Bob Thompson

Light-pop figure Bob Thompson is not the same as a later jazz musician of the same name. This one, the "poor man's Esquivel," was born in 1924 in San Jose, California. After high-school band, he used music to put himself through college at the University of California at Berkeley. This was followed by work at stations KMBC and KGO in San Francisco, California. A 1950 stint in Paris with singer Jacqueline François led to further sessions abroad, even in the Far East, and on both coasts of the U.S. He worked with Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, and others, but this work producing a...