Richard Bell (Canadian musician)
Encyclopedia
Richard Bell was a Canadian
musician
best known as the pianist
for Janis Joplin
and her Full Tilt Boogie Band
. He was also a keyboardist with The Band
during the 1990s.
.
Bell's career first gained significance when he joined Ronnie Hawkins
as a member of the group "And Many Others", following the departure of Hawkins' previous band (who would gain fame as The Band
). Hawkins fired the entire band in early 1970, and they renamed themselves Crowbar
, subsequently recording Official Music (as King Biscuit Boy
with Crowbar) (1970, Daffodil; 1996, Stony Plain). Bell left Crowbar shortly after this to join Janis Joplin's Full Tilt Boogie Band, making good on an offer made the previous year by her manager.
, he was approached by Joplin's manager Albert Grossman
and invited to join her new ensemble. His playing can be heard on her posthumously-released album Pearl
and many bootleg recordings from her 1970 tour, including performances from the Festival Express
"train tour" of Canada. Bell was interviewed many years later for the 2003 documentary film of the same name.
, where he did work as a session musician. Among those he worked with during this time were Paul Butterfield
and John Sebastian
.
Other acts Bell has worked with include Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
, Bruce Cockburn
, Judy Collins
, Cowboy Junkies
, Bob Dylan
, Michael Kaeshammer
, Bonnie Raitt
and Joe Walsh
.
In 1991, Bell joined the reconstituted line-up of The Band as a keyboardist, replacing Stan Szelest (himself a replacement for original pianist Richard Manuel
, who committed suicide in 1986). Bell remained with The Band through their final three albums (Jericho
, High on the Hog, and Jubilation)., for which Bell also received some songwriting credits. The death of Rick Danko
in 1999 essentially ended The Band.
, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
and Kathleen Edwards
.
At the time of his death, the Toronto-based musician performed regularly as a keyboardist/songwriter/occasional vocalist with the Porkbelly Futures
and Danny Brooks & the Rockin' Revelators. (He produced two of Brooks' albums.) Bell was also a member of the country-rock group, Burrito Deluxe, performing and contributing songs to their CD Disciples Of The Truth.
Bell died after a long battle with multiple myeloma
on June 15, 2007 in Toronto
's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, at the age of 61.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
best known as the pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
for Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
and her Full Tilt Boogie Band
Full Tilt Boogie Band
Full Tilt Boogie Band was a rock band originally headed by guitarist John Till and then by Janis Joplin until her death in 1970. The band was composed of Till, pianist Richard Bell, bassist Brad Campbell, drummer Clark Pierson, and organist Ken Pearson....
. He was also a keyboardist with The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
during the 1990s.
Early life and career
Richard Bell was the son of the Canadian composer and musician, Dr. Leslie Bell. He started playing the piano at the age of four and studied music at Canada's Royal Conservatory of MusicRoyal Conservatory of Music
The Royal Conservatory of Music is a music school and performance venue in Toronto, Canada. Other uses of the term include:*The Madrid Royal Conservatory, Spain*The Royal Academy of Music, London, United Kingdom...
.
Bell's career first gained significance when he joined Ronnie Hawkins
Ronnie Hawkins
Ronald "Ronnie" Hawkins is a Juno Award-winning rockabilly musician whose career has spanned more than half a century. Though his career began in Arkansas, USA, where he'd been born and raised, it was in Ontario, Canada where he found success and settled for most of his life...
as a member of the group "And Many Others", following the departure of Hawkins' previous band (who would gain fame as The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
). Hawkins fired the entire band in early 1970, and they renamed themselves Crowbar
Crowbar (Canadian band)
Crowbar was a Canadian rock band based in Hamilton, Ontario, probably best known for their 1971 hit "Oh, What a Feeling".- History :From 1969 to 1970, most of the members of the group had been a backup band for Ronnie Hawkins under the name "And Many Others"...
, subsequently recording Official Music (as King Biscuit Boy
King Biscuit Boy
King Biscuit Boy was the stage name of Richard Alfred Newell a Canadian blues musician. He was the first Canadian blues artist to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S.....
with Crowbar) (1970, Daffodil; 1996, Stony Plain). Bell left Crowbar shortly after this to join Janis Joplin's Full Tilt Boogie Band, making good on an offer made the previous year by her manager.
Janis Joplin
In the late 1960s, while touring with Hawkins at the Fillmore EastFillmore East
The Fillmore East was rock promoter Bill Graham's rock venue on Second Avenue near East 6th Street in the East Village neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City. It was open from 1968 to 1971, and featured some of the biggest acts in rock music at the time...
, he was approached by Joplin's manager Albert Grossman
Albert Grossman
Albert Bernard Grossman was an American entrepreneur and manager in the American folk music scene and rock and roll. He was most famous as the manager of Bob Dylan between 1962 and 1970.-Biography:...
and invited to join her new ensemble. His playing can be heard on her posthumously-released album Pearl
Pearl (album)
-Personnel:* Janis Joplin – vocals, guitar on "Me and Bobby McGee"* Richard Bell – piano* Ken Pearson – organ* John Till – electric guitar* Brad Campbell – bass guitar* Clark Pierson – drums-Additional personnel:...
and many bootleg recordings from her 1970 tour, including performances from the Festival Express
Festival Express
Festival Express is a 2003 documentary film about the eponymous 1970 train tour across Canada taken by some of North America's most popular rock bands, including The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band and Delaney & Bonnie & Friends...
