Neil Richard Ardley was born on May 26, 1937, in Wallington, Surrey, England. He began learning piano at age thirteen and later took up the saxophone. After studying chemistry at Bristol University, he moved to London and studied arranging and composing with Ray Premru and Bill Russo from 1960 to 1961. Ardley joined the John Williams Big Band as a pianist and became the director of the New Jazz Orchestra from 1964 to 1970. His breakthrough came with Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe (1969), an album by the New Jazz Orchestra that is now considered a classic of British jazz. Ardley's subsequent releases, including Greek Variations & Other Aegean Exercises (1970) and A Symphony of Amaranths (1972), continued to receive critical acclaim. He died on February 23, 2004, in Derbyshire.
