Early Years
Heckstall-Smith was born Richard Malden Heckstall-Smith in the Royal Free Hospital, in Ludlow, England, and attended a York boarding school. However, he refused a second term there, instead enrolling in Gordonstoun, where his father had accepted a job as headmaster of the local Grammar School. Dick Heckstall-Smith was raised in Knighton, Radnorshire. He learned to play piano, clarinet and alto saxophone in childhood.
Heckstall-Smith completed his education at Dartington Hall School before reading agriculture – and co-leading the university jazz band – at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, from 1953. Aged 15, he had taken up the soprano sax while at Dartington, captivated by the sound of Sidney Bechet. Then Lester Young and tenor saxophonist bebop jazzman Wardell Gray proved to be major influences for him.
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