John Hicks (pianist)

Hicks was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 21, 1941, His family was middle-class: "I was brought up as a decent human being, where you had aspirations and there were expectations", he commented. after he began playing aged six or seven in Los Angeles. He took organ lessons, sang in choirs and tried the violin and trombone. His development accelerated once his family moved to St. Louis, when Hicks was 14 and he settled on the piano. which performed in a variety of musical styles. Hicks cited influences "from Fats Waller to Thelonious Monk to Methodist church hymns", as well as local pianists. He was initially interested in the blues-based compositions of Horace Silver and popular songs such as "I Got Rhythm" and "There Will Never Be Another You", for their easily recognised harmonies. Hicks worked summer gigs in the southern United States with blues musicians Little Milton and Albert King. His stint with Little Milton provided his first professional work, in 1958; Hicks stated that his playing in a variety of keys improved because the venue's piano was so out of tune that he had to transpose each piece that they played. He studied music in 1958 at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he shared a room with drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson. He also studied for a short time at the Berklee School of Music in Boston before moving to New York in 1963. ==Later life and career==

1963–80 In New York, Hicks first accompanied singer Della Reese. He then played with Joe Farrell and toured with trombonist Al Grey and tenor saxophonist Billy Mitchell. and appeared on CBC Television backing vocalist Jimmy Witherspoon. After periods with Kenny Dorham and Joe Henderson, Hicks joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1964. Early in 1965, Hicks toured with Blakey to Japan, France, Switzerland, and England. From the 1970s, he also played in more avant garde bands, beginning with recordings led by Oliver Lake and performances and recordings in the Netherlands with Charles Tolliver. The session resulted in two albums – the trio Hells Bells, with bassist Clint Houston and drummer Cliff Barbaro, and the solo piano Steadfast Hicks reunited with Carter in 1975, including accompanying her in a musical play, ''Don't Call Me Man, that year. After recording with Carter on her Now It's My Turn in 1976, Hicks returned to her band full-time; this raised his profile and led to his own recording – After the Morning''. From 1983, the flautist Elise Wood was frequently a member of his groups. They formed a business partnership – John Hicks-Elise Wood, Inc. – and toured the US, Europe and Japan in the 1980s. He also freelanced, including with players such as Arthur Blythe, David Murray, and Pharoah Sanders. From around 1989 into the 1990s, he played with the Mingus Dynasty band, including for performances of the symphony Epitaph. By now making regular appearances at jazz festivals internationally, Hicks continued to perform in New York City. 1990–2006 Hicks divorced his wife, Olympia, in the early 1990s. Like many jazz musicians in the 1990s, Hicks recorded for multiple labels proposing different recording ideas. The resultant recordings included duo sessions with Jay McShann (1992) and Leitch (1994) for the American Reservoir Records, and several trio-based sessions for Japanese labels – the New York Unit with bassist Richard Davis and drummer Tatsuya Nakamura for Paddle Wheel Records, and the New York Rhythm Machine with bassist Marcus McLaurine and drummer Victor Lewis for Venus Records. These were followed by more trio recordings for other labels – the Keystone Trio of George Mraz and Muhammad for the Milestone label from 1995, and a longer-lasting band with Dwayne Dolphin on bass and Cecil Brooks III on drums for HighNote Records from 1997. Hicks played on five of David "Fathead" Newman's albums for HighNote, and was described in 2000 as the "HighNote house pianist". There were also more dates as a sideman for Murray, Leitch, Blythe, Freeman, and Roy Hargrove (1989–90, 1995), Bartz (1990), Lake (1991), Steve Marcus and Valery Ponomarev (both 1993), Nick Brignola, Russell Gunn, and Kevin Mahogany (all 1994), the Mingus Big Band (c1995), Fortune (1996), and Jimmy Ponder (1997). He performed in the UK with the Mingus Big Band in 1999, and played on their album Blues and Politics in the same year. The pianist recorded the seventh instalment of the "Live at Maybeck Recital Hall" series of solo piano concerts which were recorded for Concord Records. He was part of Joe Lovano's quartet in 1998, which led to Hicks being part of the saxophonist's nonet from its formation the following year. Hicks and Wood married in June 2001. He made a rare recording on organ (Hammond B3) on saxophonist Arthur Blythe's Exhale. Over the last decade or so of Hicks life, he recorded several collaborations with Elise Wood to mixed reviews (Single Petal of a Rose, Trio & Strings, Beautiful Friendship). In January and February, he toured Israel, chiefly playing Thelonious Monk compositions. Wood survived him, and has led a band dedicated to his music. In the view of AllMusic reviewer Michael G. Nastos, "Hicks died before reaping the ultimate rewards and high praise he deserved". A collection of his papers and compositions, as well as video and audio recordings, is held by Duke University. ==Playing style==

Fellow pianist George Cables stated that Hicks "was a very strong and energetic player, and a very warm player, very much part of the tradition". Hicks's playing was sometimes criticized as being insubstantial; The Penguin Guide to Jazz commented that "This [...] is missing the point. Almost always, he is more concerned to work within the dimensions of a song than to go off into the stratosphere." Hicks had a style of his own, containing a "combination of irresistible creativity and responsiveness [...] encompassing swing, hard bop and the avant garde, and made him a first-call choice for many of the most important American modern jazz groups". A few years later, another reviewer highlighted the "subtle dynamic shadings" of Hicks's left hand, and his "reverence for melody and a sense of musical destination that gives form to his improvisations." As an accompanist, Hicks played delicately, with carefully voiced chords. ==Compositions and arrangements==

His compositions "are wandering and melodic, suggestive and malleable yet memorable". ==Discography==

An asterisk (*) after the year indicates that it is the year of release. As leader/co-leader As sideman == References ==