Derek Wadsworth R.I.P.

[julian_craster]

Daily Telegraph Obituary

15 Dec 2008



Derek Wadsworth

Jazz trombonist who also wrote scores and jingles for films and television.



Derek Wadsworth - Telegraph



Derek Wadsworth, who has died aged 69, was among the most gifted and versatile composers for film and television of his generation. He was also a superb jazz trombonist.



In a career spanning half a century Wadsworth played, arranged or conducted for virtually every big name in popular music. He was particularly admired for his imaginative combination of electronic and "live" instruments, which imparted a characteristic warmth to his scores.



Derek Wadsworth was born at Cleckheaton, Yorkshire, on February 5 1939, and began playing the trombone at the age of 11. As a teenager he was a member of the celebrated Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band, and at 19 he joined Keith Smith's Jazz Cardinals in Huddersfield.



Although he had originally intended to study graphic design, he found himself immersed in the musical life. In 1960 he moved to London, where he worked with a series of dance bands, including the Squadronaires. In 1964 he joined Dusty Springfield's accompanying band and soon became her arranger and musical director. When the hippie musical Hair came to London in 1968, Wadsworth became its musical director.



His introduction to film music was as an arranger, beginning in 1970 with Spring and Port Wine. This was followed by Alfie Darling (1975), starring Alan Price, and the television series Space:1999 (1976), in which Wadsworth attempted to predict what the music of the future might sound like. This series later acquired the status of a cult classic, making the composer something of a celebrity among science fiction fans.



Among his many film credits are The Man Who Fell To Earth (directed by Nicholas Roeg, 1976), Britannia Hospital (Lindsay Anderson, 1983) and the Woody Allen documentary Wild Man Blues (1997).



At the same time Wadsworth was busy working not only as a composer, arranger and conductor, but also as an instrumentalist. He played the trombone with the bands of Georgie Fame and Maynard Ferguson as well as on innumerable recording sessions. Among those with whom he recorded as a player were George Harrison, Diana Ross, Tom Jones, Dionne Warwick and Tony Bennett. "We flitted from one studio to the next, never quite knowing what we had recorded," he recalled. "Now that there's money available for people who played on records of yesteryear we're all busy scrabbling about trying to find out who did what."



He arranged and conducted for Judy Garland, Kate Bush, Nina Simone, Shirley Bassey, Randy Crawford and Cat Stevens, and had a particularly close working relationship with Alan Price, for whom he arranged the album Between Today And Yesterday (1974). This contained The Jarrow Song, a brilliant marriage of pop and brass-band idioms.



He also played electronic keyboards on several albums, under the name "Daniel Caine", persuaded by the argument that Derek Wadsworth did not have a sufficiently "international" ring to it. His typically Yorkshire comment was: "We all have to make a twit of ourselves at least once in our lives."



Wadsworth's wry sense of humour was never far from the surface. Among the 200-odd television commercials for which he provided the music, his favourite was one for Imodium-Plus. "There I was, conducting a whole symphony orchestra in Methodist Central Hall – all very dignified and proper. And the voice-over says: 'One of these musicians had diarrhoea half an hour ago. Get Imodium-Plus today!'" He was also quite proud of Pick It Up!, the jolly little song he composed to accompany Ken Livingstone's anti-litter campaign.



Derek Wadsworth was working at full stretch until his sudden death on December 3. His wife, Betty, died in 1987 and he is survived by his partner, Patsy Halliday, and a son and a daughter of his marriage.

[wadsy]

I saw him on a tribute documentary for Dusty Springfield, he was her musical



arranger . Seemed like a lovely bloke! An exceptional talent! R.I.P. Derek.

[Lord Brett]

Indeed. I met Derek a couple of times and he was a really nice, down to Earth bloke who will be greatly missed.

[Freddie Freeloader]

Thank's for the post, Julian.



I played on numerous sessions for Waddy..in particular two Bill Tarmey albums!



As well as being a great musician, he was a warm hearted and witty man.

[CLAMBAKE]

name='Freddie Freeloader']Thank's for the post, Julian.



I played on numerous sessions for Waddy..in particular two Bill Tarmey albums!



As well as being a great musician, he was a warm hearted and witty man.

I was the recording engineer on both of the Bill Tarmy albums and working with Derek was always a real pleasure and he was a true gentlemen and fun to work with, this is a big shock