[78-L] More about Johnny Dankworth

[David Lennick]

Jazz Promo Services wrote:
> http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/first-knight-of-british-jazz-johnny-dankworth-dies-1892257.html
> 
> 
> 
> February 8, 2010
> First knight of British jazz, Johnny Dankworth, dies
> 
> S/holto Byrnes bids farewell to a pioneer who shared the stage with 
> Herbie Hancock and Ella Fitzgerald
> 
> /Johnny Dankworth, who has died aged 82, was one of the few British 
> musicians who not only were world-class but were recognised as such, 
> taking to the stage on clarinet or sax with the proverbial Who's Who of 
> jazz, from Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock to Gerry Mulligan, Oscar 
> Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald.
> 
> On one occasion, dining with Duke Ellington at the house of the Queen's 
> cousin, Gerald Lascelles, Dankworth even stepped in at the piano when 
> the Duke found he'd forgotten one of his own tunes halfway through - not 
> an act many would have been capable of, or dared to do.
> 
> With Dankworth's death we see the passing of a generation; men and women 
> who enriched British musical life and wove jazz into the fabric of so 
> many other art forms. One reason he will be so missed and remembered so 
> fondly is for his commitment to share that passion. It was 40 years ago 
> that he and his wife, Cleo Laine, established The Stables at Wavendon, a 
> charity that has provided education and opportunities for generations of 
> young musicians. Indeed, Cleo announced his death on Saturday evening at 
> a gala celebrating The Stables' anniversary.
> 
> He also instigated the jazz course at the Royal Academy of Music, an 
> area of study common in such institutions now, but highly controversial 
> in classical circles at the time.
> 
> The coverage allotted to the passing of Johnny Dankworth may prove not 
> quite so extensive as that after the deaths of his contemporaries, 
> Ronnie Scott and Humphrey Lyttelton. Scott's famous Soho club and 
> Lyttelton's hosting of radio programmes such as I'm Sorry I Haven't a 
> Clue earned them a continuing renown with a wider public which often had 
> only a passing acquaintance with jazz.
> 
> The honours system, however, got it right for once in awarding Dankworth 
> - actually Sir John - a knighthood in 2006. As he said at the time: 
> "It's so nice for jazz to get something like this. As far as I know I'm 
> the first from the jazz world to get a knighthood."
> 
> Genial, friendly and quick to smile, Dankworth was described by Philip 
> Larkin as "dandyish, witty, occasionally tender" as far back as 1964. 
> But the title of Dankworth's autobiography, Jazz in Revolution, points 
> us to the fire beneath the charm.
> 
> He, Scott and others were the first British musicians to witness and 
> then to explore the new avant-garde style of jazz, bebop, that emerged 
> from New York after the Second World War. As Dankworth put it: "To say 
> that jazz was divided about the validity and desirability of bebop would 
> be seriously understating the case. It would be like saying the 
> Americans were a tiny bit cross with the Japanese after Pearl Harbour, 
> or that Hitler was unkind to the Jews." When Humphrey Lyttelton 
> introduced an alto saxophonist into his line-up, a placard reading "Go 
> home, dirty bopper" was waved at one of his gigs.
> 
> Dankworth didn't wish to be caught on either side of this divide. He 
> always cherished the pre-war styles of clarinetists Jimmie Noone and 
> Benny Goodman. But he was also invited to play alongside (and share a 
> saxophone with) the high priest of bebop, Charlie Parker. Dankworth was 
> capable of being a proper "dirty bopper" too, and did much to shake up 
> the music scene of the Fifties where "jazz" was represented by the 
> polite, formal stylings of the Ambrose or Ted Heath orchestras.
> 
> He, and the scat singing of his wife Cleo, were paid the compliment of 
> being taken off in a 1983 Two Ronnies sketch - a level of recognition no 
> jazz (as opposed to jazz/pop) musician in the country could dream of today.
> 
> The many film scores and the television themes (The Avengers, Tomorrow's 
> World) were important in his life - the latter, in particular, a 
> reminder that skill in composition and orchestration of these miniatures 
> was once more highly valued than it is today, as was the employment of 
> real musicians, rather than the synth-sampled horns and strings with 
> which cheapskate production companies litter the soundtracks of so many 
> contemporary shows.
> 
> But it was the jazz that really mattered. It may be hard to discern in 
> the photographs of the distinguished-looking old gentleman in top hat 
> and morning suit, off to be knighted by the Queen. But Sir Johnny 
> Dankworth was also, in his own modest manner, a truly English 
> revo/lutionary.
> 
> Sholto Byrnes is Contributing Editor of the Ne/w* Statesman.
> 
> Sir Johnny Dankworth:* A jazz great
> 
> *Born 1927. Won a place at the Royal Academy of Music aged 17, and was 
> voted British Musician of the Year in 1949.
> 
> *Met Cleo Laine in 1950 while auditioning singers for his band. They 
> married in 1958.
> 
> *Performed with jazz luminaries such as Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, 
> Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.
> 
> *Composed film /scores including Saturday Night a/nd/ Sunday Mor/ning,/ 
> The Servant a/nd Modesty Blaise, as well a/s theme tune/s to The 
> Aven/gers, right, and/ Tomorrow's World.
> 
> *Founded the London Symphony Orchestra's Summer Pops in 1985,as artistic 
> director. *Made a CBE in 1974 and knighted in 2006.
> 
> *The couple converted outbuildings at their Milton Keynes home into The 
> Stables theatre, and ran music education programmes there.
>