Richard Twardzik

Richard "Dick" Twardzik (born April 30, 1931 in Danvers , Massachusetts , † October 21, 1955 in Paris , France ) was an American pianist.

Life

Twardzik, the son of Henryk and Clare Twardzik, played in Boston a. a. alongside Charlie Parker , but also with Charlie Mariano and Serge Chaloff , and for a short time with Lionel Hampton . He brought out his first LP side on Pacific Jazz (PJ1212), produced by Russ Freeman , who can be heard on the other side.

Twardzik then replaced Freeman as the pianist of the Chet Baker Quartet and accompanied them on a European tour, where there were live recordings in the Netherlands and other recordings in Stuttgart (partly documented on Early Chet: Chet Baker in Germany 1955-1959 ). On October 11 and October 14, 1955, they recorded nine pieces in Paris, almost all of them composed by Bob Zieff, a composer friend from Boston, which were also released under the title Chet Baker in Europe on Pacific Jazz Records (PJ1218) (resp. at Blue Star as Chet Baker in Paris (Blue Star 80.704 / 05, together with other recordings of the trumpeter).

On October 21st, Twardzik was found dead in the Madeleine Hotel, according to Baker, still with the needle in his arm.

W. Gernot Elmenhorst and Walter von Bebenburg judged 1961 in the Rowohlt - jazz nightclub about him: " As should by a strange conspiracy of the West Coast jazz the most fertile forces are withdrawn, the pianist Dick Twardzik was also carried off by death before his Some out-of-print recordings from his Boston area and a page from World Pac1212 (a, 30cm) show him as one of the most unusual musicians jazz has ever had. He felt neither a continuous melody nor a conventional rhythm bound, he constantly twisted and turned the harmonic material in unexpected ways, at times hid it under eerily clattering masses of sound and then exposed it again as a simple structure. He too would have been called to move West Coast jazz from its perfumed narrowness into a fruitful musical future lead. "

Selection discography

• Richard Twardzik: 1954 Improviatations (New Artists, 1954)

• Chet Baker: Chet Baker in Paris - The Complete Vogue Recordings (Vogue)
• Serge Chaloff All Stars: The Fable Of Mable (Black Lion, 1954)
• Lars Gullin & Chet Baker Quintet: Lars Gullin 1955/1956> (Dragon)
• Charlie Mariano: Boston All-Stars / New Sound From Boston (OJC, 1951, 1953)

swell

• Gernot W. Elmenhorst, Walter von Bebenburg: Die Jazz-Diskothek , Rowohlt 1961
• James Gavin: deep in a dream, the long night of Chet Baker , pp. 110-125
• Cover text of the LP: Chet Baker in Europe , Pacific Jazz 1218
• Cover text of the LP: Chet Baker in Paris , Blue Star 80.704 / 05