2008 – Associated Press – LONDON – Richard Wright, a founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died today… this day in rock! He was 65.
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Pink Floyd’s spokesman Doug Wright, who is not related to the artist, said Wright died after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain. He says the band member’s family did not want to give more details about his death.
Wright met Pink Floyd members Roger Waters and Nick Mason in college and joined their early band, Sigma 6. Along with the late Syd Barrett, the four formed Pink Floyd in 1965.
The group’s jazz-infused rock and drug-laced multimedia “happenings” made them darlings of the London psychedelic scene, and their 1967 album, “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” was a hit.
In the early days of Pink Floyd, Wright, along with Barrett, was seen as the group’s dominant musical force. The London-born musician and son of a biochemist wrote songs and sang.
The band released a series of commercially and critically successful albums including 1973′s “Dark Side of the Moon,” which has sold more than 40 million copies. Wright wrote “The Great Gig In The Sky” and “Us And Them” for that album, and later worked on the group’s epic compositions such as “Atom Heart Mother,” “Echoes” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.”
But tensions grew between Waters, Wright and fellow band member David Gilmour. The tensions came to a head during the making of “The Wall” when Waters insisted Wright be fired. As a result, Wright was relegated to the status of session musician on the tour of “The Wall,” and did not perform on Pink Floyd’s 1983 album “The Final Cut.”
Wright formed a new band Zee with Dave Harris, from the band Fashion, and released one album, “Identity,” with Atlantic Records.
Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and Wright began recording with Mason and Gilmour again, releasing the albums “The Division Bell” and “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” as Pink Floyd. Wright also released the solo albums “Wet Dream” (1978) and “Broken China” (1996).
In July 2005, Wright, Waters, Mason and Gilmour reunited to perform at the “Live 8″ charity concert in London — the first time in 25 years they had been onstage together.
Wright also worked on Gilmour’s solo projects, most recently playing on the 2006 album “On An Island” and the accompanying world tour.
Richard William Wright (28 July 1943 – 15 September 2008) was a self-taught pianist and keyboardist best known for his long career with Pink Floyd. Though not as prolific a songwriter as his bandmates Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and David Gilmour, he did write significant parts of the music for classic albums such as Meddle, Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, as well as for Pink Floyd’s final studio album The Division Bell. Wright’s richly textured keyboard layers have been a vital ingredient and a distinctive characteristic of Pink Floyd’s sound. In addition, Wright frequently sang background and occasionally lead vocals onstage and in the studio with Pink Floyd (most notably on the songs “Time,” “Echoes,” and on the Syd Barrett composition “Astronomy Domine”). Wright died on 15 September 2008, following a short battle with cancer.
Biography
Pink Floyd career
Wright was educated at the Haberdashers’ Aske’s School and the Regent Street Polytechnic College of Architecture, where he met fellow band members Roger Waters and Nick Mason. He was a founding member of The Pink Floyd Sound (as they were then called) in 1965, and also participated in its previous incarnations, Sigma 6 and The (Screaming) Abdabs.
In the early days of Pink Floyd, Wright was seen as a dominant musical force in the group (though not as much of one as Syd Barrett, the band’s chief songwriter and front man at the time) and he wrote and sang several songs of his own during 1967–68. While not credited as a singer on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, he sung lead on Barrett-penned songs like “Astronomy Domine” and “Matilda Mother,” as well as notable harmonies on “Scarecrow” and “Chapter 24.” Examples of his early compositions include “Remember a Day”, “Paintbox” and “It Would Be So Nice”. As the sound and the goals of the band evolved, Wright became less interested in songwriting and focused primarily on contributing his distinctive style to extended instrumental compositions such as “Interstellar Overdrive”, “A Saucerful of Secrets”, “Careful with That Axe, Eugene”, “One Of These Days” and to musical themes for film scores (More, Zabriskie Point and Obscured by Clouds). He also made essential contributions to Pink Floyd’s long, epic compositions such as “Atom Heart Mother”, “Echoes” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”. His most commercially popular compositions are “The Great Gig in the Sky” and “Us and Them” from 1973′s The Dark Side of the Moon. He also contributed significantly to other mid-period Floyd classics like “Breathe” and “Time”.
