Wright, Rick

▪ 2009

Richard William Wright 

      British singer-songwriter and keyboardist

born July 28, 1943, Pinner, Middlesex, Eng.

died Sept. 15, 2008, London, Eng.

was a founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd; his jazz-infused, atmospheric keyboard work became a central feature of the group's improvisational, psychedelic sound. Wright studied (1962–64) at London's Regent Street Polytechnic College, where he studied architecture, and then enrolled (1964) at the London College of Music while teaching himself jazz piano and keyboard. By 1965 he had joined with three friends to form a band—drummer Nick Mason, guitarist Roger Waters, and Syd Barrett, the lead guitarist and chief songwriter who dubbed the group Pink Floyd. Their dramatic debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967), brought them immediate success, but excessive use of LSD and other drugs pushed Barrett into a mental breakdown. After Barrett's departure in 1968, Pink Floyd released several acclaimed albums, notably The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)—for which Wright composed several songs, including “Time,” “Us and Them,” and “The Great Gig in the Sky”—and Wish You Were Here (1975). Wright had a falling out with Waters after The Wall (1979) and left to pursue a solo career, though he performed on all but one of the band's later albums. He formally rejoined Pink Floyd for a 1994 reunion tour and for the London Live 8 concert in 2005.

* * *