Sir Richard Rodney Bennett CBE was a highly respected British composer and pianist, whose work covered jazz performance and film music as well as challenging contemporary classical compositions. He relocated to New York in 1979, remaining there until he sadly passed away suddenly in December 2012. Andy had a great amount of respect for the great composer, both as a musician and as a person.
Andy Scott first encountered Richard Rodney Bennett's work while a student at RNCM, and soon after the Apollo Saxophone Quartet commissioned a work from him. Fast forward into the future, and Andy Scott was fortunate to have the opportunity to perform Bennett's Concerto for Stan Getz at the composer's 70th birthday concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by John Wilson. This in turn led to a collaboration over a new saxophone and piano version of the Ballad in Memory of Shirley Horn.
You can read about Sir Richard Rodney Bennett in Andy's words and see images from the birthday concert rehearsals and Andy's notated solos on Andy's website at:
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