Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)

Subject: Obit: Acker Bilk
From: Bert
Date: 02 Nov 14 - 04:08 PM

RIP.

Bye

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 02 Nov 14 - 04:27 PM

The very first record I ever bought was by Acker Bilk. I feel like a part of my life has gone.

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk
From: GUEST,Hilo
Date: 02 Nov 14 - 04:33 PM

Very sorry to hear this.Loved stranger On The Shore.

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk
From: GUEST,BanjoRay
Date: 02 Nov 14 - 07:08 PM

I used to play my first plectrum banjo along with Acker's records. Great jazz player.

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk
From: Leadfingers
Date: 02 Nov 14 - 07:33 PM

Not my personal favourite Jazz Clarinetist , but I did enjoy his playing , especially the early days ! R I P !

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Nov 14 - 11:38 PM

so that's why my radio station was playing his music when I turned it on

RIP

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: fat B****rd
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 02:12 AM

RIP Mr. Acker Bilk

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 03:30 AM

Another name from my youth gone. RIP.

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: GUEST,PeterC
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 05:24 AM

Remember going on a riverboat shuffle many years ago from Avonmouth, Acker Bilk's band was the second band! First band was Avon Cities Jazzmen, led by Graham something?

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: bubblyrat
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 05:24 AM

I met him when I worked as a stage door keeper at a theatre in Christchurch. He wasn't the most pleasant human I ever encountered,and was very demanding. He sent us a huge list,in advance of his booking, of the different alcoholic drinks that he wanted in his dressing-room;Litre bottles of beer and cider, bottles of spirits,bottles of red and white wine ;it was AMAZING !! Also,he invited various women who took his fancy , up to his dressing-room post-performance, and they were up there "on the piss" until 4 am !!! But his driver was a nice bloke !

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: Musket
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 05:29 AM

A little bit of trivia for you. Age Cutler used to be his tour manager.

Sadly, he was most famous for the one piece, making him a one trick pony in the ears of some, but his arrangements and style made him a musician's musician. Simon Bates once gave a fascinating talk of how he influenced him.

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 05:33 AM

Chris Barber is now about the last of the UK trad players I've followed since the '50s still playing. Acker was much better in clubs than doing the popular stuff on radio & tv but I actually preferred the perid when Bruce Turner was in his band and played most of the clarinet work,leaving Acker to tell jokes, sing and, of course, play what he called "Strangler on the Floor".
RtS
"Another man done gone"

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 07:23 AM

Adge Cutler went on to fame with his own group "The Wurzels". Ex Lancashire cricketer and trombone player Frank (catch a falling) Parr went on to work as "roadie" for the Bilk Band.

Bubblyrat, you must have caught him on an a rare off night unless as stage door keeper you were one of those "Jobsworths" that was the scourge of every Jazz musician's life and who were treated when necessary with contempt.

Hoot

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: ian1943
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 07:31 AM

I too bought my first record of Acker Bilk. I met him in the sixties when he played in Durham and found him to be a vey pleasant chap. He will have joined the great jazz band in heaven

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: Splott Man
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 07:42 AM

Does anyone remember the TV series for which Stranger on the Shore was the theme tune?
I remember it was about a French teenager staying with an English family on the Sussex coast, and the plot turned on the friends using a camera obscura.
Saturday teatime viewing I think.

Splott Man

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 09:04 AM

It's bad manners to speak ill of the dead bubblyrat, I met Acker when he and his band played at a summer concert in Halifax, he was an excellent bloke in all respects.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 10:28 AM

It wasn't till recently I found stranger on the shore has lyrics to it!

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 10:59 AM

He did a concert here in Bude about twenty years ago. We were there and it was great, even though that kind of stuff isn't really up my alley. He played hatless all evening, except for "Stranger", for which he donned the obligatory bowler!

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 02:36 PM

I saw him several times in my long-distant youth, during the so-called Trad Jazz boom: then there was a very long gap until he was booked at Sidmouth for the "pre-festival concert" - maybe about 4 years ago. By then he had survived (so I read) strokes and throat cancer, and could hardly get up the steps to the stage, but put in a great performance, including some singing in his now very gruff voice.
So glad I went to that concert.

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 03:58 PM

If one was to have one hit, you couldn't do better than "Stranger on the Shore", It is still as as evocative as it was when I first heard it, more than half a century ago. I was almost as fond of his recording of "Estrellita", which I unfortunately lost many years ago, and is much harder to find.

