Richie Powell

Richie Powell (September 5, 1931 – June 26, 1956) was an American bebop jazz pianist. He was born into a musical family in New York City, and was the younger brother of Bud Powell, also a pianist. Although sometimes considered less gifted than his bebop-icon brother, he was a respected musician and was beginning to achieve recognition at the time of his death.^[1]

Richie Powell studied at City College of New York. He played in the bands of Paul Williams (1951–52) and Johnny Hodges (1952-54),^[2] and from 1954 until his death he was a member of the group co-led by Clifford Brown and Max Roach.

In 1956, after an informal gig at a Philadelphia store called Music City, Powell and Brown were being driven overnight by Powell's wife Nancy to an engagement in Chicago. During the dark rainy night Nancy lost control of the vehicle on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, heading for Cleveland, and in the early hours of 26 June all three occupants were killed.^[3]

Max Roach told Ben Sidran in the book Talking Jazz,^[4] "When Clifford and Richie were taken away from us in that awful accident, that unfortunate accident that happened, the group still traveled. We had been booked beyond that, so I honored some of those jobs, as much as I could. Of course, it was a traumatic and emotional experience for me. I mean, I was really in never-never land for quite a while."

Pianist McCoy Tyner, who grew up next door to Richie and brother Bud in Philadelphia,^[5] purportedly got some of his inspiration to develop his pentatonic chord voicings because he heard Richie voice left-hand chords in fourths.^[6]

Discography

As sideman

With Clifford Brown and Max Roach

• Jam Session (EmArcy, 1954) - with Maynard Ferguson and Clark Terry
• Brown and Roach Incorporated (EmArcy, 1954)
• Daahoud (Mainstream, 1954 [1973])
• Study in Brown (EmArcy, 1955)
• Max Roach and Clifford Brown in Concert (GNP Crescendo, 1955)
• Clifford Brown and Max Roach (EmArcy, 1955)
• Clifford Brown with Strings (EmArcy, 1955)
• Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street (EmArcy, 1956)

With Sonny Rollins

• Sonny Rollins Plus 4, (Prestige, 1956)

With Dinah Washington

• Dinah Jams (EmArcy, 1954)

With Johnny Hodges

• At a Dance, in a Studio, on Radio (Enigma, 1954) - with John Coltrane and Lawrence Brown

References