Keith Tippett

Keith Tippett (Aug. 25, 1947 — June 14, 2020) was an English free-jazz pianist and bandleader who was active for five decades, starting in the late 1960s. He led the experimental big band Centipede and played on the 1970 King Crimson albums In the Wake of Poseidon and Lizard. During the next two decades, he teamed with numerous players on the international jazz scene, including Soft Machine alumni Elton Dean and Hugh Hopper. He was married to ex-Trinity vocalist Julie Driscoll.


He was born Keith Graham Tippetts, the first of three children of a Bristol policeman and an Irish-born mother, Kitty. As a child, he played piano, church organ, cornet, and tenor horn. At age 14, he assembled with five schoolmates in the KT Trad Lads, a traditional jazz sextet. He then formed a modern jazz trio that gained a residency at the Dugout Club in Park Row, Bristol.


Discography:

  • You Are Here… I Am There (1970 • The Keith Tippett Group)
  • Dedicated to You, But You Weren’t Listening (1971 • The Keith Tippett Group)
  • Blueprint (1972)
  • T’N’T (1974 • Keith Tippett & Stan Tracey)
  • Warm Spirits Cool Spirits (1977 • Keith Tippett, Julie Tippett, Trevor Watts & Colin McKenzie)
  • Cruel but Fair (1977 • Hopper / Dean / Tippett / Gallivan)
  • Frames (Music for an Imaginary Film) (1978 • Keith Tippett’s Ark)
  • No Gossip (1980 • Keith Tippett & Louis Moholo)
  • The Unlonely Raindancer (1980)
  • Mujician (1982)
  • Tern (1982 • Louis Moholo – Larry Stabbins – Keith Tippett)
  • Mercy Dash (1985 • Hopper / Dean / Tippett / Gallivan)
  • A Loose Kite in a Gentle Wind Floating With Only My Will for an Anchor (1986 • Keith Tippett Septet)
  • 66 Shades of Lipstick (1990 • Keith Tippett & Andy Sheppard)

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