Keith Nichols (13/2/1945-20/1/21)

Because Keith Nichols could play most of the instruments in a band as well as, if not better than, the individual players themselves, he garnered a special respect and affection among musicians. Watching him rehearse the Royal Academy of Music jazz big band was a delight, as he shared every level of his expertise with his young students, and infused a generation brought up on the sounds of today’s players with a genuine passion for playing music from previous eras. Although he was a junior accordion champion, Keith mainly specialized on trombone and piano throughout his playing career. He was also a talented arranger, and tackled everything from Joplinesque ragtime to 1940s big bands with flair and attention to detail. But he was never hidebound by one period of jazz or another – when I once asked him to arrange a couple of Mingus pieces for a broadcast, he obliged with a really excellent pair of charts.

I first heard Keith in the mid-1970s New Paul Whiteman Orchestra with Dick Sudhalter reviving the Bix repertoire, but by that time, after finishing his studies at the Guildhall, he had already played for a couple of years with Mike Daniels’ jazz band, and worked with the Levity Lancers, bringing 1920s novelty music to the wilds of Canning Town. Thereafter Keith trod a fine line in his own work between twenties pastiche and such fine jazz ensembles as the Midnite Follies. Over the last 40 years or so, I’ve heard Keith with ensembles of various size at festivals all over the UK and Europe, wearing his instrumental brilliance lightly, and bringing charm and good humour to audiences everywhere. He sometimes felt like a straining racehorse against the tempo during his solos, but I shall always treasure his grin, looking up from the piano, at the sheer joy of making music.

He was a welcome dep in the London Ragtime Orchestra after our co-leader Ray Smith moved to Holland. Later we worked together on a show for the 120^th anniversary of Jelly Roll Morton’s birth for the 2010 London Jazz Festival, and Keith brought music from all eras of Morton’s work back to life with panache, both for the live audience at the RAM and for Radio 3 listeners. Gigs with Keith were always an adventure, and I will never forget the camper van and the dogs, as well as his ability to transform, wherever he was, from the chrysalis of woolly hat and parka into the butterfly of suave white tuxedo for the gig itself.

I had the unenviable task of following Keith as a lecturer in jazz history at the Academy, which was a very hard act to follow. Nobody has put it better than Gerard Presencer, who was head of the jazz programme when I started there: “Everyone who studied with Keith thought he was wonderful. He breathed life into early Jazz music and inspired us all.”