Wright recorded his first solo project, Wet Dream, and released it in September 1978 with little fanfare. However, the album is regarded with some acclaim among Pink Floyd fans. Battling both personal problems and an increasingly rocky relationship with Roger Waters, he was forced to resign from Pink Floyd during The Wall sessions by Roger Waters, who threatened to pull the plug on the album’s tapes if Wright did not leave the band. However, he was retained as a salaried session musician during the subsequent live concerts to promote that album in 1980 and 1981. Ironically, Wright became the only member of Pink Floyd to profit from those hugely spectacular shows, since the net financial loss had to be borne by the three remaining “full-time” members. He was the only member of the band not to attend the 1982 première of the film version of The Wall. In 1983, Pink Floyd released the only album on which Wright does not appear with The Final Cut.
During 1984, Wright formed a new musical duo with Dave Harris (from the band Fashion) called Zee. They signed a record deal with Atlantic Records and released only one album, Identity, which was a commercial and critical flop. Wright rejoined Pink Floyd following Waters’ departure. Because of legal and contractual issues from his “hired gun” status during The Wall world tour, Wright’s photo was not included in the 1987 album A Momentary Lapse of Reason and his name was listed in smaller letters than Mason and Gilmour. By the time of the Momentary Lapse world tour and the 1988 live album The Delicate Sound of Thunder, Wright was contractually a member of Pink Floyd once again. In 1994, he co-wrote five songs and sang lead vocals on one song (“Wearing the Inside Out”) for the next Pink Floyd album, The Division Bell. This recording provided material for the double live album and video release P*U*L*S*E in 1995. Wright, like Nick Mason, has performed on every Pink Floyd tour.
Modern days
In 1996, inspired by his successful input into The Division Bell, Wright released his second solo album, Broken China, including contributions from Sinéad O’Connor on vocals, Pino Palladino on bass, Manu Katché on drums, Dominic Miller (known from his guitar work with Sting) and Tim Renwick, another Pink Floyd associate, on electric guitar. Broken China was considered to be a more focused and artistically successful work than Wet Dream and marked a new phase in Richard Wright’s modus operandi, with extensive use of computer-based recording and production techniques, assisted by Anthony Moore with whom he co-wrote the album’s lyrics.
On 2 July 2005, Wright, Gilmour, Mason were joined by Waters on stage for the first time since the Wall concerts for a short set at the Live 8 concert in London. Wright underwent eye surgery for cataracts in November 2005, preventing him from attending Pink Floyd’s induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame. Roger Waters, who was also unable to attend the band’s induction due to rehearsals for the opening of his opera Ça Ira in Rome, appeared in video link and stated, tongue-in-cheek:
“ Rick actually hasn’t had an eye operation, he and I have eloped to Rome and we’re living happily in a small apartment off the Via Venuti! ”
Wright contributed keyboards and background vocals to David Gilmour’s most recent solo album, On an Island, and performed with Gilmour’s touring band for over two dozen shows in Europe and North America in 2006 . On stage with Gilmour he performed piano, electric piano and synth leads with his Kurzweil K2600 workstation, Hammond organ and even his long-inactive Farfisa organ, which was resurrected especially for performing “Echoes” and a couple of Pink Floyd’s and Syd Barrett’s older numbers that Gilmour chose to revisit in his recent concerts. He also provided backing vocals and lead vocals (notably on “Echoes”, “Time”, “Comfortably Numb”, “Wearing the Inside Out” “Astronomy Domine” and “Arnold Layne” – the latter released as a live single). He declined an offer to join Roger Waters and Nick Mason on Waters’ The Dark Side of the Moon Live tour in order to spend more time working on an upcoming solo project (which may be an instrumental album released in 2008).
On 4 July 2006, Wright joined Gilmour and Mason for the official screening of the P•U•L•S•E DVD. Inevitably, Live 8 surfaced as a subject in an interview. When asked about performing again, Wright replied he would be happy on stage anywhere. He explained that his plan is to “meander” along and said about playing live:
“ …and whenever Dave wants me to play with him, I’m really happy to play with him. And you’ll play with me, right? ”
However, Wright stated that he had no desire to perform as part of an officially-reformed ‘Pink Floyd’ again, saying that the Live 8 concert was nice as a “one off.”
Wright had the lowest profile of any member of a band known for their lack of individual attention seeking. Unlike the three other surviving band members who have emerged as public figures, Wright rarely spoke in public. Wright was very rarely seen in the live footage from the Live 8 reunion performance; with a few exceptions he was only shown in wide shots. Some have suggested that the director of the broadcast did not know which musician was the fourth member of Pink Floyd until the very end when they got together for a group shot.
