Richard Tee
Richard Tee played keyboards on Roxy Music's Dance Away. He was not credited on the Manifesto album that Dance Away came from in 1979. The first acknowledgement of his input to the song was on The Thrill Of It All box set in 1995 and The Best Of Roxy Music in 2001
Highly regarded R&B and funk session keyboardist, who's worked on hundreds of sessions by every major name in the rock, soul and R&B worlds. His own recordings, plus his work with studio ensembles like Stuff have tended to be dry and predictable. He functions best when operating in prescribed, precisely structured role. A top rate keyboardist in studio. Richard Tee died in 1993 from prostate cancer at the age of 50. Over the course of a career that spanned some 25 years, Richard Tee defined the sound of contemporary music. From the mid '60s through the early '90s, when you heard a new tune on the radio with a particularly soulful piano, Rhodes, or B-3 part, he probably played it. In the recording industry he was royalty, a top-call player sought out by top producers such as Phil Ramone and Berry Gordy.
Outside of the music industry, however, the world was largely unaware of this giant of the groove. His recordings still continue to have an enormous impact on keyboardists around the world. From Aretha Franklin to Mariah Carey, Tee's parts were more than just the padding beneath the vocals on hit after hit -- they were an integral part of the arrangement. Often his intros and turnarounds became hooks themselves, the most memorable parts of the songs.