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Dick Twardzik
He trained in classical piano as a child and made his professional debut at the age of fourteen. He was taught by Margaret Chaloff, the mother of baritone saxophone player Serge Chaloff. Twardzik recorded with Serge Chaloff and with Charlie Mariano. He worked with Charlie Parker on several occasions toward the end of Parker's life. Twardzik also played professionally with Chet Baker and Lionel Hampton. He recorded with Baker and Chaloff in 1954 and 1955.
In his teen years Twardzik became addicted to heroin. He died from a heroin overdose while on tour with Chet Baker in Europe.
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Dick Twardzik Trio: Complete Recordings
by David Rickert
Dick Twardzik is one of the great What Ifs in jazz. After a promising start backing the likes of saxophonists Charlie Parker and Serge Chaloff, showing a penchant for inventive originals and ingenious reworking of melodies, he succumbed to a drug overdose at the age of 24 while on tour with Chet Baker. He is one of several musicians who had yet to reach his full potential before succumbing to a drug addiction, and surely would have been recognized as ...
read moreDick Twardzik and Jay Migliori
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Boston had a heavy home-grown jazz scene in the 1940s and '50s. Top music schools were thee, a steady college demographic ensured a sophisticated club audience, and Boston was a major stop on the East Coast club touring circuit. Jazz musicians who benefited from the rich jazz activity were Serge Chaloff, Dick Wetmore, Charlie Mariano, Jaki Byard, Jimmy Woode, Varty Haroutunian, Boots Mussulli, Herb Pomeroy and others. Among the many jazz clubs in Boston back then was the Stable, in ...
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Bob Freedman on Dick Twardzik
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Following my post last week on pianist Dick Twardzik and his death in 1955 of a heroin overdose, I received an email from saxophonist and arranger Bob Freedman, who has worked with Maynard Ferguson, Sarah Vaughan, Grady Tate, Buddy Morrow, Lena Horne, Joe Williams, the Thad Jones and Mel Lewis band and many others. (For my earlier chat with Bob on Ferguson, go here). Bob sent along his recollections of Twardzik... In 1948, when I was 14, I joined the ...
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Dick Twardzik: Piano Enigma
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Before Bill Evans, there was Dick Twardzik. Not that they played anything alike. Twardzik was a much more percussive pianist who mixed stormy dynamics with cat-like sensitivity, while Evans was a smoldering, graceful swinger. Both musicians were romantics, both were influenced by Bud Powell, both went into a trance when they played piano and both were perilously hooked on narcotics. Twardzik died at age 24 of a heroin overdose in 1955 just as Evans was emerging. Evans, of course, would ...
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Dick Twardzik Bio Lives!
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Night Lights Classic Jazz
Richard Twardzik, the rather haunted-looking pianist who was a mainstay of the Boston jazz scene in the early 1950s, recorded only once as a leader before dying at the age of 24 during a European tour with Chet Baker. His quirky, fluid style, influenced by Bud Powell and Art Tatum and sprinkled with touches of dissonance and classical music, has led some to compare him to fellow 1950s iconoclasts Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols. Now Bouncin' With Bartok, a long-awaited ...
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