Dick Heckstall-Smith

Dick Heckstall-Smith
Background information
Birth name	Richard Malden Heckstall-Smith
Born	16 September 1934(1934-09-16) Ludlow, Shropshire, England
Died	17 December 2004(2004-12-17) (aged 70) Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead, London
Genres	Blues-rock, Jazz fusion
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Saxophone, piano, clarinet
Years active	1962–2001
Associated acts	Blues Incorporated, The Graham Bond Organization, John Mayall, Colosseum,

Dick Heckstall-Smith (16 September 1934 – 17 December 2004) 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.

Early years

Heckstall-Smith was born Richard Malden Heckstall-Smith in Ludlow, 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.

Musical career

Heckstall-Smith was an active member of the London jazz scene from the late 1950s. He joined Blues Incorporated, 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.

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)

References

External links

• Heckstall-Smith The only Web-interview
• Dick Hecksall-Smith Jack Bruce web diary entry and tribute
• The Graham Bond Web site
• Soul 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.

Persondata
Name	Heckstall-Smith, Dick
Alternative names
Short description	English jazz and blues saxophonist
Date of birth	16 September 1934
Place of birth	Ludlow, England
Date of death	17 December 2004
Place of death	London, England