[78-L] fwd: Johnny Dankworth dies

[Kristjan Saag]

Unbelievable.
In one year's time: Vic Davis, Jeff Clyne, Johnny Almond, Pete King, Blossom 
Dearie, Ian Carr, Hugh Hopper, Johnny Dankworth...
Kristjan

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Lennick" <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
To: "78L" <78-L at 78online.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 06, 2010 11:37 PM
Subject: [78-L] fwd: Johnny Dankworth dies


http://www.jazzwisemagazine.com/component/content/article/51-2009/11127-jazz-breaking-news-giant-of-british-jazz-sir-john-dankworth-dies-at-82


Sir John Dankworth, who died today aged 82, was one of the totemic figures 
of
British jazz, the first major jazz musician and the first British bebopper 
to
be knighted, a leading musician, who with his wife Dame Cleo Laine, became
known to the broader public beyond the jazz world and to an international
audience particularly in America.

Sir John had been in poor health for same time and back in November, before 
the
London Jazz Festival where he was due to appear, was hospitalised with some
fears that he would not make the concert. But made it he did even sitting on
the stage in a wheelchair for the duration of the concert.

Born in Essex in 1927, Dankworth grew up in Walthamstow in a family of
musicians and began to play clarinet after gaining a liking for the music of
Benny Goodman. He later took up saxophone and studied at the Royal Academy 
of
Music before national service. A high flier soon on the jazz scene in the UK 
he
became a favourite with readers of Melody Maker in the late-1940s and was 
voted
musician of the year, touring further afield with Sidney Bechet and even 
played
with Charlie Parker in Paris. His group the Dankworth Seven became a 
favourite
on the local scene in the 1950s and later his big band extended the scope 
for
his writing activities and ambitions and played at the Newport Jazz Festival 
in
the States. Cleo Laine’s singing was a feature of his band’s performances 
and
the pair married in 1958.

Dankworth began a parallel career as a film and TV composer and became known 
to
a wider public for the music he wrote for The Avengers, Tomorrow’s World and
Modesty Blaise. He made the charts with ‘African Waltz’ and became a 
frequent
presence on radio and TV.

Aside from his musical career he developed a theatre, The Stables, in the
garden of his home at Wavendon in Buckinghamshire which flourishes to this 
day
and he became heavily involved in jazz education and as an ambassador for 
jazz.
For his services to the music he was made a knight bachelor in the 2006 New
Year’s Honours List.

- Stephen Graham
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