Jazz musician Keith Tippett dies

British jazz pianist and composer Keith Tippett will be best remembered for his work with King Crimson.

The 72-year-old’s career spanned more than half a century and featured jazz-rock, progressive rock, improvised and contemporary music.

Born in Southmead, Bristol, the son of an English policeman father and an Irish mother, he was the oldest of three siblings and formed his first jazz band, the KT Trad Lads, as a 14-yearold at Greenway Secondary Modern school.

Music was a lifelong passion and he studied piano and church organ, was a chorister and played with the school and Bristol youth brass bands.

He moved to London in 1967 to pursue a musical career, taking menial jobs and becoming known in the city’s thriving jazz club scene.

At a summer school for jazz musicians in Barry, he was introduced to fellow musicians Marc Charig, Elton Dean and Nick Evans, with whom he formed the Keith Tippett Sextet, along with various bass players and drummers.

The band won a residency at the 100 Club, which in turn led to a contract with Vertigo

Records and two albums, You Are There...I Am Here (1970) and Dedicated To You, But You Weren’t Listening (1971).

They also worked with the rock band King Crimson. Tippett featured on electric piano on the band’s third album, Lizard, and on the single Cat Food.

He appeared with King Crimson on Top of the Pops but declined an invitation to join the band full time in order to continue to lead his own group.

After leaving Vertigo, Tippett formed Centipede, a 50-piece band that included his wife Julie Driscoll, and brought together some of the prime movers in that generation of young British jazz and rock musicians.

They played live and recorded one double-album, Septober Energy, a Tippett composition, which was released on the RCA label in 1971.

In the late 1980s, he formed Mujician, playing purely improvised jazz.

He also formed a trio with his wife and Willi Kellers and wrote film and television scores as well as music for string quartets and piano.

He taught at summer schools and continued to record and tour with various ensembles.

He died on Sunday.

Keith Tippett composed and performed