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Humphrey Lyttelton

Humphrey Lyttelton is descended from a long line of land-owning, political, military, clerical, scholastic and literary forebears. Not a musician among them. He claims to have most in common with a former Humphrey Lyttelton who was executed for complicity with Guy Fawkes in the Gunpowder plot.

He was born on May 23rd, 1921 in Eton College, where his father was a famous housemaster, and where he was subsequently educated. During the war, he served as an officer in the Grenadiar Guards and, on demobilisation, studied for two years at Camberwell Arts School.

In 1949, he joined the London Daily Mail as cartoonist, during which time he also wrote the story-line for Trog's 'Flook' cartoon" Trog being the nom de plume of clarinetist Wally Fawkes.

He formed his first jazz band in 1948, after spending a year with George Webb’s Dixielanders, a band which pioneered New Orleans-style jazz in Britain. Humphrey Lyttelton and His Band, with Wally Fawkes on clarinet, soon became the leading traditional jazz band in Britain, with a high reputation in Europe gained through many Continental tours.

In 1949, he signed a recording contract with EMI, resulting in a string of now much sought-after recordings in the Parlophone Super Rhythm Style series. Prior to that, the band had already made records on his own London Jazz label, and had accompanied the great Sidney Bechet in an historic session for Melodisc in 1949. It was for Parlophone that Humph recorded his own ‘Bad Penny Blues’ which, in 1956, was the first British jazz record to get into the Top Twenty.

Highspots of that early period include a visit with an all star British band to the first International Jazz Festival in Nice (1948), where he ‘sat in’ with the likes of Rex Stewart, Jack Teagarden and Earl Hines and where Louis Armstrong was heard to say 'That boy's comin' on!'. In 1956, when Louis Armstrong and his All Stars played a run of concerts in London, Humphrey Lyttelton and his Band were chosen to open the shows. On the last night, during the finale, Humph put a homemade crown on Satchmo's head and, belatedly, crowned him 'King of Jazz'.

In the late Fifties, Humph shocked many of his fans by enlarging his band and his repertoire to include mainstream and other non-traditional material. The eight-piece band with its saxophone section of Tony Coe, Jimmy Skidmore and Joe Temperley, toured the United States successfully in 1959 and led to fruitful collaborations in Britain with Buck Clayton, Buddy Tate and blues-singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Turner during the next decade.

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Album Review

Humphrey Lyttelton: In Canada

Read "In Canada" reviewed by Hrayr Attarian


The most prolific of the British trad jazz revivalists, trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton had a long and varied career both as a musician and a broadcaster. In 1983 Lyttelton lead a Toronto based group on a session for Sackville interpreting eight songs penned by him. In Canada now reissued on Delmark showcases not only Lyttleton's superb trumpet mastery but also his skills as a composer and a clarinetist. The most memorable tune on the album is the Calypso flavored ...

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Hardly Strictly Jazz

England Swings Like A Pendulum Do

Read "England Swings Like A Pendulum Do" reviewed by Skip Heller


Several years ago, when the Skip Heller Trio was touring all the time, I came across a disc called London Is The Place For Me: Trinidadian Calypso In London, 1950-1956 (Honest Jons, 2002), a collection of calyspo music recorded in London. The music and accompanying thick booklet were full of revelations: the history of postwar migration from Trinidad to London, the role of jazz, Jamaican music and Latin music in the evolution of calypso... there was a lot. The first ...

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TV / Film

Jazz 625: British Jazz

Jazz 625: British Jazz

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Between April 1964 and August 1966, BBC2 in the U.K. aired an hour-long TV show called Jazz 625. It was broadcast on 625-lines UHF rather than the 405-lines VHF system then used by the other channels. This allowed for a better signal at home. What was particularly noteworthy about the show is that it began airing after a long-running dispute between the U.K. Musician's Union and the American Federation of Musicians was resolved. This allowed American musicians to perform in ...

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Music Industry

Humphrey Lyttelton - They called him Humph

Humphrey Lyttelton - They called him Humph

Source: All About Jazz

This weekend saw a BBC tribute to Humphrey Lyttelton, jazz trumpeter, band-leader and much-loved Radio 4 presenter who died in April. Pat Parker was privileged to conduct one of his final interviews, in which he spoke candidly about his life IT WAS just before Christmas last year that I interviewed the great Humphrey Lyttelton. He hadn't been terribly well but was as genial, gentlemanly and generous as always. The previous year, 2006, had brought sadness. His wife, Jill, whom he ...

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Obituary

Jazz Legend Humphrey Lyttelton Dies

Jazz Legend Humphrey Lyttelton Dies

Source: All About Jazz

Humphrey Lyttelton, jazz musician and presenter of Radio 4 comedy show “I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue", has died aged 86. Lyttelton, who had hosted the “self-styled antidote to panel games" since 1972, was admitted to hospital earlier this week for surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm. Best known as a musician, Lyttelton began playing the trumpet in 1936 and still toured with his band up until recently. In 1956, Lyttelton's Bad Penny Blues was the first British jazz record ...

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Event

Stacey Kent and Humphrey Lyttelton live!

Stacey Kent and Humphrey Lyttelton live!

Source: All About Jazz

Humphrey Lyttelton & Stacey Kent ?Between Friends? Worthing Pavilion Sunday 23 June 2002

This production, live at the Worthing Pavilion, achieves the best of both worlds ? a swinging stage show with the atmosphere of a club session!

Two internationally acclaimed jazz stars, a band handpicked for their versatility and swing, special guest star Jim Tomlinson ? what more could a music fan want?

The Inimitable Humphrey Lyttelton:

Humph has been a star for longer than most of us can ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Soho Scene '66 and...

Rhythm & Blues Records
2020

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In Canada

Delmark Records
2015

buy

Cornucopia 2

Self Produced
2007

buy

Triple Exposure

Calligraph Records
2004

buy

A Tribute To Humph -...

Calligraph Records
1986

buy

A Tribute To Humph -...

Calligraph Records
1985

buy

Videos

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