Gordon Beck obituary

Jazz pianist whose main fan base was in continental EuropeThere cannot be many jazz musicians who have simultaneously possessed a flying phobia and a pilot's licence. That has long been a favourite anecdote about Gordon Beck, the lean, stonily impassive and technically awesome pianist, who has died aged 76. Beck had the licence because his first career was in aeronautical engineering, and the phobia because his complex personality mixed deep-seated anxieties with a fearless appetite for freefall...

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