Bristol’s greatest Mujician celebrated

Five years after his death in Southmead Hospital, aged 72, the life of Bristol-born pianist and composer Keith Tippett was celebrated at the Bristol Beacon with the launch of a biography: Keith Tippett – Mujician. The title refers to the name of one of Keith’s longterm musical projects, an improvising quartet that was a regular feature of the Rare Music Club evenings he organised in Bristol, mainly at the curry-scented Malaap Club on Stokes Croft (now the site of the notorious Tesco store). The name was first coined by Keith’s daughter Inca when asked by her infant school teacher what her father did for a living. “He’s a mujician” was her innocently brilliant reply.

Author Martin Phillips (standing) with Riccardo Bergerone (third from left) (pic: Tony Benjamin)

Around 100 family members, friends and musical colleagues gathered in Simon’s Bar to hear author Martin Phillips provide a lively selection of stories about Keith gathered in writing the book. Italian jazz promoter Riccardo Bergerone had come from Turin that morning to talk of the immense standing Keith had held in the Italian jazz world since the 70s. He also recounted how he had once taken him to visit the Vatican after which Keith had insisted on buying a postcard which he addressed to Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace, signed his jaunty message simply ‘from Keith’.

Larry Stabbins plays at the launch of Keith Tippett – Mujician (pic: Tony Benjamin)

Another jazz luminary, saxophonist Larry Stabbins, recalled that it was 60 years since he first played with Keith when both were Bristol schoolboys with jazz aspirations. He then played an impassioned solo improvisation he called Rage Against The Dying of the Light which began with a hauntingly beautiful melody that exploded with angry intensity before subsiding into a wistful resolution. It was the kind of music Keith would have greatly enjoyed and it was clear the listening audience found it movingly appropriate.

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The highly readable book – which comes with a double CD of previously unreleased live recordings – traces Keith’s extraordinary life from growing up on the Southmead council estate before a brief period of stardom in the swinging London music scene of the late 60s. That led to him becoming a crucial part of the European jazz avant-gard and the increasingly intense exploration of improvised music that would last to his death in 2020, aged 72.

Crucial to the story is Keith’s partnership with Julie Tippetts, a relationship that began as musical collaborators in 1969 but quickly developed into a ‘couple in spirit’ and a deep life-partnership that would be lived out for some 45 years in a Cotswold cottage just outside Bristol.

In writing the book author Martin Philips used a host of interviews with Keith’s friends, family and innumerable musical collaborators – many of whom inspired by Keith’s educational influence in their early careers – to bring together the strands of a complex and uniquely creative life. “I wanted to tell Keith’s story through the voices of those who knew and loved him” Martin asserted at the launch.

What emerges is a very positive picture of a man who somehow managed to be both a radical artist deeply immersed in his own original musical practice and yet also a highly approachable and humane friend, mentor and bandleader.

Martin freely admits to having been a fan of Keith’s music since encountering his 50-strong megaband Centipede in 1971, an encounter that inspired his own career as a music educator and jazz promoter and eventually leading to a friendship with Keith and Julie. He insists, however, that his fanboy status has not made him paint an unduly rosy picture of his subject: “I genuinely don’t think so! Some people alluded to difficulties some promoters had, usually about either the accommodation he’d been put it or the piano they provided. But on the whole across the quite large numbers of people that I spoke to there was a very consistently positive picture that came across.”

Despite having known Keith since the 80s Martin had known little about his childhood. His conversations with Keith’s brothers Tom and Clive were very illuminating of a happy family life and included a surprising revelation. Apparently Keith had passed the 11-plus exam that would have entitled him to a place at the selective Cotham Grammar School but turned it down. He chose instead to stay at Southmead’s Greenway Secondary Modern saying “I want to be with my mates!”

Some of those mates would be part of Keith’s first bands, initially playing trad jazz then moving on to the modernism of the 60s as Keith developed his own ideas before heading up to London. His prodigious talent, largely self-taught, eventually saw him get the major label deal that, while still only 23 years old, would support him to pull Centipede’s all-star ensemble together. Yet, despite the attention that project garnered, he immediately changed course with the intimate Blueprint quartet album.

This kind of re-invention would run through his whole career and was what Martin was initially impressed by: “What drew me in to Keith was the sheer range of things that he produced. Suddenly from Centipede’s Septober Energy you’re straight into Blueprint, a whole new landscape. He had that ability to continually move things on so every time you heard something new you’d think ‘wow!’”

Keith’s unpredictable originality is what Martin hopes the book will remind people about: “My hope is that the sheer range of stuff that he produced will get greater recognition than it already has. Hopefully the legacy will be that people begin to recognise the enormous talent he was but which wasn’t really recognised enough during his lifetime.”

As the book’s immense discography shows, in his 45 years as a player Keith Tippett’s legacy on record runs to well over 100 albums, 55 of them as bandleader (or solo). Where would Martin recommend the curious listener to begin? “I think I might initially go with (1980 solo album) Unlonely Raindancer – I think there’s enough in there to keep your interest. Things like The Pool which is very accessible but then there are more challenging things too. And then those later works like (2016 Octet suite) The Nine Dances of Patrick O’Gonagon … that is really interesting. In his foreword to the book (music journalist) Richard Williams says it draws together so many threads of what Keith had been doing. So have a listen to that and see where that takes you. And then unleash (hardcore improvising quartet) Mujician ….”

Keith Tippett sadly died of a longterm respiratory illness during the pandemic lockdowns which meant that gathering to mark his passing at the time was impossible – something Larry Stabbins referred to. There was an excellent day of concerts in St George’s in 2021 organised by friends including saxophonist Kevin Figes who released the music as A Celebration of Keith Tippett on his Pig Records label. Kevin also created a band called You Are Here (after Keith’s 1970 recording debut) which continues to play Tippett’s tunes among others, releasing their debut album in 2024. The book launch gathering at the Beacon, however, felt like an important coming together to celebrate Keith’s remarkable life and contribution to music, with Martin Phillips’ biography (and the two CDs of previously unreleased recordings that come with it) a worthy summation of just what a great man and musician Keith Tippett was.

Keith Tippett: Mujician is available from Jazz In Britain via Bandcamp

Kevin Figes You Are Here Sextet are playing at Bristol Music Club on May 27