Dick Wellstood

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(From left) Bob Wilber , Johnny Glasel , Dick Wellstood, Charlie Traeger and Ed Physe, Jimmy Ryan's (Club), New York, NY, circa December 1946.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .

Richard McQueen "Dick" Wellstood (born November 25, 1927 in Greenwich , Connecticut , † July 24, 1987 in Palo Alto ) was an American jazz pianist (and arranger) of Dixieland jazz , boogie woogie , stride piano style and swing .

Live and act

Wellstood learned to play jazz piano in the 1940s using the example of the old masters of the Stride Piano and played with Dixieland groups such as the "Wildcats" by Bob Wilber (from 1946), with whom he also toured Europe in 1952. There he also performed with Sidney Bechet before starting his law degree in 1953 (which he successfully completed - he only practiced as a lawyer in the 1980s). Occasionally he played with Roy Eldridge and in Conrad Janis' band during his studies . He then played solo piano in and around New York City and in Dixieland groups such as Eddie Condon's (from 1956), and accompanied (as a resident pianist in "Nick's" and then in "Metropole" in New York) musicians such as Ben Webster , Wild Bill Davison , Red Allen , Coleman Hawkins , Buster Bailey and Vic Dickenson .

In the summer of 1960 he recorded the album Uptown & Lowtown for Prestige with accompanying musicians such as Herman Autrey , Gene Sedric , Milt Hinton and Zutty Singleton . In 1965/6 he toured South America with Gene Krupa . From the late 1960s he worked in " The World's Greatest Jazz Band ", as well as with Kenny Davern in "The Ferry Boat" in Brielle , New Jersey. Wellstood's powerful, often more modern jazz harmonics playing style was based on many idioms and styles of the jazz era, but especially on the personal playing styles of James P. Johnson , Fats Waller , Willie The Lion Smith , Duke Ellington , Donald Lambert , Art Tatum and Thelonious Monk . Wellstood also performed piano duets with Dick Hyman on tours during the 1980s and continued to play with Bob Wilber.

Dick Wellstood died of a heart attack in front of the TV in his hotel room just before a concert.

Discographic notes

biography

  • Edward N. Meyer : "Giant Strides: The Legacy of Dick Wellstood (Studies in Jazz No. 32)", (American. Original edition: Scarecrow Press Inc., 1999, ISBN 0-8108-3564-9 ).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wellstood, Dick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wellstood, Richard McQueen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz pianist
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Greenwich (Connecticut)
DATE OF DEATH July 24, 1987
Place of death Palo Alto