Keith Tippett

Keith Graham Tippetts (25 August 1947 – 14 June 2020), known professionally as Keith Tippett, 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 unparallelled place in British contemporary music,” Early life Born in Southmead, Bristol, England, Tippett was the son of an English father who was a policeman and an Irish mother named Kitty. He wrote music dedicated to her after she died. He was the oldest of three siblings and went to Greenway Secondary Modern school in Southmead. As a child he played piano, church organ, cornet, and tenor horn. At fourteen he formed his first band, KT Trad Lads, with school friends Richard Murch, Mike Milton, Terry Pratt, and Bob Chard, and Eric Condell performing traditional jazz. He formed a modern jazz trio in Bristol and played regularly at the Dugout Club in Park Row, Bristol. Music career In 1967, Tippett moved to London to pursue a career in music, taking menial jobs while performing in jazz clubs. He also contributed as a session musician to the band’s subsequent two albums