[Dixielandjazz] Campbell Burnap RIP

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi Folks,

What a shock. Campbell was one of the nicest guys in the business and, as well as being a fine musician, he was a great broadcaster, raconteur, gagmeister and general all-round good guy. His show on the now defunct UK digital radio station thejazz.com was one of the highlights of the week for me: it was chock-full of OKOM, generally with generous helpings of Teagarden, Bob Crosby, Condon etc. 

About 25 years ago, I was in Sacramento for the Jubilee with Fat Sam's Band and Campbell was there the Merseysippi Jazz Band. Both bands were lodged in the same hotel and a nightly routine very quickly developed with well-known Sacto jazz fan Bart arriving in the hotel car park in his pick-up wagon late at night. The pick-up wagon was the best-equipped travelling bar I've seen and the deal seemed to be that Bart provided the drinks and the musos kept him and ourselves entertained with gags and anecdotes, frequently until dawn. Naturally details are long forgotten, but suffice it to say that Campbell was central to the great fun we all had.

He also had Vic Dickenson's trombone, which he had come by in a roundabout fashion. He had been in NYC on holiday and stayed there with a musician friend whose name now escapes me. This guy worked a lot with Vic towards the end of Vic's life and would give him a lift to gigs, make sure he got back safely to his flat and generally looked out for Vic. When Vic passed, the family gave him Vic's trombone out of gratitude, since nobody in the family played. Campbell's pal had it on the wall in his flat and when Campbell asked about it, out came the story. Since his pal isn't a trombonist, he gave the horn to Campbell, who told me he found it a difficult horn to play and couldn't understand how Vic could get around it so easily.

Campbell's cheery voice coming out of the radio on a Sunday evening was always something I looked forward to and, with Humph also passing recently, jazz on the radio in the UK has lost two of its finest and most authoritative presenters.

Ken Mathieson
www.classicjazzorchestra.org.uk