TIM
RICHARDS
jazz pianist
composer
band leader
Contact
Email
Address
111a Bovill Road
LONDON SE23 1EL
United Kingdom
Telephone
+44-(0)208 291
5221
Information
Biography
Click
here
Playlist
Tim's
ten favourite albums
Links
page
Related websites
Founder and leader of the long-lived British modern jazz group Spirit Level (19791999), London-based pianist Tim Richards' style has been described as:
"Luminously funky... Iaced with the blues."
The ROUGH GUIDE to JAZZ
and as:
"A unique mixture formed from his admiration of both the expansive, robust playing of McCoy Tyner and the luminous delicacy of Abdullah Ibrahim."
The TIMES
Tim Richards' first encounter with a piano was at the age of 8 in a dentist's waiting room. After classical piano lessons he began to teach himself jazz and blues from the age of 14, when he saw Thelonious Monk and Otis Spann on TV.
In recent years, Tim has won acclaim as a composer and arranger, developing ideas in the larger instrumental setting of his nine-piece band Great Spirit, which has featured key players on the British scene such as Pete King, Ed Jones, Gilad Atzmon, Denys Baptiste, Tony Kofi, Jason Yarde, Roger Beaujolais, Seb Rochford and many others. The band released their second CD Epistrophy (33Jazz120) in 2005 (5-star on-line review), and toured the UK for the fourth time in November 2006 with Finnish saxophonist Jari Perkiomaki, with the help of a New Music award from the PRS Foundation.
Tim has a Masters Degree in composition from London's Trinity College of Music, and has written pieces for a wide variety of non-jazz ensembles, from string quartet to symphony orchestra, also collaborating with dancers and filmmakers. To hear a selection, please visit the MySpace composition page. See also Commissions.
In a more straight-ahead vein, the Tim Richards Trio have entertained audiences from Istanbul to Inverness. The trio's second CD Twelve by Three is out now on 33Jazz.
playing Charlie Parker's 'Au Privave'
For details of live appearances by the trio or other bands, please see the Gigs page, or go to:
where you can also listen to TRIO
and GREAT SPIRIT tracks.
Tim also enjoys playing blues and has toured and recorded with many well-known blues artists including the award-winning Otis Grand, Dana Gillespie, Earl Green, and US guitarists Joe Louis Walker and Larry Garner.
Latest CD releases
Tim Richards' GREAT
SPIRIT - 'Epistrophy'
Nine-piece band featuring Tony
Kofi, Ed Jones, Dick Pearce, Jason Yarde, Seb Rochford, Roger
Beaujolais, etc...
33 Records - 33Jazz120
Click here for details and press reviews
Tim Richards TRIO - 'Twelve by Three'
Piano, bass &
drums
33 Records - 33 Jazz072
Click here for details and press reviews
"Tim Richards plays
bluesy jazz piano
with a fiercely contemporary edge and
his compositions
are lushly melodic."
EVENING STANDARD
- Hot Tickets
gospel tinged, but with a percussive drive
betraying his roots in hard bop."
The INDEPENDENT
"Tim
Richards' piano playing
has the distinction of being both
adventurous and immediately attractive."
Dave Gelly - The
OBSERVER
Piano Magazine May 2006
Feature/interview
by Alyn Shipton
Download
PDF file
(Adobe Acrobat Reader required -
click on icon below)
Education
Tim's Piano books:
Tim is the author
of the acclaimed piano tutor Improvising
Blues Piano, published in 1997 by Schott Music.
The sequel Exploring
Jazz Piano was published by Schott in 2005. Vol 1 deals
with jazz basics up to and including ninth chords; Vol 2 deals
with more complex harmony and takes things up to professional
level.
Exploring Jazz Piano won the Music Industry Association (MIA) award for 'Best Pop Publication' in 2006.
In preparation:
Exploring Latin Piano, a collaboration with pianist John Crawford, to be published by Schott in 2010.
Courses, evening classes workshops, private tuition:
click here for details
Jazz Piano Tuition - download free sample lessons:
Thickening the Melodic Line
Download PDF file
Adobe Acrobat Reader required (click on icon above)
First published in Music Teacher magazine, Dec 2007
Two-handed
Voicings
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