[Dixielandjazz] Ian Wheeler obituary

[Marek Boym]

Ian Wheeler!
A name that has sold me many a record over the years, DESPITE his
harmonica playing, which I was prepared to suffer to hear that
wonderful clarinet sound.
What can one say...

On 4 July 2011 11:47, Steve Voce <stevevoce at virginmedia.com> wrote:
> From today's The Independent
>
>>
>>
> Ian Wheeler: Musician who played clarinet, saxophone and harmonica with
> Chris
> Barber
>
> *By Spencer Leigh*
>
> Monday, 4 July 2011
>
> Chris Barber's Jazz And Blues Band
> has seen many changes in personnel over its 57 years of existence, and Ian
> Wheeler gave more years of service than most.
>
> He played clarinet, alto and
> soprano saxophone and harmonica and he was with the band from 1961-68 and
> from
> 1979-98. He spoke of his invitation to join in December 1960 as "the best
> Christmas present ever".
>
> Ian Wheeler was born in Greenwich
> in 1931 but the family moved to Blackheath when he was four. He was good at
> art
> and woodwork and his main interest was in model aeroplanes. Because he liked
> George Formby, he took up the ukulele when he was 14 then moved to the
> guitar.
> At 17 Wheeler joined the RAF as a trainee pilot but was discharged on
> medical
> grounds. He went into the merchant navy in 1949 and travelled around the
> world.
>
> In hospital, he heard recordings
> by the blues singer Josh White and tried to play like him, but the other
> patients told him not to sing. Once discharged, he played guitar for Charlie
> Galbraith and Mike Jefferson and their bands. He was then in Charlie
> Connor's
> band and was attracted to his clarinet. He bought one for 25 shillings but
> it
> had no reed and for a time he wondered why he could get no sound from it.
>
> He and some musicians would
> practise in the woods and he formed the River City Jazz Band in 1952, with
> himself on clarinet. He moved to a more prestigious band led by Mike
> Daniels,
> who told him, "You're not much good yet, but you've got promise and I'll
> take a chance." When he left for another spell in hospital he was
> replaced, but rejoined on soprano sax.
>
> He left again following a car
> crash but was invited to replace Acker Bilk in Ken Colyer's Jazzmen. He
> played
> with them from 1954-60. He formed the Sims-Wheeler Vintage Band with Acker
> Bilk's trumpeter, Ken Sims. At Christmas in 1960 he got the call to replace
> clarinettist Monty Sunshine in the Chris Barber Band, and stayed until 1968.
> It
> was a hard task to replace the popular Sunshine, but he developed a warm
> sound
> and he also added saxophone to the line-up.
>
> He was strongly featured on Best
> Yet (1962), playing alto on "Basin Street Blues" and soprano on
> "Yvette". In 1961, the EP Introducing Ian featured four of his solos.
> When the band toured with Sonny Boy Williamson in 1964, Wheeler was
> impressed
> with his harmonica playing and within a month, he was playing it on stage.
> Wheeler, and John Slaughter on electric guitar, developed a Chicago blues
> sound, and "Down Home Rag", "Saratoga Swing" and
> "Harlem Bound" became part of the repertoire. Wheeler left during the
> making of Battersea Rain Dance.
>
> Wheeler had his own band from
> 1970-73 and was then in a band with Rod Mason. He was with Keith Smith's
> Hefty
> Jazz, rejoining Barber in 1979; by then they were the eight-piece Chris
> Barber
> Jazz&  Blues Band. They made the double album Barbican Blues (1982) and
> many others. In his later years, Wheeler worked occasionally in scratch
> bands.
> He released Ian Wheeler At Farnhams Maltings in 1993.
>
> /Ian Gordon Wheeler, musician: born
> Greenwich 13 January 1931; died June 2011./
>
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz
> Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
>
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>
>
>
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
>