His music has always been something special. I first discovered him when he wrote the hauntingly beautiful instrumental "Broken Wing" for Chet Baker. Later his trio albums for the ACT Munich Label with violinist Gregor Hübner and George Mraz - "Round about Bartok", "Round about Monteverdi" , "Round about Mompou" - were standout chamber crossovers.
Richard Alan Beirach surely was one of a kind - a stylistically highly original pianist, composer, and musician who played among others with Getz, Liebman, the Brecker Brothers. The last part of his life he spent in Germany, first he taught jazz piano at the Hochschule für Musik in Leipzig. Then he lived with two befriended musicians on a farm in a village in rural southwestern Germany.
RIP, Richie Beirach