Dick Heckstall-Smith

Richard Malden ( "Dick" ) Heckstall -Smith ( born September 26, 1934 in Ludlow, Shropshire, † 17 December 2004 ) was an influential British blues, rock and jazz saxophonist.

Career

Throughout his career, Heckstall -Smith collaborated with many blues, jazz and rock musicians. He transferred to the saxophone jazz techniques into rock music and has also been known to play a tenor and a soprano saxophone simultaneously.

Heckstall -Smith initiated as a student, a jazz orchestra, a professional musician in 1957 and went on, inter alia, with clarinetist Sandy Brown. Alexis Korner brought him 1962 Blues Incorporated. Further stations were the Graham Bond Organization ( with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, the later Cream - founders ) and John Mayall 's Bluesbreakers before he called in 1968 with drummer Jon Hiseman the legendary jazz rock group Colosseum in life. According to the preliminary end of this formation in 1971 was followed by solo albums (A Story Ended ) and a number of other engagements in rock, jazz, blues and folk - oriented ensembles. In 1978, he was with Alexis Korner to see at Rockpalast (The Party Album, 1978). In 1993 he joined the band of Jack Bruce on the occasion of his 50th birthday at E-Werk in Cologne. Dick Heckstall -Smith, a trained agronomist, but also devoted himself to an academic career.

Since 1994, the Colosseum was Hiseman of him and reactivated several times (1994: Reunion Concert at the " Rockpalast "). In the last years before his death, Dick Heckstall -Smith was seen with the Hamburg Blues Band in Germany.

He died on 17 December 2004 from cancer.

Discography

Alexis Korner 's Blues Incorporated

Graham Bond Organization

John Mayall 's Blues Breakers

Colosseum

Mainsqueeze

Hamburg Blues Band

Solo

• The Safest Place In The World. A Personal History Of British Rhythm and Blues ( 1989); re-released as: Blowing The Blues. Fifty Years Playing The British Blues (2004)