The Player: Richard Fairhurst

“The piano is like an orchestra,” says Fairhurst. “You have so many possibilities for sound creations every time you sit down. I love the warmth, the feeling of discovering a great chord sequence, a beautiful melody. Just improvising is a great way of finding different textures and coming up with new ideas.”

From as far back as he can remember, Fairhurst recalls that “there was always a piano around the house, and my mum played well. I had heard some Scott Joplin from the film The Sting and she taught me how to play ‘Maple Leaf Rag’ and ‘The Entertainer’. I was very young, but I memorised where her fingers moved bar by bar and ended up playing those pieces over and over.”

However, Fairhurst’s first instrument was the guitar: “I started playing the guitar at primary school and it was about twice the size of me as I was quite a small child. I remember it feeling like Christmas having my own instrument!”

Fairhurst moved over to the piano when he was 14. “I bought a full 88-key Yamaha keyboard to have in my bedroom so I could practice more. I practiced in the middle of the night until the early hours with headphones plugged in. I still remember my mum asking me what all the banging around was coming from my bedroom in the night. It was the weighted keys of the keyboard, and probably me playing McCoy Tyner riffs!”

Fairhurst was fortunate to go to a school with a very strong music department. He explains: “We had moved to Leicester and the school I went to in my teens had an incredible music department with a lot of jazz players teaching there. Most were well known around the Midlands scene. The head of music was the most inspiring and encouraging person. He would go up to people in the corridors and say things like ‘you look like a flute player, come with me, you’re starting flute lessons now’. They had a beautiful grand piano, and about 10 practice rooms with upright pianos in them. I used to skip lessons to go and hang out in the music department, it was such a fun place to be.

“I was into the Oscar Peterson Trio sound from the age of 14 when I started piano lessons. I set up my own trio with a friend who was learning drums and a bass player who pretended to play acoustic bass, I don’t think he even had any lessons but he was tall and we thought we looked like the real deal as a piano trio. I got my piano teacher to copy arrangements of standards and started to learn about improvising. We played at school concerts and got lots of attention from other students who seemed to be impressed and would book us for parties.”

So apart from his mother’s B Squire piano and the Yamaha keyboard, what pianos has Fairhurst owned?

“I got a Steinway upright piano when I was 19. It was so beautiful and I still have it today. I went to Steinway Hall in London to select it myself. I remember it being delivered with its shiny black lacquer and warm sound; having that piano everything I knew how to play immediately sounded better.”

It was at this point that Fairhurst gained a scholarship to study in New York at the New School. “It was amazing. I was still just 19 and I lived in Greenwich Village, a few blocks from the Village Vanguard, so I was able to go to all the great clubs in NYC every night and hear the greatest musicians play. I found myself in the Coltrane ensemble, being taught by Blue Note recording artist Reggie Workman! That was a very formative period.”

Fairhurst currently owns a Steinway model ‘K’: “It’s their largest upright piano and has a beautiful warm sound and the touch, feel and response when you play is very special.” However, his ideal home piano would be a Steinway model ’D’.

“When you play one of those the sound you get inspires you to create. They all sound and feel different but they always give something back They are just outstanding instruments to play.”

Fairhurst clearly favours acoustic instruments, but I wondered whether, apart from the Yamaha, he'd ever ventured into the electronic world.

“Yes!” He elaborates. “I used to play synths’ in my band Hungry Ants and with my sextet, as I was really into how Joe Zawinul and Django Bates used electronics in their music. I had a Nord Synth Fender Rhodes - I love the earthy sound of these classic instruments. I used this in my sextet to make interesting, funky sounds. I also have a Moog Grandmother. That’s a great semi-modular analogue synth with spring reverb. It’s so easy and intuitive to use and create patches and crazy sonics with.”

I ask the million dollar question: ‘What does music mean to you’?

“This sounds cliched, but playing music is something that allows you to express your emotions. It’s healing, calming, meditative. It can transport you to another plane. I think they call it ‘flow state’. It's a feeling you get when you’re in the zone and the music is just happening effortlessly around you. When that happens on a gig it’s like a drug, you want more of it.”

This article originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of Jazzwise. Whether you want to enjoy Jazzwise online, explore our Reviews Database or our huge archive of issues, or simply receive the magazine through your door every month, we've got the perfect subscription for you. Find out more at magsubscriptions.com