| Acker Bilk | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Bernard Stanley Bilk |
| Born | 28 January 1929 |
| Origin |  Pensford, Somerset, England |
| Genre(s) | Dixieland Easy Listening Pop music |
| Occupation(s) | Clarinetist |
| Instrument(s) | Clarinet |
| Years active | 1950s – 1990s |
| Label(s) | Columbia Records/EMI Castle Records Philips Records GNP Records Stomp Off Records |
| Associated acts | Acker Bilk and His Paramount Jazz Band |
Acker Bilk MBE (born 28 January 1929), born Bernard Stanley Bilk (known more familiarly as Mr. Events 1077 - Walk to Canossa: The Excommunication of Henry IV Holy Roman Emperor is lifted Year 1929 ( MCMXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Pensford ( is a village in the Civil parish of Publow and Pensford in Bath and North East Somerset, England. Somerset ( or) is a county in south west England The County town is Taunton, which is in the south of the county England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other Dixieland or Dixie is a name for the southeastern portion of the USA; see Southern United States, Dixie. Easy listening music is a style of Popular music and radio format that emerged in the mid-20th century evolving out of swing and Big band music A clarinetist (also spelled clarinettist) is a Musician who plays the Clarinet. A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified for the purpose of making Music. The clarinet is a Musical instrument in the Woodwind family The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word In the Music industry, a record label can be a Brand and a Trademark associated with the Marketing of music recordings and Music The Columbia Graphophone Company was one of the earliest Gramophone companies in the United Kingdom. The EMI Group is a British music company comprising the major record company EMI Music – which operates several labels and is based in Kensington in Castle Communications is a British Record label, Subsidiary of Sanctuary Records, specialising in the back catalogue of folk and folk-rock Philips Records is a Record label that was founded by Dutch electronics giant Philips. Stomp Off is an American Jazz record label The label was founded in 1979 by Bob Erdos in York Pennsylvania. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British Order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. Events 1077 - Walk to Canossa: The Excommunication of Henry IV Holy Roman Emperor is lifted Year 1929 ( MCMXXIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Acker Bilk), is a clarinetist. He is known for his trademark goatee, bowler hat, striped waistcoat and his breathy, vibrato-rich, lower-register clarinet style. In the traditional taxonomy of facial hair a goatee is a Beard formed by a tuft of hair on the chin The bowler hat, also known as a derby (US or billycock, is a Hard Felt Hat with a rounded crown originally created in 1849 for Edward He was born in Pensford, Somerset, England. Pensford ( is a village in the Civil parish of Publow and Pensford in Bath and North East Somerset, England. Somerset ( or) is a county in south west England The County town is Taunton, which is in the south of the county England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland
Bilk earned the nickname Acker from the Somerset slang for friend or 'mate'. Somerset ( or) is a county in south west England The County town is Taunton, which is in the south of the county His parents tried to have him learn the piano, but Bilk as a boy found it restricting upon his love of outdoor activities including football (soccer). The piano is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with Felt covered hammers Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a Team sport played between two teams of eleven players and is widely considered He also lost two front teeth in a school fight and half a finger in a sledging accident, both of which Bilk has claimed impacted his eventual clarinet style. He learned the clarinet while serving in the British Army, and by the mid-1950s he was playing professionally. The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces.
Bilk was part of the boom in traditional jazz that swept the United Kingdom in the late 1950s and 1960s. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located He first joined Ken Colyer's band in 1954, and then after he formed his own ensemble in 1956. Kenneth 'Edward' Colyer ( April 18 1928 &ndash March 8 1988) was a British Jazz Trumpeter and Cornetist Four years later, his single "Summer Set" (a pun on his home county) hit the British charts and it began a run of eleven top 50 hit singles. The Top 50 refers to a list of weekly hit singles or albums It is similar to the Top 40, but with 10 extra places
Bilk was not an international star until an experiment with a string ensemble and a composition of his own as its keynote piece made him one in 1962. He wrote "Stranger on the Shore" for a British television serial series, and recorded it as the title track of a new album in which his signature deep, quivering clarinet was backed by the Leon Young String Chorale. " Stranger on the Shore " is a piece for Clarinet written by Acker Bilk for his young daughter and originally named "Jenny" after her Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic The single was not only a big hit in England (where it stayed on the charts for a remarkable 55 weeks, gaining a second wind after Bilk was the subject of the TV show This Is Your Life) but shot to the top of the American charts as well – at a time when the American pop charts and radio playlists were open to just about anything, in just about any style [1] – making Bilk the first Briton ever to have a song in the number one position on the Billboard singles chart. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the See Billboard (Turkish magazine Billboard is a weekly American Magazine devoted to the Music industry The album was also highlighted by a striking interpretation of Bunny Berigan's legendary hit "I Can't Get Started. Rowland Bernard "Bunny" Berigan ( November 2 1908 - June 2, 1942) was an American Jazz Trumpeter " At one point, at the height of his career, Bilk's public relations workers were known as the "Bilk Marketing Board", a play on the then Milk Marketing Board. Public relations (PR is the practice of managing the flow of Information between an Organization and its Publics Public relations - often referred Dairy Crest Group plc ( is a major dairy products company in the United Kingdom.
