Jon Thorne

Jon Thorne (born 12 February 1967) is an English double bassist, producer and composer.

Jon Thorne at the Rudolstadt-Festival 2017

Career

Thorne is self-taught and started playing at the age of 23. He has studied and played jazz for a number of years following and considers Danny Thompson his bass mentor.

Renowned as a passionate, energetic and highly skilled performer, Thorne's career as a double bassist has spanned a broad range of the musical spectrum.

As bassist in the band Lamb since 1996, he has extensively used live double bass playing in electronic music and recorded 6 albums, toured 45 countries in 5 continents and played many of the world's leading music festivals including Coachella, Roskilde, Werchter, Glastonbury, Montreux Jazz, North Sea Jazz and NYC Central Park Summerstage. During the career of the successful group, Thorne acted as an unofficial third member with his most potent contribution on the group's second album Fear of Fours.

He has performed on MTV USA, MTV Europe and BBC television/radio, and has had music used in various British and European film, television and advertising media.

He leads an octet called Oedipus Mingus, which plays arrangements of the music of Charles Mingus.

He has also performed with and recorded on albums with artists as diverse as Scott Matthews, Liam Bailey, Robert Miles, Trilok Gurtu, Robert Fripp, Donovan, Guy Barker, Badly Drawn Boy, Kate Havnevik, Lou Rhodes, James Yorkston, King Creosote, John Smith, The Accidental, CocoRosie, Amos Lee, Jesca Hoop, The Memory Band, Mr Scruff and Steve and Martha Tilston.

He co-wrote six songs on the self-titled debut album by Love Amongst Ruin with drummer/vocalist Steve Hewitt, released in September 2010.

His debut album Manchester Road was released through SAM LTD/ EGEA records in 2006 featured 12 original compositions of jazz with pianist Steve Brown and drummer Luke Flowers.[1]

His first orchestral suite Watching the Well, a Manchester Jazz Festival commission, written for and featuring legendary British bassist Danny Thompson, debuted at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester in 2007, and was released on the Naim label in November 2010 to strong critical acclaim.

In 2016, Thorne formed the trio Yorkston/Thorne/Khan alongside Scottish folk musician James Yorkston and New Delhi sarangi player Suhail Yusuf Khan. They released their debut album Everything Sacred that year, followed by a second album Neuk Wight Delhi All-Stars in 2017. Their third album, Navarasa: Nine Emotions, was released in January 2020.

Thorne is also a house music producer and DJ, performing as DJ Random. He occasionally teaches privately; his most notable students so far have been John Parker from Nizlopi and Nick Blacka from GoGo Penguin.

Personal life

Thorne was born in Rye Street Cottage Hospital in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire. He lived in Rhodesia from the age of 6 to 11. Between ages 11 and 15 he lived in Salcombe in South Devon before heading north to Manchester, via Plumley, Knutsford, Northwich and Oldham.

Thorne now lives on the Isle of Wight. He is married and has three children and a kitten.

Selected discography

Solo

  • Watching the Well - album 2010
  • Manchester Road (as Jon Thorne's Oedipus Complex) - album 2006

With Yorkston/Thorne/Khan

  • Neuk Wight Delhi All-Stars - album 2017
  • Everything Sacred - album 2016
  • Navarasa: Nine Emotions - album 2020

With Lamb

  • Backspace_Unwind - album 2014
  • 5 - album 2011
  • Live at Koko - album 2011
  • Remixed - album 2005
  • Best Kept Secrets - album and DVD 2004
  • Between Darkness and Wonder - album 2003
  • Fear of Fours - album 1998
  • Lamb - album 1996

Other collaborations

  • Hypoxia, Kathryn Williams - album 2015
  • Salvor, Falselights - album 2015
  • Charms Against Sorrow, Hannah Sanders - album 2015
  • The Sea, Martha Tilston - album 2014
  • Definitely Now, Liam Bailey - album 2014
  • The Cellardyke Recording And Wassailing Society, James Yorkston - album 2014
  • Crown Electric, Kathryn Williams - album 2013
  • Phonograph, Jesca Hoop - single 2013
  • Great Lakes, John Smith - album 2013
  • World Without Form, Nat Birchall - album 2013
  • Machines of Love and Grace, Martha Tilston - album 2012
  • I Was a Cat from a Book, James Yorkston - album 2012
  • As the Sun Comes Up, Jay Leighton - album 2011
  • Thirteen, Robert Miles - album 2011
  • Snowglobe, Jesca Hoop - album 2011
  • Oh My Days, The Memory Band - album 2011
  • Lucy and the Wolves, Martha Tilston - album 2010
  • One Good Thing, Lou Rhodes - album 2010
  • Map or Direction, John Smith - album 2009
  • Folk Songs, James Yorkston - The Analogue Catalogue Sessions, CD/DVD 2009
  • Ninja Tuna, Mr Scruff - 2008
  • Hairy Bumpercress, Mr Scruff - 12" 2008
  • Bloom, Lou Rhodes - album 2007
  • Migrating Bird, The Songs of Lal Waterson - Various (with James Yorkston) - album 2007
  • Cortina Deluxx - Debut EP 10" vinyl 2006
  • Of Milkmaids and Architects, Martha Tilston - album 2006
  • Beloved One, Lou Rhodes - album (as composer) 2006
  • Miles/Gurtu, Robert Miles/Trilok Gurtu - album 2004
  • Back to Mine LP, MJ Cole - album (with The John Ellis Big Bang) 2002

References

  1. Walters, John L (21 July 2006). "Jon Thorne's Oedipus Complex, Manchester Road". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
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