[Dixielandjazz] Short Biog: Ken Slater

[KenASlater at aol.com]

Hi Listmates.

Here's an 'I didn't play with anyone' (honest guv!) biog.

Born in Newcastle, England in 1937. My first introduction to OKOM was when I 
heard a friend's 78 of Louis Armstrong's 'Mahogany Hall Stomp.' I was bitten 
then and I've never recovered.

Although I took piano lessons from the age of 6 I found at an early stage 
that I didn't have whatever is needed to be a jazz musician. A few shots at 
playing with local amateur bands during the British 'New Orleans revival' in the 
early 50's cured me of any wish to inflict my attempts on an audience, so I 
decided to do what I did best.  Since then I've been listening, buying records and 
going to concerts and gigs in the UK and wherever I've travelled. I should 
also say that my scope has widened, and MKOM (My Kind of Music?) now includes 
not only OKOM but also Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler, Elgar, Art Tatum, Oscar 
Peterson, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, 
Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Ronnie Scott, Tubby 
Hayes, Johnny Dankworth, Charlie Kunz ---- the list could go on for ever 
----and of course Arturo Sandoval. And now I've got a new set of heroes - Ringwald, 
Farrell, Hook, Barbone and anyone who throws beads at the audience. 

Lifewise my (unwilling) contribution to the UK's armed forces (National 
Service 1959/61) was spent in and around London - an eye-opener to a lad from the 
North East who'd never travelled further than his summer holidays at Whitley 
Bay, eight miles from Newcastle. In London I found theatres, jazz clubs and a 
lifestyle I couldn't afford on the money the Army was paying me. However the 
Army also gave me my first introduction to the magic world of computing, which 
became my major interest in civilian life. Over the years I tried a bit of 
everything in the IT world until I eventually settled for specialising in IT and 
network security. 

In 1961 G-Anne (George-Anne is her Sunday name) and I celebrated my escape 
from the Army by getting married and having a daughter (1962) and a son (1966). 
In 1978 the entire family (the two of us, son, daughter, dog and goldfish) 
moved to London to find out if the streets were really paved with gold. I joined 
the consultancy arm of an international firm of accountants and carried on 
until 1996 when I became the UK Firm's Director of Security.

I retired in 2002. I'd intended to travel widely after retirement but some 
minor health problems in 2001 have cramped my style for a while, temporarily 
postponing our plans to revisit New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City and all the 
jazz-wise places.  G-Anne says she'll never retire — apparently freelance artists 
just don't do that sort of thing! The 'kids' aren't kids any more. My son is 
an avid jazz fan/civil servant and my daughter and her husband have just moved 
out of the publishing world to set up an independent specialist children's 
book shop — not an easy thing in these Harry Potter days.

As a 'retired' person (although I still do the occasional consultancy task) 
I'm listening to more music than I ever had time to do, while working on the 
second chapter of a murder mystery featuring an IT-savvy, jazz-loving detective. 
I'm hoping it will outsell my last (1991) effort 'Information Security in 
Financial Services' which certainly couldn't be called a blockbuster. I'm also 
digitising the collection of 78's which accrued over the years and enjoying 
making contact with people like yourselves. My membership of the DJML has given me 
a lot of information, entertainment and good company — long may it continue.…



Ken Slater