[Dixielandjazz] Acker Bilk RIP

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi Folks,

Once again it's sad news from UK: I heard on the BBC Radio news just now that Acker has died aged 85. He was a very fine clarinet player with a very personal and immediately recognisable tone. Just last week, in a piece prompted by Brian Lemon's death, I wrote of how Acker's first-class ear and intuitive awareness enabled him to fit his improvisations accurately onto Brian's unscripted passing harmonies. But he was much more than a fine musician: he was an excellent bandleader and a great front man whose down to earth personality and natural wit made him a fine communicator with audiences.

Bandleaders generally fall into two categories: tyrant or one of the lads. Acker was definitely one of the lads and enjoyed the banter onstage and off and especially enjoyed being in the bar with the band after the gig, swapping jokes, tall tales and musicians' anecdotes.

I'd known him off and on from the early 1960s onwards and played with him quite a bit about 20 years ago. He ued to get occasional gigs in Scotland which filled dates in his diary but didn't pay enough to bring his whole band up from London, so he'd bring trumpeter Colin Smith as "straw boss" and ask trombonist John McGuff to play and to fix a rhythm section. We did a number of dates with him and riotous fun was had by all. In spite of all his success, he was still the same Acker: no pretensions, full of ribald humour and treated everyone as a pal. 

My fondest memory of him was a gig in an Edinburgh hotel bar on the last day of the Edinburgh Jazz Festival in the late 1980's. The band was Doc Cheatham, Roy Williams, Acker, Brian Lemon, Len Skeat and me, and this was the gig here Acker "got off" on Brian's harmonic inventions. But it wasn't just Acker who was at the top of his game: it was one of those gigs where nobody could put a foot wrong and the whole band swung fiercely and inventively. For years after, I was regularly asked by all the guys involved if a recording of the concert had ever surfaced, as it was a memorable gig for everyone concerned. So far, nothing has been unearthed, but he survivors all live in hope as it would make a fantastic memento and live recording.

So Vale Acker; it was an honour and a great pleasure to know you. I'll raise a glass to you tonight.

Ken Mathieson