John Dankworth

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sir John Dankworth

Sir John Phillip William Dankworth , CBE (also Johnny Dankworth * 20th September 1927 in Woodford , Essex , † 6. February 2010 in London ) was a British jazz - saxophonist (alto), clarinetist , big band leader and composer.

Live and act

Dankworth comes from a family of musicians and learned the piano and violin. After hearing recordings by Benny Goodman , he switched to the clarinet at the age of 16. He got to the alto saxophone when he heard Johnny Hodges .

After studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London and serving in the military, he began to play professionally. First he worked as a ship musician before joining the bands of Tito Burns and then Ted Heath . He made his first recordings on September 13, 1944 as a member of the band Freddie Mirfield and his Garbage Men (four tracks, including the Good Old Wagon Blues). On April 9, 1949, he was recorded live for the first time with his own band, the Johnny Dankworth Quartet . In the same year he was voted "Musician of the Year" by Melody Maker and played in Paris at the local jazz festival with Charlie Parker , which was followed by a tour of Sweden with Sidney Bechet .

Johnny Dankworth: Experiments With Mice

In 1950 he founded the successful "Dankworth Seven", which existed until 1953, but later came back together again and again. In it played Bill Le Sage (piano), Eric Dawson (bass), Tony Kinsey (drums), Jimmy Deuchar (trumpet), Eddie Harvey (trombone), Don Rendell (tenor saxophone) and himself on alto saxophone. First recordings from May 18, 1950 were Lightly Politely / Strike Up The Band / Marmaduke / Little Benny . In early 1953, the band switched to Parlophone , where they were produced by George Martin since their first single Honeysuckle Rose on February 10, 1953 . However, it took a large number of productions until the title Experiments With Mice was created on May 10, 1956 , which was rewarded with a first hit parade - a seventh place. In 1953 Dankworth founded his own big band, which also played at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1959, in Birdland in New York and several times in Great Britain as a backing band for Duke Ellington . Dankworth remained friends with Ellington, also recorded his arrangements and tracks with his big band and played after Ellington's death with the Ghostband under the direction of Mercer Ellington .

The singer Cleo Laine , who married Dankworth in 1958, sang regularly since November 1951 with the band and her husband's follow-up groups and also with the Dankworth Seven . Dankworth also began composing in the late 1950s. Together with Mátyás Seiber , he wrote the third-stream composition Improvisations for jazz band and orchestra in 1959 . From May 1959 he called his band Johnny Dankworth Orchestra .

Above all, he composed for film and television. The best known is the theme tune for Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone ( The Avengers ), which was broadcast for the first time in 1961. That same year he had a hit with African Waltz by Galt MacDermot . In 1964 he recorded The Zodiac Variations with friends Clark Terry (and Bob Brookmeyer , Zoot Sims , Phil Woods , Lucky Thompson ) . His arrangements, which are comparable to the works of Gil Evans in terms of their expanded harmony according to Martin Kunzler, and his extensive works such as the jazz opera Sweeney Agonistes thrive on refinement in terms of timbres , but are sometimes quite complex.

The members of his big band from the 1960s onwards included Tony Coe , Mike Gibbs , Peter King , Dudley Moore , John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler, and occasionally Dave Holland , John McLaughlin , Tubby Hayes , Dick Morrissey and Stan Sulzmann . Dankworth accompanied his band Nat King Cole , Sarah Vaughan , Gerry Mulligan on tour and at individual concerts Lionel Hampton and Ella Fitzgerald . Other musicians he has worked with include George Shearing , Toots Thielemans , Benny Goodman , Herbie Hancock , Tadd Dameron , Slam Stewart and Oscar Peterson .

In 2006, Dankworth was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II as the first British jazz musician to be knighted as a Knight Bachelor , having previously been awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) . His wife was knighted as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1997 . Dankworth and his wife were a prominent figure in the British jazz scene and the Honorary President of the National Jazz Center . 1984 to 1986 he was also professor at Gresham College in London, where he also gave (free) public lectures. For many years he regularly organized summer schools in his country estate “The Stables” with an adjoining cultural and theater center . He was a patron of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts .

His sister is the music teacher and author Avril Dankworth (1922–2013). His two children are also jazz musicians: Jacqui Dankworth (* 1963) is a singer, Alec Dankworth (* 1960) is a bass player who also played in his father's band.

Discographic notes

  • The Vintage Years (Sepia, 1953-59)
  • The Roulette Years (Roulette, 1961) with Danny Moss and Peter King
  • Moon Valley (Audio, 1998) with John Horler , Malcolm Greese, Allan Ganley
  • JD5 (QNT, 2002/03)

Film music (selection)

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Dankworth, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dankworth, Johnny
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British big band leader and jazz saxophonist
DATE OF BIRTH September 20, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Woodford
DATE OF DEATH February 6, 2010
Place of death London