"BLUES FOR TAN TAN"
WAVING GOODBYE TO A LONDON-BASED JAMAICAN GIANT + STEVE CROPPER & RAUL MALO
When I did my Dead Dudes (Mostly) Yak post a fortnight or so ago I hoped the Reaper had had his fill of talented musicians in 2025. Sadly, three more notables have since passed. Here I pay tribute to these individuals.
EDDIE “TAN TAN” THORNTON
On Wednesday night I was braving the chill outside Brixton’s Effra Tavern with Errol Linton and band during their intermission - yes, smokers - when bassist Lance Rose received a message on his phone. “Tan Tan’s passed,” said Lance and immediately a jovial mood turned melancholy.
At the start of their second set Linton approached the mic’, said “blues for Tan Tan”, and the quintet locked in as one, playing an instrumental as moving as any I’ve heard this year.
Tan Tan was many things to these musicians - friend, mentor, band mate, an uncle (for Rose), inspiration and a remarkable musician - and while his passing was not a shock (he was 94 and a stroke had silenced him five years ago) the sense of loss was palpable.
Eddie Thornton aka *Tan Tan* was a Jamaican-born trumpeter who had lived in London for more than seventy years (arriving as a Windrush youth in 1952). He was an alumni from the Alpha Boys School in Kingston, Jamaica - a school for boys with no families (or single parents) run by Catholic nuns that emphasised self-help via musical (and other craft) training. Alpha produced many noted musicians (including four founding members of The Skatelites).
Tan Tan will be remembered for many things, not least leading the horns on this classic slice of British soul.
Thornton arrived in London and began working with West Indian and British jazz musicians.
