Dick Twardzik, died sixty years ago this week

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Very good little piece at Richard Williams' Blue Moment Blog in memory of Dick Twardzik who died in Paris sixty years ago this week.

I hadn't seen this quote before:

"Cecil Taylor later recalled, "Dick Twardzik . . He had destroyed some Kenton people by playing like Bud Powell first and getting them all excited and then going into his, at that time, Schoenbergian bag."

BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

I'm always inclined to feel that Dick Twardzik's death was probably the most catastrophic in terms of how a musician's passing had the potential to really re-shape jazz. Twardzik was only 24 when he overdosed and his early death effectively rendered him an eccentric bit player within the deeply conservative milieu of early 1950's jazz. Had he lived, I think he would have soon outgrown the kind of music he was producing with Chet Baker and pretty much been absorbed within the Free Jazz scene of the 1960's. I could really see him being associated with someone like Jimmy Guiffre and ultimately mixing with the European fraternity of free players in the 1970's. As it stands, he has a minor reputation amongst die-hard fans and is something of a cult figure albeit increasingly irrelevant to most jazz fans these days. I wonder just how many younger jazz fans are aware of him and think how significant he might have become had he lived. As fascinating as his small recorded output is, it is extremely tantalising to think where he would have ended up musically and not a great leap of imagination is required to place him within the 1960's avant garde scene. I have a CD with some private recordings on where he is improvising freely albeit very much indebted to Bud Powell. It is not too difficult to understand the appreciation of Cecil Taylor and another free-jazz legend, Willem Breuker, also wrote music dedicated to Twardzik as he was similarly a fan. It would have been interesting to see if Twardzik would have managed to pull his adherents towards the musical direction he was heading in.