Personal
He married his first wife, Juliette Gale, in 1964 and they divorced in 1982 after having two children. He married his second wife Franka in 1984 and they divorced in 1994. Wright married his third wife Millie (to whom he dedicated his second solo album Broken China) in 1996; their one child is named Ben.
In 1996 Wright’s daughter Gala married Guy Pratt, a session musician who has played bass for Pink Floyd since Roger Waters’ exit.
Wright died on 15 September 2008 after a battle with cancer.
Influence
Wright’s style fuses jazz and neoclassical influences that complemented the simple harmonic structures of the more blues and folk-based songs written by Roger Waters and David Gilmour. As a keyboardist, he is more interested in complementing each piece with organ or synthesizer layers and tasteful piano or electric piano passages. Unlike his contemporaries Rick Wakeman, Tony Banks or Keith Emerson, only occasionally did he opt for solo playing, notably in “Atom Heart Mother”, “Echoes”, “Any Colour You Like”, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” Parts 1-5 and 6-9, “Welcome to the Machine”, “Dogs”, “Run Like Hell” and “Keep Talking”. Another notable solo is the first solo in Syd Barrett’s song “Love Song”. Wright is known for his ghostly atmospheric textures such as the Leslie piano arpeggios at the beginning of “Echoes”, the echoed Farfisa Organ in the live versions of “Careful with That Axe, Eugene” and “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”, the distinctive Minimoog solos in “Any Colour You Like” and, more famously, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and the jazzy electric piano passages in “Money”, “Time” and “Sheep”. In “A Saucerful of Secrets” and “Sysyphus” he experimented with ‘treated piano’. “Sysyphus” also made extensive use of Mellotron sounds, something of a rarity in the Pink Floyd canon. Wright also used Indian modal scales in “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” and “Matilda Mother”. Although he is not often mentioned among the ‘synthesizer greats’, it is widely acknowledged that Wright’s inventive use of keyboards and synthesizers with Pink Floyd has been pioneering.
Equipment
In the early days of the band, Wright dabbled with brass before settling on the Farfisa organ as his main instrument onstage (in addition to piano and Hammond Organ in the studio). For a brief period in 1969, Wright played vibraphone on several of the band’s songs and in some live shows, and he even played trombone on “Biding My Time” (also dating from this experimental period). During the formative years of Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett, Wright relied heavily on his Farfisa organ, fed through a Binson Echorec platter echo, to achieve distinctive sounds that helped the band gain their “psychedelic rock” edge. He started using a Hammond organ regularly onstage thereafter, and a grand piano later became part of his usual live concert setup when “Echoes” was added to Pink Floyd’s regular set-list. For tours in the 1970s centering around The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall, the Farfisa was dropped (although it was brought back when Wright toured with David Gilmour on his On An Island tour), and an array of other instruments were added to the lineup, such as: Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer and Hohner electric pianos, VCS 3, Minimoog, ARP String Ensemble and Prophet 5 synthesizers. Since 1987 Wright favoured Kurzweil digital synthesisers for reproducing his analogue synthesiser sounds, even though he still used his favourite Hammond C-3 organ. However, the one that he used with Pink Floyd at Live 8 and with David Gilmour was a “chopped” version (being stripped down of unnecessary weight and put into a more compact casing).
Discography
Further information: Pink Floyd discography
Solo albums
* Wet Dream – 15 September 1978
* Broken China – 26 November 1996
Zee albums
* Identity – 9 April 1984
With David Gilmour
* David Gilmour in Concert (DVD) – October, 2002
o Appears on two tracks: “Breakthrough” (Keyboard / Vocals) & “Comfortably Numb (With Bob Geldof)” (Keyboard)
* On an Island – 6 March 2006
o Appears on two tracks: “On an Island” (Hammond organ) & “The Blue” (Keyboards / Vocals)
* Remember That Night (DVD) – September, 2007
With Syd Barrett
* The Madcap Laughs – 3 January 1970
* Barrett – 14 November 1970
1978 – The Grateful Dead play a concert at the foot of Egypt’s Great Pyramid. There’s more than just T-shirt sales at stake. The band intends to get the Arabs and Israelis to settle their differences to music. Using King Cheops’ tomb as an echo chamber, the Dead play with a team of Nubian drummers in heat that ends up welding their speaker cabinets together. Accompanist Ken Kesey said that the 700-strong audience of “government operatives and spoiled Saudis” enjoyed the show.
2007 – Stu Sweatman begins prototyping the idea for “THIS DAY IN ROCK” website, where you can find many facts about musicians and what happend on a given day in history!
