John Dankworth

John Dankworth, one of jazz's most eloquent advocates has died and its a sad loss. I never met him, but I admired his energy, skill and undoubted musicianship. In the 1970's Dankworth became a household name, largely due to the amazingly durable partnership with his wife, the singer Cleo Laine, I can recall whispers from the more purist critics that he had "sold out". This was both unfair and unfounded. There was, to be sure an element of the Svengali in his coaching of Ms Laine, but his his ability to reflect and compliment her extraordinary vocal range and dexterity was always, it seemed to me to be in the spirit of the discipline that formed him -bebop.

And as a bebop altoist he was a significant figure - you didn't get to be a founder member of the infamous Club Eleven unless you had the chops for it and he most certainly did. As he steadily worked his way towards creating the big bands his liquid sound and secure technique ensured that his musical ideas were always expressed with confidence and panache. In the early seventies I remember being lucky enough to be invited to the telerecordings of a series called "The big bands at the Dorchester", in those enlightened times when the BBC still had the guts to make such programmes and the John Dankworth Big Band equalled the power of the Buddy Rich Band and easily surpassed it for sheer depth of musical inventiveness. He was able to engage all the top players and they certainly had to work for their fee. One who worked particularly hard that night was the legendary Hank Shaw, generally considered to be the greatest bebop trumpeter of his generation.

So, since John Dankworth seemed to be a happy and fulfilled man and musician, let me end with a Hank Shaw story which doubtless made him very cheerful. Its not apocryphal, but the version that was told to me by another greatly missed star, bassist Lennie Bush, concerns a gig the Dankworth band were playing up north - Manchester, I believe. All the way up from London, the occupants of the band bus were subjected to Hank droning on about his latest discovery - Pelmanism. This aid to developing a good memory had, according to its latest disciple, changed his life - and much for the better. Hank only ran out of steam as they arrived at their destination when he realised - he'd left his trumpet at home.

If this story has been embellished over the years - my apologies. The condolensces of the whole music world, not just the jazz part of it go to Cleo and to her two very talented children, Alec and Jacqui, who will keep the Dankworth name alive for a long time to come.