TIM
RICHARDS

jazz pianist
composer
band leader


Email


Address
111a Bovill Road
LONDON SE23 1EL
United Kingdom

Telephone
+44-(0)208 291 5221

 

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.

The TRIO on YouTube
playing Charlie Parker's 'Au Privave'

 



Biography
Click here

Playlist
Tim's ten favourite albums

NEW! Links page
Related websites

For details of live appearances by the trio or other bands, please see the Gigs page, or www.myspace.com/timrichards

Listen to TRIO and GREAT SPIRIT tracks at:
www.myspace.com/timrichards

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. He is the author of the acclaimed piano tutor Improvising Blues Piano, published in 1997 by Schott & Co.

The long-awaited sequel Exploring Jazz Piano, also published by Schott, is out now. 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 2006'.

Latest CD releases

Tim Richards' GREAT SPIRIT
Nine-piece band featuring Tony Kofi, Ed Jones, Dick Pearce, Jason Yarde, Seb Rochford, Roger Beaujolais, etc...
'Epistrophy'
33 Records 33Jazz120

5-star on-line review

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

"A highly distinctive solo voice, blues and 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
Download feature/interview by Alyn Shipton
(This is a PDF file - Adobe Acrobat Reader required)

Tim Richards TRIO
'Twelve by Three'
Piano, bass & drums
33 Records 33 Jazz072

Click here for details

Click here for press reviews


Courses, evening classes
workshops, private tuition
click here

 

Jazz Piano Tuition -
download free sample lessons:

Thickening the Melodic Line
PDF file -
Adobe Acrobat Reader required
First published in Music Teacher magazine, Dec 2007

Two-handed Voicings

Tim's acclaimed
piano books
click here