] Informed in 1989 that he suffered from T-cell lymphoma and had one year to live, Thompson claimed he was healed by radiation and reading about jazz.