Dick Heckstall-Smith
Encyclopedia
Dick Heckstall-Smith was an English
jazz
and blues
saxophonist. He played with some of the most important English blues-rock
and jazz fusion
bands of the 1960s and 1970s.
, England
(his father then being headmaster of the local Grammar School), and brought up in Knighton, Powys. He learned to play piano
, clarinet
and alto saxophone
in childhood.
After refusing a second term at a York
boarding school
, he went to Gordonstoun
, where his schoolmaster father, Hugh, had taken a job. Hugh soon fell out with the autocratic Kurt Hahn
and the family retreated to Dartington
.
Heckstall-Smith completed his education at the Foxhole school before reading agriculture
– and co-leading the university jazz band – at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
, from 1953. Aged 15, he had taken up the soprano sax while at Foxhole, captivated by the sound of Sidney Bechet
. Then the smokiness of Lester Young
's sound caught him, and the music of tenor saxist Wardell Gray
, a major early bebop
musician.
, Alexis Korner
's groundbreaking blues group, in 1962, recording the album R&B from the Marquee
. The following year, he was a founding member of that band's breakaway unit, the Graham Bond Organization; the lineup also included two future members of the blues-rock supergroup
Cream
: bassist Jack Bruce
and drummer Ginger Baker
.
In 1967, Heckstall-Smith became a member of keyboardist-vocalist John Mayall
's prominent group the Bluesbreakers. That jazz-skewed edition of the band, which also included drummer Jon Hiseman
and future Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor
, released the album Bare Wires
in 1968.
From 1968 to 1970, Heckstall-Smith and Hiseman were the key creative members of the pioneering UK
jazz-rock band Colosseum
. The act was a showcase for the saxophonist's writing and his instrumental virtuosity; like American saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk
, he could blow two saxophones simultaneously.
After exiting Colosseum, Heckstall-Smith fronted several other fusion units, including Manchild, Sweet Pain, Big Chief, Tough Tenors, The Famous Bluesblasters, Mainsqueeze and DHSS. Collaborating musicians common to many of these outfits included Victor Brox, Keith Tillman and particularly harp player John O'Leary, a founder member of Savoy Brown
. He participated in a 1990s reunion of the original Colosseum lineup and played the hard-working Hamburg Blues Band. In 2001 he cut the all-star project "Blues and Beyond", which reunited him with Mayall, Bruce, Taylor, ex-Mayall and Fleetwood Mac
guitarist Peter Green
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
saxophonist. He played with some of the most important English blues-rock
Blues-rock
Blues rock is a hybrid musical genre combining bluesy improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended boogie jams with rock and roll styles. The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar, piano, bass guitar and drum kit, with the electric guitar usually amplified through a...
and jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
bands of the 1960s and 1970s.
Early years
Heckstall-Smith was born Richard Malden Heckstall-Smith in LudlowLudlow
Ludlow is a market town in Shropshire, England close to the Welsh border and in the Welsh Marches. It lies within a bend of the River Teme, on its eastern bank, forming an area of and centred on a small hill. Atop this hill is the site of Ludlow Castle and the market place...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
(his father then being headmaster of the local Grammar School), and brought up in Knighton, Powys. He learned to play piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
and alto saxophone
Alto saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
in childhood.
After refusing a second term at a York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
, he went to Gordonstoun
Gordonstoun
Gordonstoun School is a co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils in Moray in North East Scotland. Named after the estate originally owned by Sir Robert Gordon in the 1600s, the school now uses this estate as its campus...
, where his schoolmaster father, Hugh, had taken a job. Hugh soon fell out with the autocratic Kurt Hahn
Kurt Hahn
Kurt Martin Hahn was a German educator whose philosophies are considered internationally influential.-Biography:...
and the family retreated to Dartington
Dartington
Dartington is a village in Devon, England. Its population is 1,917. It is located west of the River Dart, south of Dartington Hall and about two miles from Totnes...
.
Heckstall-Smith completed his education at the Foxhole school before reading agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
– and co-leading the university jazz band – at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
Sidney Sussex College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England.The college was founded in 1596 and named after its foundress, Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex. It was from its inception an avowedly Puritan foundation: some good and godlie moniment for the mainteynance...
, from 1953. Aged 15, he had taken up the soprano sax while at Foxhole, captivated by the sound of Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet
Sidney Bechet was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer.He was one of the first important soloists in jazz , and was perhaps the first notable jazz saxophonist...
. Then the smokiness of Lester Young
Lester Young
Lester Willis Young , nicknamed "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. He also played trumpet, violin, and drums....
