| December 18th, 2004 08:57 PM |
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| CS |
Saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith dies
Sat Dec 18, 2004 07:28 PM GMT
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By Jeremy Lovell
LONDON (Reuters) - Legendary saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith, who played with a list of musicians that reads like a who's who of the international jazz and rock music scene, has died of cancer.
"He died yesterday in hospital after a long battle with cancer," musician and long-time friend Roger Bunn told Reuters on Saturday. "He was a giant of the music industry."
Heckstall-Smith, born Richard Malden in September 1934, played with the likes of John Mayall, Alexis Korner, Jack Bruce, Mick Jagger and Ginger Baker as well as fronting bands including Colosseum -- an influential jazz/rock ensemble in the late 60s.
Bruce, bassist of the legendary Cream -- one of the world's first so-called super groups -- described Heckstall-Smith as his "musical father".
When Colosseum folded in 1971 Heckstall-Smith went solo and formed his own band Manchild which toured the United States supporting Fleetwood Mac and Deep Purple.
A severe spinal problem forced him to stop playing and touring for several years, but in 1981 he returned to the stage with a new band Mainsqueeze which toured supporting Bo Diddley.
Heckstall-Smith then directed his talents to Celtic folk music, African-influenced jazz and blues until illness struck again in 1992 in the shape of two severe strokes while on the operating table for a heart bypass operation.
In intensive care for six days and unable to even talk when he came round, he rehabilitated himself with children's poetry.
A year later he was back in the studio with Bruce and in 1994 the original line-up of Colosseum reformed for a full-scale European tour the following year, releasing its first studio album for 27 years in 1997.
In his later years Heckstall-Smith divided his time between Colosseum and the hard-working Hamburg Blues Band.
His party piece was playing two horns at the same time.
In 2000 he returned to the studio again with a string of friends including Mayall, Bruce, one time Rolling Stone Mick Taylor and Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green to record Blues and Beyond -- a record he said he had always wanted to make.
� Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved. |
| December 22nd, 2004 12:23 PM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Jagger leads tributes to jazz veteran
One of Britain's leading jazz saxophonists, Shropshire-born Dick Heckstall-Smith, has died aged 70. Mr Heckstall-Smith, who was born in Ludlow in 1934, played with some of the music industry's biggest names including Mick Jagger and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. He died on December 17.
Rolling Stones legend Jagger led the tributes to Mr Heckstall-Smith.
The rock superstar said: "Dick was the first saxophonist I ever played with and I remember him well because in the middle of a blues number he'd come up with a fantastic jazz solo which was really out of left field at the time.
"I was only about 18 years old then, so the memory of playing with him has always stayed with me.
Heckstall-Smith was a founder member of Blues Incorporated, the band widely recognised as being at the forefront of the worldwide vogue for blues-influenced popular music in the 1960s.
Born in Ludlow and raised in nearby Knighton, in Radnorshire, he left the county when he was just 15 for boarding school at York and later in Scotland.
The full version of this story appears
in tonight's Shropshire Star
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| December 22nd, 2004 11:58 PM |
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
Cool for Mick Jagger; Mick Taylor must attend. I changed the name of the thread because of this news |
| December 22nd, 2004 11:59 PM |
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| VoodooChileInWOnderl |
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