[Dixielandjazz] Acker

[Marek Boym]

 Humphrey Lyttelton had a lovely reminiscence of Earle Warren, a
MIGHTY saxophonist and a seriously individual clarinetist (witness an
old recording with Red Allen et al.) dashing away from a conversation
at a jazz festival because he heard and instantly recognised Acker
Bilk.


Indeed an individual style.  With me, Bilk is nostalgia - I can still
remember the short guy clad in black (before the ridiculous derby hat
and waiscoat), surrounded, albeit from afar, as the stage was H-U-G-E,
by five (if I am not mistaken) long guys in white, playing their asses
off at the Hala Luwowa (People's Hall) in Wroclaw, Poland, in the
later part of the early 1950's.  He was still an amateur musician.
Although critics assessed the performance of the Polish band preceding
Acker's and of the Brits as equal, the public response clearly
attested as to whom it favoured.  There were some 20 thousnad peole,
going berserk: purses and jackets were flying in the air (some
probably never to be recovered).  A really memorable experience,
especially for a 14 years old boy.
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> for sheer Acker clarinet, there can be little better than the extremely fiery Ellingtonian work he did with Stan Tracey.


Wonderful stuff, despite Tracy's modernism.  But Bilk made a lot of
good recordings, including some with Lyttelton.  And there is a really
great one with Wild Bill Davison.

Cheers
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