After early experiences backing blues musicians, Hicks moved to New York in 1963. He was part of Art Blakey's band for two years, accompanied vocalist Betty Carter from 1965 to 1967, before joining Woody Herman's big band, where he stayed until 1970. Following these associations, Hicks expanded into freer bands, including those of trumpeters Charles Tolliver and Lester Bowie. He rejoined Carter in 1975; the five-year stay brought him more attention and helped to launch his recording career as a leader. He continued to play and record extensively in the United States and internationally. Under his own leadership, his recordings were mostly bebop-influenced, while those for other leaders continued to be in a diversity of styles, including multi-year associations with saxophonists Arthur Blythe, David Murray, David "Fathead" Newman, and Pharoah Sanders.
Early life[edit]
Hicks was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 21, 1941,[2] the eldest of five children.[3] As a child, he moved with his family around the United States, as his father, Rev. John Hicks Sr, took up jobs with the Methodist church.[2] His family was middle-class: "I was brought up as a decent human being, where you had aspirations and there were expectations", he commented.[2] His mother, Pollie,[1] was his first piano teacher,[4] after he began playing aged six or seven in Los Angeles.[2][5]
He took organ lessons, sang in choirs and tried the violin and trombone.[2] Around the age of 11, once he could read music, Hicks started playing the piano in church.[6]
His development accelerated once his family moved to St. Louis, when Hicks was 14 and he settled on the piano.[2] There, he attended Sumner High School[7] and played in schoolmate Lester Bowie's band, the Continentals,[8] which performed in a variety of musical styles.[9] Hicks cited influences "from Fats Waller to Thelonious Monk to Methodist church hymns",[4] as well as local pianists.[2] He was initially interested in the blues-based compositions of Horace Silver and popular songs such as "I Got Rhythm" and "There Will Never Be Another You", for their easily recognised harmonies.[10]
Hicks worked summer gigs in the southern United States with blues musicians Little Milton and Albert King.[2] His stint with Little Milton provided his first professional work, in 1958; Hicks stated that his playing in a variety of keys improved because the venue's piano was so out of tune that he had to transpose each piece that they played.[5] He studied music in 1958 at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania,[2][7] where he shared a room with drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson.[11] He also studied for a short time at the Berklee School of Music in Boston before moving to New York in 1963.[2]
Later life and career[edit]
1963–80[edit]
In New York, Hicks first accompanied singer Della Reese.[12] He then played with Joe Farrell and toured with trombonist Al Grey and tenor saxophonist Billy Mitchell.[2] In 1963 he was also part of saxophonist Pharoah Sanders' first band,[13] and appeared on CBC Television backing vocalist Jimmy Witherspoon.[14] After periods with Kenny Dorham and Joe Henderson, Hicks joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1964.[4] His recording debut was with Blakey in November that year on the album 'S Make It.[15][16] Early in 1965, Hicks toured with Blakey to Japan, France, Switzerland, and England.[5][16] Blakey encouraged his band members, including Hicks, to compose for the band,[17] although they also played compositions by previous members of the band.[18] He stayed with Blakey for two years,[2] during which time his playing was compared with that of McCoy Tyner, for the level of energy displayed and for some of the intervals that they used.[19]
Playing style[edit]
Fellow pianist George Cables stated that Hicks "was a very strong and energetic player, and a very warm player, very much part of the tradition".[19] Hicks's playing was sometimes criticized as being insubstantial; The Penguin Guide to Jazz commented that "This [...] is missing the point. Almost always, he is more concerned to work within the dimensions of a song than to go off into the stratosphere."[60]
Hicks had a style of his own, containing a "combination of irresistible creativity and responsiveness [...] encompassing swing, hard bop and the avant garde, and made him a first-call choice for many of the most important American modern jazz groups".[2] A reviewer of a 1993 release, Lover Man: A Tribute to Billie Holiday, commented that Hicks "mastered the technique of shaping a piano chord so it sounds like the rising and falling of a breath".[61] A few years later, another reviewer highlighted the "subtle dynamic shadings" of Hicks's left hand, and his "reverence for melody and a sense of musical destination that gives form to his improvisations."[62] As an accompanist, Hicks played delicately, with carefully voiced chords.[63]
Compositions and arrangements[edit]
His compositions "are wandering and melodic, suggestive and malleable yet memorable".[57] He "enjoyed writing arrangements for a quintet or sextet, often, like the finest jazz composers, tailoring parts to specific musicians. In the past, these have included artists of the caliber of Bobby Watson and Vincent Herring; more recently he has been working with Javon Jackson and Elise [Wood]".[64]