
The tributes to Rick that have flooded in since his death less than a week ago reveal how positively he touched so many peoples’ lives - particularly
musicians he worked with - in the North East, in London, and in Scotland. This
is how he touched mine - and my family’s
life.
I first met Rick in the early 1980’s when I became Arts Development Officer for Gateshead Council and was looking at including jazz in the programme at Caedmon Hall. I had brought in my friend John Cumming to work with me and he suggested checking out the band Full Circle - the band led by Rick with pianist Paul Flush, drummer Adrian Tilbrook and bass player Keith Peberdy. I saw them play at the Corner House and later in collaborations at the Newcastle Jazz Festival with Paul Clarvis and the Van den Driessche brothers- Johan and Peter - and I was impressed.
Rick visited me at our house in Pelton Fell near Chester le Street, and
met my husband the writer Graeme Rigby. Rick and Paul Flush were both
interested in working with poetry and spoken word and from this chance meeting
came the birth of a project called Dreaming
North, involving Graeme and the poet Keith Armstrong as writers and Rick
and Paul Flush as musicians. The Borough Librarian for Gateshead Council,
Patrick Conway, supported the production of an album of the group in 1986 to
coincide with publishing a book of the poems - an imaginative move for a
library and arts service - but Gateshead has always been bold in supporting
culture! Rick was away a lot on tour with Elton John around this time, but
always gave this project his full support when he was back home.
The Dreaming North ensemble went on to create several other shows
including Traffics and Discoveries -
performed at Live Theatre and Caedmon Hall, and Suite for the River Wear, which was later recorded for BBC Radio
Newcastle. The group then expanded to create a show with Northumberland Theatre
Company – O’er the Hills –telling the
story of the 18th century Northumbrian Piper Jamie Allan – also
featuring the composer/musician Keith Morris, the piper Kathryn Tickell, and
singer Joan McKay, which toured nationally - perhaps Rick’s first experience of
working with folk music, but something which led to much more.
Rick and Graeme decided then to work as a duo - Big Boys Don’t Rhyme, which
led to other ‘Big’ projects - the one-act opera Big People from Outer Space at the then Gulbenkian Studio Theatre -
now part of Northern Stage, and Sunday Lunchtimes
with the Big People at Live Theatre, a monthly event with a house band led
by Rick - Keith Morris (sax/bass), Graham Stafford (keyboards), Bruce Arthur
(percussion), Neil Harland (bass), Katherine Zeserson (vocals), Richard Scott
(vocals/sax), Steve Jinski (guitar/vocals) and invited guests from folk music
and jazz working on special projects for each one.

Alongside these projects, Rick was always keen to work with young players and a band of teenage musicians, Giving it Large, worked under the BigFest umbrella, including my own children. I also worked with him on a project for Houghton Feast bringing together young brass players and singers from Houghton Kepier School, where his daughter Laura was then a student, with guests such as Julian Siegel, Phil Bancroft and a 16-year-old Tim Giles on drums.
More recently, Rick was Music Director for a major project at Sage
Gateshead as part of the 2011 Gateshead International Jazz Festival, called Subway Moon, with American
musician/composer/writer Roy Nathanson and the Jazz Passengers - working with
the youth jazz ensemble Jambone, a youth choir, rappers and DJ’s and more.
Through this Rick met guitarist Bradley Johnston who went on to work with Rick
up on Skye on his weekend courses; who has this week written movingly about how
much his time with Rick meant to him.
Rick was often working away as a very much in demand session musician
and MD - George Michael, Wet Wet Wet and many more - but, when he was with you,
you always got 100% of the musical talent, awareness and imagination that
flowed out of him, regardless of how much the gig was paying.
When, in the early 2000s, he moved up to Skye with Pam Allan - who he
met when they were both working at Live Theatre - I was delighted to see how
the Scottish music scene - jazz and folk - took him to their collective heart
and valued so highly the contribution he could make as a performer but also as
an arranger and MD. We still saw Rick fairly often and visited him up in Skye -
never thinking that this would stop so suddenly. The news was devastating to
our whole family but it has been wonderful to see how many people valued him as
a musician and as a person. He will be very much missed.
Ros Rigby
June 2019.
3 comments :
RIP Rick. Your beautiful spirit lives on.
Your poet friend Keith.
his music still remembered.
A sad loss. I worked with Rick in the early 90s in Blunt End with Nigel Stanger, Frank Gibbon, Paul Smith and later Rob Walker. Rick was a fantastic trombone player and improviser but also a great composer/arranger. He had a photographic memory and perfect pitch. Also brilliant second keys/backing vocals and Latin percussion. He taught me a lot.
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