Dick Heckstall-Smith was a superb musician, and also my saxophone teacher. A lovely, generous man whose day job was lecturing at the LSE. He often used to play gigs with his fellow tenor player Art Themen, who during the day was neurologist. I got Dick to teach me when I was 15 (I already played the clarinet and very basic sax) after attending a gig they did at the Seven Dials club in Covent Garden. The paint was blistering off the walls that night, and afterwards, I approached Dick and said, excuse me, that was amazing, do you give lessons by any chance? He did and I was round at his apartment the following week. As an opening exercise he got me to learn how to play the Charlie Parker theme Donna Lee. Not easy!