"train tour" of Canada. Bell was interviewed many years later for the 2003 documentary film of the same name.
Session work
Following Joplin's death, Bell moved to Woodstock, New YorkWoodstock, New York
Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 at the 2000 census.The Town of Woodstock is in the northern part of the county...
, where he did work as a session musician. Among those he worked with during this time were Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield
Paul Butterfield was an American blues vocalist and harmonica player, who founded the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in the early 1960s and performed at the original Woodstock Festival...
and John Sebastian
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and autoharpist. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000...
.
Other acts Bell has worked with include Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings are a Canadian folk rock/alternative country band with blues and country influences. The band was formed in 1996, in Hamilton, Ontario, by Tom Wilson, Stephen Fearing, and Colin Linden.-Early Period: 1990s:...
, Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Douglas Cockburn OC is a Canadian folk/rock guitarist and singer-songwriter. His most recent album was released in March 2011. He has written songs in styles ranging from folk to jazz-influenced rock to rock and roll.-Biography:...
, Judy Collins
Judy Collins
Judith Marjorie "Judy" Collins is an American singer and songwriter, known for her eclectic tastes in the material she records ; and for her social activism. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado.-Musical career:Collins was born and raised in Seattle, Washington...
, Cowboy Junkies
Cowboy Junkies
Cowboy Junkies are a Canadian alternative country/blues/folk rock band. The group was formed in Toronto in 1985 by Margo Timmins , Michael Timmins , Peter Timmins and Alan Anton ....
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Michael Kaeshammer
Michael Kaeshammer
Michael Kaeshammer is a Canadian boogie-woogie pianist, vocalist, composer, and arranger.After studying classical piano for seven years in his German homeland, a 13-year-old Kaeshammer discovered boogie-woogie and stride piano as played by Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis, Pete Johnson, Pinetop...
, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
and Joe Walsh
Joe Walsh
Joseph Fidler "Joe" Walsh is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has been a member of three commercially successful bands, the James Gang, Barnstorm, and the Eagles, and has experienced notable success as a solo artist and prolific session musician, especially with B.B...
.
The Band
Richard moved to Atlanta, Georgia in the 80's played with various bands and married Mary Deacon in 1979. They were married until 1986, then he moved to Alabama for a few years, where he played in a local working band, The Convertibles, with bandmates, among others, Scott Boyer and Tommy Tarlton (Cowboy), Topper Price, Brian Wheeler (Locust Fork) and Rick Kurtz (Delbert McClinton), before returning to Canada and The Band.In 1991, Bell joined the reconstituted line-up of The Band as a keyboardist, replacing Stan Szelest (himself a replacement for original pianist Richard Manuel
Richard Manuel
Richard George Manuel was a Canadian composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his contributions to and membership in The Band....
, who committed suicide in 1986). Bell remained with The Band through their final three albums (Jericho
Jericho (album)
-The Band:*Rick Danko: Bass guitar, guitars, fiddle, trombone, keyboards, vocals.*Levon Helm: Drums, percussion, mandolin, guitar, vocals.*Garth Hudson: Organ, keyboards, accordion, electric piano, saxophones, synthesizers, horns....
, High on the Hog, and Jubilation)., for which Bell also received some songwriting credits. The death of Rick Danko
Rick Danko
Richard Clare "Rick" Danko was a Canadian musician and singer, best known as a member of The Band.-Early years :...
in 1999 essentially ended The Band.
Later years
In the years before his death, Bell performed as keyboard player with Canadian roots-rock performers such as Colin LindenColin Linden
Colin Linden is a Canadian musician, songwriter and record producer. He has worked with a wide variety of artists including Bruce Cockburn, Lucinda Williams, T-Bone Burnett, Colin James, Leon Redbone, Rita Chiarelli, Chris Thomas King and The Band.Linden is primarily a electric blues guitarist,...
, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings are a Canadian folk rock/alternative country band with blues and country influences. The band was formed in 1996, in Hamilton, Ontario, by Tom Wilson, Stephen Fearing, and Colin Linden.-Early Period: 1990s:...
and Kathleen Edwards
Kathleen Edwards
Kathleen Edwards is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician. Her 2003 debut album, Failer, contained the singles "Six O'Clock News" and "Hockey Skates".- Personal life :...
.
At the time of his death, the Toronto-based musician performed regularly as a keyboardist/songwriter/occasional vocalist with the Porkbelly Futures
Porkbelly Futures
Porkbelly Futures is a Canadian musical group. Although originally formed as a Chicago blues band in homage to Paul Butterfield, they soon opened themselves to other influences and began creating original work in a roots/country/folk/r'n'b mode...
and Danny Brooks & the Rockin' Revelators. (He produced two of Brooks' albums.) Bell was also a member of the country-rock group, Burrito Deluxe, performing and contributing songs to their CD Disciples Of The Truth.
Bell died after a long battle with multiple myeloma
Multiple myeloma
Multiple myeloma , also known as plasma cell myeloma or Kahler's disease , is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell normally responsible for the production of antibodies...
on June 15, 2007 in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, at the age of 61.