He joined forces with John Myer’s to create the information base you see. Although the site contains facts from all genres, we tried to focus in on Rock in all forms.
2006 – Turn it on, turn it on again, turn it on, turn it on again. We’re singing because Genesis–Phil Collins, Mike “+ the Mechanics” Rutherford and the other fella–have announced they are reforming for an upcoming world tour.
2004 – Soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, whose avant-garde approach to his instrument influenced John Coltrane and others, dies of cancer in Boston. He is 69.
2002 – Musician, composer and instrument maker Juno Lewis dies at the age of 70 of complications from a stroke. Lewis was best known for his “Kulu Se Mama” composition on one of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane’s final recordings.
2001 – E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons is forced to take an unexpected break during a concert in Asbury Park, N.J., when someone calls in a bomb threat. After two bomb sniffing dogs find no bomb in the legendary Stone Pony nightclub, the crowd is let back in and the show continues.
2001 – Jazz tenor saxophonist Harold Land dies in Los Angeles after a stroke. He is 73. Land gained prominence in 1954 when he joined a quintet led by trumpeter Clifford Brown and drummer Max Roach.
For many performers, working with a string section is a long-held dream. The lush backdrop warmly supports an instrumentalist or a singer, setting the stage for emotional, often unforgettable performances. Listen to orchestral albums by such greats as Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Clifford Brown, and Johnny Hodges, and the beauty and feeling that arise from these situations is soon appreciated.
A Lazy Afternoon is a stellar contribution to this genre. Here, the consummate tenor saxophone artistry of Harold Land, easily one of jazz’s premier improvisers, meets the sumptuous string orchestrations of Ray Ellis, who is best recalled for Lady in Satin, a 1958 session for Columbia Records for which he wrote gorgeous string backdrops for Holiday.
A Lazy Afternoon features ear-pleasing renditions of such evergreens as “You Go To My Head,” “Invitation,” “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” “Nature Boy,” “In A Sentimental Mood,” “Wave,” and the title track, “Lazy Afternoon.” Land and the string and orchestral palette are accompanied by the ace rhythm team of Billy Higgins (drums), William Henderson (piano), and James Leary (bass).
The tenor saxophonist, who will always be remembered for his scintillating performances with the masterful quintet led by trumpeter Brown and drummer Max Roach in the mid-50′s and with the internationally acclaimed quintet he co-led with Bobby Hutcherson in the late ’60s and early ’70s, fits superbly into the context. He employs his rugged, individualistic style and his trademark expressive tone, mixing compelling melody readings with alluring improvisations.
For years, Land had wanted to do an album with strings, having been touched by recordings by Parker and Brown, as well as by Lady in Satin. And his appearances with Tony Bennett in the late ’60s and ’70s also flamed his desire for a string album. Then, he’d join the singer, mostly in Las Vegas, but occasionally on tours of Latin America, serving as the star soloist with the full orchestra that backed Bennett and reaching audiences that might not have otherwise known of his work. “Those appearances were always memorable and helped foster the desire in my soul to make an album with strings,” says Land.
A Lazy Afternoon came to fruition when a story on Land, written by Jason Fine in Option magazine, told of his wish to make a string album. Postcards A&R Director Ralph Simon read the story, liked the idea and, being another fan of Lady in Satin, tracked down Land and then Ellis, both of whom live in Southern California.
Both principals, who had never worked together prior to A Lazy Afternoon, were enthusiastic about the collaboration. “Harold is a beautiful guy, and laid-back, and he plays that way,” says Ellis. “The album feels real good to me.” “Ray’s beautiful writing was so tasteful and romantic — that’s a good word,” says Land. “The album worked out the way I wanted. With the turbulent state of affairs in this country, as well as the world, I would hope this album would manifest a little peaceful feeling, a positive effect, to all who hear it, as opposed to the negativity we are bombarded with every day. That feeling of peace is something I have been trying to express through music for a long time and, hopefully, this album will be a continuance of that effort.”
The saxophonist and the arranger have lived fulfilling artistic lives. Land, born in Houston and raised in San Diego, moved to Los Angeles in the early ’50s. In 1954, he joined the famed Brown-Roach quintet, with which he toured the United States and recorded several albums for EmArcy (all of which are available as reissue CDs). After two years with the ensemble, Land felt the need to be closer to his family, which was in Los Angeles, and so he returned and has resided there ever since. Land recalled the mid-to-late ’50s, when LA was teeming with jazz. “That was a very healthy period here,” says the tenorman. “A lot of clubs around the city had a six-night-a-week policy, and most musicians were working.”
