Biography of Tim Richard's Great Spirit

Tim Richards

Founder and leader of the long-lived British modern jazz group SPIRIT LEVEL (1979-1999), London-based pianist Tim Richards' style has been described as:
"Luminously funky... laced with the blues" The ROUGH GUIDE to JAZZ
"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, writing a contemporary classical piece for violin, cello and piano ("Timetrap", 1998), and developing ideas in the larger instrumental setting of his new 9-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, and many others.

He also enjoys playing blues and has toured and recorded with many well-known blues artists including the award-winning Otis Grand, Dana Gillespie and Earl Green, as well as US guitarists Joe Louis Walker and Larry Garner. Tim is the author of the acclaimed piano tutor IMPROVISING BLUES PIANO, published in 1997 by Schott & Co.

"Tim Richards plays bluesy jazz piano with a fiercely contemporary edge and his compositions are lushly melodic." EVENING STANDARD Hot Tickets