Kenny Ball - RIP

[Kath]

What a bloke - went to see him in a tiny venue in South Wales last year - a really nice bloke - very sad news - I know not a sax player but all the same . . . . sad to lose a fab musician

 

[Colin the Bear]

I've been having a reminisce on YouTube. I think I'll stick a couple of his numbers in my repertoire. Midnight in Moscow was in there years ago. Sukiyaki sounds promising. I'd forgotten the hit he had with the jungle book song "I wanna be like you"

End of an era. Just Bilk and Barber left now. Both still on tour in their mid 80's.

Fitting I thought

http://youtu.be/603jGzk41j4

 

[kevgermany]

saw him once at a company do. Wonderful entertainer and musician. Will be sorely missed.

 

[TomMapfumo]

Sad to hear of anyone dying. Sadly, it was Kenny Ball and Acker Bilk that nearly destroyed any interest I had in Jazz, or at least delayed it until I discovered Jan Garbarek, Tommy Smith and Andy Sheppard some 24 years ago................

 

[Young Col]

It's a pity that such fine musicians as Kenny Ball and Acker Bilk got caught up in the frothy pop trad boom in the 60's. No doubt it gave the record producers a good profit and it gave a good income and some fame to those musicians, even if it was not the way that they really wanted the music to go. Ken Collyer for example stayed rather truer to his roots but he didn't get the popular acclaim that the others did. While it may have turned some away from jazz, paradoxically it also encouraged others to look beneath the surface to find the real art form that existed (and exists) in its various forms.

 

[Saxade]

As a kid he ... among'st others dragged me to the dark side..called Jazz. once there I eventually chose a different style..
but he and his band gave me my first thrill... never forgotten

Adrian

 

[Kingsleyhk]

Great musician, did his time in the big bands and, by all accounts, was a very fine trumpet player (I'm not qualified to judge). And he made a lot of money, so therefore he could have had no artistic merit whatever! (Irony there)

The clue is in the fact that he was a professional musician. They all compromised - even as uncommercial a band as Mick Mulligan played dance music - read Owning up if you don't believe me. I saw Terry Lightfoot play once in the late 70s - he played alto a lot of the night, because it was a dance.

Ball and Bilk (in particular) turned me and many of my mates as early teenagers into listeners to jazz and, in some cases, players. A lot of it was about the band's gimmicks - bowler hats, striped waistcoats - even Confederate Army uniforms - but we were fourteen!

I grew out of trad and started listening to modern, but eventually came to a broader view of jazz. But for the start in the music - listening and playing - I have to thank those guys. I owe them an eternal debt of gratitude.

 

[dooce]

Well put. Commercial success may not necessarily equal great art but if it gets the "uneducated masses" listening to something outside of the box, fair play to them. And if it earns a bloody good musician a good wage, even fairer.

Even though I will now usually avoid trad jazz at all costs, I love Kenny Balls music and he definitely opened my young ears to a wider range of music.

Great musician, did his time in the big bands and, by all accounts, was a very fine trumpet player (I'm not qualified to judge). And he made a lot of money, so therefore he could have had no artistic merit whatever! (Irony there)

The clue is in the fact that he was a professional musician. They all compromised - even as uncommercial a band as Mick Mulligan played dance music - read Owning up if you don't believe me. I saw Terry Lightfoot play once in the late 70s - he played alto a lot of the night, because it was a dance.

Ball and Bilk (in particular) turned me and many of my mates as early teenagers into listeners to jazz and, in some cases, players. A lot of it was about the band's gimmicks - bowler hats, striped waistcoats - even Confederate Army uniforms - but we were fourteen!

I grew out of trad and started listening to modern, but eventually came to a broader view of jazz. But for the start in the music - listening and playing - I have to thank those guys. I owe them an eternal debt of gratitude.