Richard Beirach
Born in New York City in 1947, Richard Alan Beirach’s (Richie Beirach) musical path first led him through the classical realm, beginning piano lessons at age five, and then broaching the jazz world at 13, studying with Italian pianist James Palmieri and taking classes from Lennie Tristano before joining Berklee College of Music and a year later the Manhatten School of Music.
Prior to his arrival at ECM, Beirach spent the late 60s and 70s learning the ropes and exploring his trade alongside jazz masters such as Stan Getz and Chet Baker. Informed by both the wide-flung eccentrics of Chick Corea and the harmonic comprehensiveness of Bill Evans, Beirach carved out his own lyrical language, a distinct modernist style. During the same period, he became a close acquaintance of saxophonist David Liebman, a relationship that would last decades and yield many fruitful collaborations and recording sessions [...]
Born in New York City in 1947, Richard Alan Beirach’s (Richie Beirach) musical path first led him through the classical realm, beginning piano lessons at age five, and then broaching the jazz world at 13, studying with Italian pianist James Palmieri and taking classes from Lennie Tristano before joining Berklee College of Music and a year later the Manhatten School of Music.
Prior to his arrival at ECM, Beirach spent the late 60s and 70s learning the ropes and exploring his trade alongside jazz masters such as Stan Getz and Chet Baker. Informed by both the wide-flung eccentrics of Chick Corea and the harmonic comprehensiveness of Bill Evans, Beirach carved out his own lyrical language, a distinct modernist style. During the same period, he became a close acquaintance of saxophonist David Liebman, a relationship that would last decades and yield many fruitful collaborations and recording sessions as part of the groups Lookout Farm, Quest and in countless duo meetings.
Their remarkable two-way understanding is documented on albums like Forgotten Fantasies (1976), Omerta (1978) and Double Edge (recorded in 1985, released in 1990), though Lookout Farm (1974), Beirach and Liebman’s first appearances for ECM, can be considered one of their most significant and influential joint endeavours. A rare combination of acoustic dynamics and electric fire, the album saw Beirach and Liebman in a group context with drummer Jeff Williams, John Abercrombie on electric guitar, bassist Frank Tusa, percussionist Don Alias and others performing a blazing and electrifying music that anticipated the sort of jazz meets rock idiom that would go on to dominate the first half of that decade.
“It was a very important record for all of us,” Beirach later recalled. “We did the tune called “M.D.” by Dave Liebman and it had a long piano intro, and it came out really good. I was very happy with it. And after the first take Manfred [Eicher] comes to me out of the listening room and says ‘Richie, that was a great intro. Would you like to make a trio record?’ I thought ‘Would I?! Of Course!’”
The pianist reconnected with Tusa and Williams a year later, for the recording of his leader debut on ECM, 1975’s EON. His solo date Hubris followed in 78, an album that saw him step into the same lineage of legendary pianists like Paul Bley, Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett who recorded solo albums for the label before him. ELM with bassist George Mraz and Jack DeJohnette ensued in 79. A somewhat overlooked trifecta of leader recordings, these three albums epitomize Beirach’s unique voice as a pianist and as a composer.
Beirach maintained several close musical relationships throughout the decades, and his affiliation to John Abercrombie was another. They met in New York in the late 60s – Lookout Farm was their first in-studio-collaboration. The pianist was later part of Abercrombie’s “first quartet”, a prolific and highly creative working band that included George Mraz and Peter Donald, recording three acclaimed albums for ECM between 1978 and 1980, Arcade, Abercrombie Quartet and M. (Somewhere between those album sessions Beirach also made it to the studio for saxophonist George Adams’s sole ECM date Sound Suggestions, a fiery blowout between Adams, Kenny Wheeler on trumpet and tenor sax player Heinz Sauer with DeJohnette on drums and Dave Holland on bass.)
“We just naturally gravitated towards each other,” Abercrombie once noted, commenting on his seamless interplay with Beirach and the blind understanding they shared. “Every time I played a phrase and landed on a note, it seemed like Richie was there with me, with what seemed like the perfect chord. He’s really an incredible musician.”
The Beirach-Liebman team reappeared on ECM with 1975’s Drum Ode, and duo projects of the two followed in the 80s on a variety of labels. In the 90s George Mraz became his go-to guy – the bassist and pianist appeared on over 10 albums between 97 and 2007 alone, among them several trio records with drummer Billy Hart as well as multiple albums with violinist Gregor Huebner. Beirach and Huebner became acquainted in Leipizig, Germany, where the pianist moved to in 2001 and took up a professorship at the Felix-Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Musikhochschule that would last for almost 15 years.
Today Beirach can still be heard and seen spreading wisdom on piano-theoretical concepts as well as sharing his experiences and thoughts about some of his most significant influences in videos online. In one of them, discussing Bill Evans, he comes to the conclusion that “very often the things that we consider to be new are not new. They’re just new combinations or reanimations and reimaginations of things that have already been done, put together in a different way.” Seldom were they put together as thoughtfully as by Richie.
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