He soon began to establish himself as one of the most singular and powerful of jazzmen, making albums with bassists Red Mitchell and Curtis Counce and then, in 1958, making his 12” LP debut (he had recorded four selections in 1949 that were released by Savoy). Harold in the Land of Jazz was issued on Contemporary Records, and was followed a year later by The Fox, on HiFi Jazz (available as a Contemporary Records reissue), which many consider his best early recording. He also began performing with Gerald Wilson’s orchestra, and with pianists Hampton Hawes and Carl Perkins, becoming an essential cog in the wheel of Los Angeles jazz. Nonetheless, the saxophonist didn’t really get much exposure outside LA until he formed a quintet with vibist Bobby Hutcherson in the late ’60s. The band recorded for Blue Note and toured the US and Europe. “There were a lot of similar things that Bobby and I responded to emotionally and musically,” Land says.
Also during the ’60s, Land, like so many saxophonists, became enamored with John Coltrane, and he found that both his smooth sound and his approach to improvising changed during this period. “John definitely inspired me with his intense spirit, and I usually say that spirit moved me so much that I became a little more intense in my own musical presentation,” says Land. “At the same time, I was trying to maintain a certain individuality that I hope I have managed to do.”
In the late ’70s and ’80s, Land joined the Timeless All-Stars, which also included Higgins, Hutcherson, Cedar Walton (piano), and Curtis Fuller (trombone). In and around performances with the Timeless band, Land fronted fine quintets that featured trumpeters Blue Mitchell (their Mapenzi, on Concord Jazz, is a classic) and Oscar Brashear (documented on Xocia’s Dance on Muse). Land remains one of the most impressive and deep improvisers in jazz. As is said in the Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, “Land is a fine musician who has not received the fame he deserves.”
Ellis, a Philadelphia native, was originally a tenor saxophonist who taught himself to write while serving in the Army band during World War II. His first commercial charts were crafted in the mid-’50s for pop singers such as the Four Lads (“Moments to Remember,” “Standing on the Corner” — both Billboard Top 10 pop chart hits) and Johnny Mathis (“That Certain Smile,” “Wild Is the Wind”). Later, during his tenures at Columbia, MGM, and RCA Records, he wrote arrangements for hit records by Connie Francis (“Where the Boys Are”), Bobby Darin (“Splish Splash”), Clyde McPhatter (“Lover’s Question”), Brook Benton (“It’s Just a Matter of Time”), and Tony Bennett (“Firefly”). “I think I was a success because I figured out how to write what the producers wanted,” he says.
But the biggest record of Ellis’s career is the timeless Lady in Satin, on which Holiday sang such torch songs as “You’ve Changed” and “Violets for Your Furs.” “Billie picked the tunes and they were all stories of unrequited love — the story of her life,” Ellis recalls. The recording, done in three sessions at Columbia’s then-fabled 30th street studios in New York, was mostly a series of first takes. Her raw talent and emotional quality were astounding, and really moved Ellis. “It was great,” he says of her ability to give the songs meaning. And the album has held up, he feels. “It still sounds contemporary, and people keep calling me because of it,” says Ellis, who has also scored for television, including a theme for NBC’s “Today” show which has run from the ’70s into the ’90s.
Now, Ellis has written the kind of arrangements that have moved Land to deliver powerful performances. It seems clear that people will be talking about, and listening to, A Lazy Afternoon for years to come as well.
Harold Land Discography (as a leader)
Grooveyard (Contemporary) 1958
Harold in the Land of Jazz (Contemporary/OJC) 1958
The Fox (HiFi Jazz/OJC) 1959
Eastward Ho! Harold Land in New York Jazzland (OJC) 1960
Westcoast Blues! Jazzland (OJC) 1960
Hear Ye! Harold Land Quintet with Red Mitchell (Atlantic) 1961
The Peacemaker (Cadet) 1967
Take Aim (Blue Note) 1969
Jazz Impressions of Folk Music (Imperial) 1971
A New Shade of Blue (Mainstream) 1971
Choma (To Burn) (Mainstream) 1971
Damisi (Mainstream) 1977
Total Eclipse (with Bobby Hutcherson) (Blue Note)
Mapenzi (Concord Jazz) 1977
Xocia’s Dance (Muse) 1981
A Lazy Afternoon (Postcards) 1995
Promised Land (Audiophoric) 2001
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