Tim Richards

Having started with classical piano lessons, Tim Richards began to teach himself jazz and blues from the age of 14, after seeing Thelonious Monk and Otis Spann on TV. He is perhaps best known as the founder and leader of the modern jazz group Spirit Level, who released seven albums, appeared at clubs and festivals all over Europe between 1979 and 1999, and were nominated Best Small Group in the 1995 British Jazz Awards.

In recent years, Tim has won acclaim as a composer and arranger, writing a contemporary classical piece and developing ideas in the larger instrumental setting of his new nine-piece band Great Spirit. With Arts Council support, they toured the UK in 1999, 2001 and 2005, performing Tim’s Yorkshire Arts commission Suite for the Shed, a 60-minute piece in seven sections.

Tim is also very active in education, teaching jazz piano, blues piano and improvisation at London’s Morley and Goldsmiths Colleges since 1991. He is a contributing tutor on the European Piano Teachers Association’s Piano Pedagogy course, and course director of the annual Jazz Piano Week held at Premises Studios in Hackney. As well as being a jazz examiner for the Associated Board, he has had pieces published in their Jazz Piano syllabus (grades 2-3) and in the Rockschool Popular Piano syllabus (grades 1-6).