Keith Tippett

Keith Tippett (born Keith Graham Tippetts; 25 August 1947 – 14 June 2020) was a British jazz pianist and composer. According to Allmusic, Tippett's career "..spanned jazz-rock, progressive rock, improvised and contemporary music, as well as modern jazz for more than half-a-century". He held " an unparalleled place in British contemporary music," and was known for "his unique approach to improvisation". Tippett appeared and recorded in many settings, including a duet with Stan Tracey, duets with his wife Julie Tippetts (née Driscoll), solo performances, and as a bandleader, and appeared on three King Crimson albums.
He moved to London in 1967....He attended a summer school for jazz musicians in Barry. This introduced him to fellow musicians Marc Charig, Elton Dean, and Nick Evans, with whom (along with various bass players and drummers) he formed the Keith Tippett Sextet. The band won a residency at the 100 Club, which in turn led to a contract with Vertigo Records. Two albums were released by the label, 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 played piano on three tracks on their second album, In the Wake of Poseidon, and played electric piano on the band's third album, Lizard, on which Charig and Evans also appeared. Bruce Eder wrote on Allmusic that "Tippett's resonant chords and elegant note patterns delighted audiences with the effect and the contrast" with the Mellotrons and other electronic sounds on the record. Tippett featured on the single "Cat Food", and appeared with King Crimson on Top of the Pops.
Tippett declined the offer to join King Crimson in order to continue to lead his own group, but he (and Charig) also played on the band's album Islands. After leaving Vertigo, Tippett formed Centipede, a 50-piece band that also included his wife Julie, formerly Julie Driscoll, as well as members of King Crimson and Soft Machine, and brought together much of a generation of young British jazz and rock musicians. As well as performing some concerts (limited economically by the size of the band), they recorded one double-album, Septober Energy, a Tippett composition, which was released on the RCA label in 1971. Despite substantial publicity, the album failed to sell in sufficient numbers to justify the expense of maintaining the project.
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== Links to Peel ==
 thumb|right|310 px Keith Tippett was one of the jazz artists who recorded sessions for Top Gear in the early 1970s, at a time when younger British jazz musicians were beginning to mix more with rock players, in projects such as his band Centipede, which included members of Soft Machine (including Robert Wyatt), Nucleus, and King Crimson as well as singer Zoot Money and saxophonist Larry Stabbins, who would later found Working Week. Producer John Walters, himself a jazz trumpeter, encouraged this trend, and Robert Wyatt, much admired by Peel, was a part of the same jazz circle as Tippett and worked with some of the pianist's regular collaborators. He contributed to The Keith Tippett Group's album Dedicated To You, But You Weren't Listening.
Keith Tippett did two small-group sessions for Peel, but despite his work with King Crimson showed no interest in commercial jazz-fusion music and did not compromise his style. The DJ played Tippett's first session as a continuous whole, perhaps because the music was so different from anything else on that edition of Top Gear. As the 1970s progressed, however, Peel seemed to lose interest in contemporary British jazz, and although Keith Tippett remained a major figure on the scene, there were no more Peel sessions by him.
== Festive Fifty Entries ==
None.
== Sessions ==
Two sessions. No known commercial release.
1. Recorded 1970-08-25. First broadcast 26 September 1970. Repeated 12 December 1970.
*Thoughts To Geoff / Five After Dawn / Green And Orange Night Park
2. Recorded 1972-01-05. First broadcast 21 January 1972. Repeated 03 March 1972.
*Chugging Brown / Yellow Buzz / Mauve Ballade / Topless Air-Pockets (first broadcast on session repeat)
== Other Shows Played ==
* No known plays other than sessions.
== See Also ==
*Gigography 1969 
== External Links ==
*Wikipedia
*Discogs
*Keith Tippett: The jazz great who saw music as a source of goodness (Richard Williams, Guardian, 15 June 2020)
Category:Artists