's sound caught him, and the music of tenor saxist Wardell Gray
Wardell Gray
Wardell Gray was an American jazz tenor saxophonist who straddled the swing and bebop periods.Today often overlooked, Gray's playing displays a unique style, an unmatched tone and a strong presence.-Early years:...
, a major early bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
musician.
Musical career
Heckstall-Smith was an active member of the London jazz scene from the late 1950s. He joined Blues IncorporatedBlues Incorporated
Blues Incorporated were a British R&B band in the early 1960s, led by Alexis Korner and featuring at various times Jack Bruce, Charlie Watts, Terry Cox, Ginger Baker, Long John Baldry, Ronnie Jones, Danny Thompson, Graham Bond, Cyril Davies, Malcolm Cecil and Dick Heckstall-Smith.-History:Korner ...
, Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner was a blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a Founding Father of British Blues"...
's groundbreaking blues group, in 1962, recording the album R&B from the Marquee
R&B from the Marquee
R&B from the Marquee was an album by Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated released in November 1962 on Decca Records. Blues Incorporated was a British R&B band in the early 1960s, which was led by Alexis Korner and featured various musicians...
. The following year, he was a founding member of that band's breakaway unit, the Graham Bond Organization; the lineup also included two future members of the blues-rock supergroup
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....
Cream
Cream (band)
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...
: bassist Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce
John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
and drummer Ginger Baker
Ginger Baker
Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker is an English drummer, best known for his work with Cream and Blind Faith. He is also known for his numerous associations with World music, mainly the use of African influences...
.
In 1967, Heckstall-Smith became a member of keyboardist-vocalist John Mayall
John Mayall
John Mayall, OBE is an English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical career spans over fifty years...
's prominent group the Bluesbreakers. That jazz-skewed edition of the band, which also included drummer Jon Hiseman
Jon Hiseman
Jon Hiseman is an English drummer, recording engineer, record producer and music publisher.-Career:...
and future Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor
Mick Taylor
Michael Kevin "Mick" Taylor is an English musician, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and The Rolling Stones...
, released the album Bare Wires
Bare Wires
- Reissue Bonus Tracks :- Personnel :John Mayall's Bluesbreakers* John Mayall – vocals, harmonica, piano, harpsichord, organ, harmonium, guitar* Mick Taylor – lead guitar, Hawaiian guitar* Chris Mercer – tenor, baritone saxophone...
in 1968.
From 1968 to 1970, Heckstall-Smith and Hiseman were the key creative members of the pioneering UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
jazz-rock band Colosseum
Colosseum (band)
Colosseum is a pioneering British progressive jazz-rock band, mixing progressive rock and jazz-based improvisation.-History 1968 - 1971:The band was formed in September 1968 by drummer Jon Hiseman, tenor sax player Dick Heckstall-Smith and bass player Tony Reeves, who had previously worked together...
. The act was a showcase for the saxophonist's writing and his instrumental virtuosity; like American saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments...
, he could blow two saxophones simultaneously.
After exiting Colosseum, Heckstall-Smith fronted several other fusion units, including Manchild, Sweet Pain, Big Chief, Tough Tenors, The Famous Bluesblasters, Mainsqueeze and DHSS. Collaborating musicians common to many of these outfits included Victor Brox, Keith Tillman and particularly harp player John O'Leary, a founder member of Savoy Brown
Savoy Brown
Savoy Brown, originally known as the Savoy Brown Blues Band, are a British blues rock band, formed in 1965, in Battersea, South West London...
. He participated in a 1990s reunion of the original Colosseum lineup and played the hard-working Hamburg Blues Band. In 2001 he cut the all-star project "Blues and Beyond", which reunited him with Mayall, Bruce, Taylor, ex-Mayall and Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
guitarist Peter Green
Peter Green (musician)
Peter Green is a British blues-rock guitarist and the founder of the band Fleetwood Mac...
.
Discography
- Blues and Beyond (2001)
- Obsession Fees (1998)
- On the Corner/Mingus in Newcastle (1998)
- This That (1995)
- Celtic Steppes (1995)
- Where One Is (1991)
- Live 1990 (1991)
- Woza Nasu (1991)
- A Story Ended (1972)
External links
- Heckstall-Smith The only Web-interview
- Dick Hecksall-Smith Jack Bruce web diary entry and tribute
- The Graham Bond Web site
- Survivor: Biography Of Archetypal Saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith', by Stephanie Lynne Thorburn. Ebook published in April 2009, focusing on the latter part of Dick's career, in particular DH-S and Mainsqueeze featuring Bo Diddley, the reunion of Colosseum and WC Handy nominated album Blues and Beyond. Interview content from friends and colleagues; Jon Hiseman (Colosseum), Cream lyricist Pete Brown and Dick's son Arthur.