Dick Heckstall-Smith

Dick Heckstall-Smith
Background information
Birth name	Richard Malden Heckstall-Smith
Born	(1934-09-26)26 September 1934 Ludlow, Shropshire, England
Died	17 December 2004(2004-12-17) (aged 70) Hampstead, London, England
Genres	Blues rock, post bop, Jazz fusion
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Saxophone, piano, clarinet
Years active	1962–2001
Associated acts	Blues Incorporated, The Graham Bond Organization, John Mayall, Colosseum

Richard Malden "Dick" Heckstall-Smith (26 September 1934 – 17 December 2004) was an English jazz and blues saxophonist. He played with some of the most influential English blues rock and jazz fusion bands of the 1960s and 1970s.

Heckstall-Smith was born in the Royal Free Hospital, in Ludlow, England, and attended a York boarding school. However, he refused a second term there, instead enrolling in Gordonstoun, where his father had accepted a job as headmaster of the local Grammar School. Dick Heckstall-Smith was raised in Knighton, Radnorshire. He learned to play piano, clarinet and alto saxophone in childhood.

Heckstall-Smith completed his education at Dartington Hall 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 Dartington, captivated by the sound of Sidney Bechet. Then Lester Young and tenor saxophonist bebop jazzman Wardell Gray proved to be major influences for him.

Heckstall-Smith was an active member of the London jazz scene from the late 1950s (including a six-month stint from December 1957 with the band led by clarinettist Sandy Brown). 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 Organisation. (The lineup also included two future members of the blues-rock supergroup Cream: bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker.)

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