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: akenaton
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 04:38 PM

My favourite Aker record "Creole Jazz"
I remember the Trad Jazz boom of the fifties....Aker, Chris Barber, Kenny ball, Clyde Valley Stompers......Ah great days!

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: banjoman
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 05:58 AM

Favourite memory - In a Persian Garden - an early sort of video on a new juke box in our local Labour Club. Saw it again some years ago on TV.
Stranger on the shore is, I think, one of the most haunting melodies of recent time. Yes it does have words which begin
Here I Stand and watch the ships go out
So alone and blue
A stranger on the shore.
Anyone have the rest?

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: BanjoRay
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 12:12 PM

I loved In A Persian Garden, the Ketelby tune that Acker used to call In A Persian Carpet Bag....
Ray

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: fat B****rd
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 12:14 PM

Banjoman, was it not "In a Persian Market".

Here I stand
Watching the tide go out
So all alone and blue
Just dreaming dreams of you

I watched your ship
As it sailed out to sea
Taking all my dreams
And taking all of me

The sighing of the waves
The wailing of the wind
The tears in my eyes burn
Pleading, "My love, return"

Why, oh, why must I go on like this?
Shall I just be a lonely stranger on the shore?

Why, oh, why must I go on like this?
Shall I just be a lonely stranger on the shore?

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: GUEST,Dave Illingworth
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 12:27 PM

Yes    -   I have never heard anyone say a bad word about Acker.
"Strangler On The Shore" was a lucky accident, for which he was obviously very grateful.   He always had good bands (I saw him first at Croydon c1958,) including the great Bruce Turner, and made a couple of lovely laid-back albums with Humphrey Lyttelton.
Nice lazy vocals, too, and that typical jazz-man's sense of humour.
His take in silly song titles included "Trouble Over Bridgwater."
Just playing his lovely 1958 version of "Delia Gone".

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: fat B****rd
Date: 04 Nov 14 - 12:44 PM

Apologies. I should have credited the writers. The music by Mr. Acker Bilk and the lyric by Robert Mellin. I recall the Drifters version but also Booker T and the MGs did it as an album track.

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: banjoman
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 06:20 AM

I stand corrected on the title and the words of the song. Thanks

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 07:26 AM

An immediately recognisable 'sound'...much respected by his fellow jazz musicians.
A sad loss to Music & Life.
                                        My condolences to his Family & Friends,
                                                                                                      Nigel.

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: GUEST,Johnmc
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 09:55 AM

Scottish folk legend, Jimmie Macgregor, has a letter in The Herald today which descibes the man's affability and humour in the warmest of terms.

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: GUEST,MikeL2
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 10:22 AM

Hi Buubly

I worked with Acker many years ago. I too remember the orders for "refreshments"!! usually delivered by his brother( I think).

They always went down well(and the "refreshments too"). I always enjoyed watching and listening to him, even though I was not really my favourite style of Jazz.

RIP Acker

MikeL2

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: Sarah the flute
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 10:51 AM

Went to a concert about a year ago in Horsham where he and Chris Barber were playing. Chris Barber was amazing playing almost all the time and playing well and he was even standing up in the interval behind a table selling his CDs. Alas poor Acker was wheeled in, in a chair and had helpers to place his clarinet in his hands. It was all a bit painful to hear and he blamed all the mistakes on his backing band. Very sad and I don't think he should have ever done the gig in the state he was in. People clapped in sympathy rather than for the talent he once had.

Still RIP Acker

Sarah

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 05 Nov 14 - 07:52 PM

I probably caught him before he got to that stage then Sarah. And I have since seen Chris Barber, as you say, still "cutting it"!

Incidentally, "In a Persian Market" was originally written in 1920 by Albert Ketelbey from Birmingham UK (I kid you not with a name like that!) but Acker did his Trad Jazz take on it.
While looking for Blind Willie Johnson's song "Let the Light from the Lighthouse" recently on Youtube, I also came upon a Trad Jazz version from Acker. (Can't find it again now!)

Subject: RE: Obit: Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
From: Mr Red
Date: 06 Nov 14 - 05:28 AM

my favourite rendition is Acker singing an Adge Cutler song, about a village in Somerset. Nempnett Thrubwell.

You just gotta hear it, believe!

Loved Stranger on the Shore. But he wrote the tune for the birth of his daughter (who became his road manager). As it happened he was invited to write a tune for a TV show 2 days later and he said he finished it off on the way to the studio. I would guess a tune so evocative would attract a lyricist after the fact.

But lets be fair - he was a luminary in the Trad Jazz world, before.
I did hear tell that he was an arch traditionalist (Jazz on stage at least) until he tasted success in the pop world.