Bilk recorded a series of albums in England that were also released successfully in the United States (on the Atlantic Records subsidiary Atco), including a memorable collaboration (Together) with Danish jazz pianist-composer Bent Fabric ("The Alley Cat"). Atlantic Records ( Atlantic Recording Corporation) is an American Record label best known for its many recordings of Rhythm & blues, Rock Atco Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, currently operating through WMG's Rhino Entertainment. Bent Fabric (born Bent Fabricius-Bjerre December 7, 1924, Copenhagen) is a Danish pianist But his success tapered off when British rock and roll made its big international explosion beginning in 1964, and Bilk shifted direction to the cabaret circuit. He finally had another chart success in 1976, with "Aria," which went to number five in England. In the early 1980s, Bilk and his signature hit were newly familiar, thanks to "Stranger on the Shore" being used in the soundtrack to Sweet Dreams, the film biography of country music legend Patsy Cline. Sweet Dreams is a 1985 biographical film which tells the life story of Country music singer Patsy Cline. Patsy Cline (b Virginia Patterson Hensley September 8, 1932 – March 5, 1963) was an American Country Most of his classic albums with the Paramount Jazz Band have been reissued and are available on the UK based Lake Records label. Fellside Records was a Record label formed and is still run by Paul Adams and Linda Adams, in 1976 in Workington, Cumbria.
Bilk has been described as "Great Master of the Clarinet" [2] and is often said to be the originator of 'Hyung-Tiger' playing, often copied by such artists as Johnny Range and Ted Morton. His clarinet sound and style was at least as singular as had been those of American jazzmen such as Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Russell Procope, and "Stranger on the Shore" – which he was once quoted as calling "my old-age pension" – remains a beloved standard of jazz and popular music alike. Arthur Jacob Arshawsky ( May 23, 1910 &ndash December 30, 2004) better known as Artie Shaw, was an American Jazz Russell Procope ( 11 August 1908 &ndash 21 January 1981) an American Clarinettist and alto saxophonist, was known
By 2000, Bilk was reportedly semi-retired and taking up painting as a hobby, but still appears with contemporaries, Chris Barber and Kenny Ball (both of whom were born in 1930) as the 3B's. Donald Christopher 'Chris' Barber (born 17 April 1930 at Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England) is best known as a Trombonist Kenneth Daniel Ball (born 22 May 1930 in Ilford, Essex, England) is a British Jazz Musician, best One of his best recordings is ironically with the Chris Barber band, sharing the clarinet spot with the band's regular reedsmen, John Crocker and Ian Wheeler. John Crocker, born in West Bridgford Nottingham, made his name as the leading clarinet and sax player for the Chris Barber jazz band for just over 30 years retiring He made a CD with another legend of British Jazz Wally Fawkes for the Lake Records label in 2002. Wally Fawkes (born 1924 in Vancouver, Canada (left in 1931 for England is a British-Canadian Jazz Clarinetist and until recently a satirical Fellside Records was a Record label formed and is still run by Paul Adams and Linda Adams, in 1976 in Workington, Cumbria. He has appeared on two recent albums by Van Morrison, Down the Road and What's Wrong With This Picture?. George Ivan Morrison OBE (generally known as Van Morrison) (born 31 August 1945 is a Grammy Award -winning Northern Irish Singer, Down the Road is an Album by Northern Irish Singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released on May 14 2002. What's Wrong with this Picture? is an Album by Northern Irish Singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released on October 21
See also
- West Country accents
- Django Reinhardt, another influential jazz musician whose dexterity seemed unimpaired by finger-damage
External links
The West Country dialects and West Country accents are generic terms applied to any of several English Dialects and accents used by much of the Jean "Django" Reinhardt ( January 23, 1910 – May 16, 1953) was a Belgian Gypsy jazz Guitarist allmusic (previously All Music Guide) is a Metadata database about music owned by All Media Guide.Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic