Leading U.K. Jazz Saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith Dies
by TFSnewsRoom/Reuters
Leading U.K. Jazz Saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith Dies
By Jeremy Lovell
LONDON (Reuters) - Legendary British saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith, who played with a list of musicians that reads like a who's who of the international jazz and rock music scene, has died of cancer.
"He died yesterday in hospital after a long battle with cancer," musician and long-time friend Roger Bunn told Reuters on Saturday. "He was a giant of the music industry."
Heckstall-Smith, born Richard Malden in Sept. 1934, played with the likes of John Mayall, Alexis Korner, Jack Bruce (news), Mick Jagger (news) and Ginger Baker (news) as well as fronting bands including Colosseum -- an influential jazz/rock ensemble in the late 60s.
Bruce, bassist of the legendary Cream -- one of the world's first so-called super groups -- described Heckstall-Smith as his "musical father."
When Colosseum folded in 1971 Heckstall-Smith went solo and formed his own band Manchild which toured the United States supporting Fleetwood Mac and Deep Purple.
A severe spinal problem forced him to stop playing and touring for several years, but in 1981 he returned to the stage with a new band Mainsqueeze which toured supporting Bo Diddley.
Heckstall-Smith then directed his talents to Celtic folk music, African-influenced jazz and blues until illness struck again in 1992 in the shape of two severe strokes while on the operating table for a heart bypass operation.
In intensive care for six days and unable to even talk when he came round, he rehabilitated himself with children's poetry.
A year later he was back in the studio with Bruce and in 1994 the original line-up of Colosseum reformed for a full-scale European tour the following year, releasing its first studio album for 27 years in 1997.
In his later years Heckstall-Smith divided his time between Colosseum and the hard-working Hamburg Blues Band.
His party piece was playing two horns at the same time.
In 2000 he returned to the studio again with a string of friends including Mayall, Bruce, one-time Rolling Stone Mick Taylor (news) and Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green (news) to record Blues and Beyond -- a record he said he had always wanted to make.