Ken Mackintosh

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Kenneth Victor "Ken" Mackintosh (born August 4, 1919 in Cleckheaton , Yorkshire , † November 22, 2005 in Mitcham (London) ) was a British jazz and entertainment musician ( alto saxophone , clarinet ), who has emerged primarily as a band leader . As a songwriter he worked under the pseudonym Andy Burton.

Live and act

Mackintosh came from a musical family; the jazz musician Andy Mackintosh is his son, the pianist and arranger Robert Hartley his nephew. From the age of 14 he played the saxophone and performed occasionally in Leeds and Bradford. At 19 he became a professional musician and worked mainly in Roland Powell's bands. After four years of military service, some of which he fought in France, he worked for Johnny Claes and George Elrick from 1944 before joining Oscar Rabin's orchestra , to which he was a member until spring 1947. After participating in Frank Weir's All-Stars, which included Ralph Sharon and George Shearing , he founded his own dance orchestra, which performed in 1948 at the Astoria Ballroom in Nottingham.

1950 the band moved to London; with soloists such as Bobby Pratt and Bobby Kevin and Jack Seymour in the rhythm section, the orchestra emulated Les Brown and Stan Kenton and gained national recognition. From 1950 to 1953 the band resided in the Wimbledon Palais; she was often part of the BBC Light program and played from 1951 for His Master's Voice records that sold well, in particular the 1953 Mackintosh composition The Creep , which became a hit and was recorded by numerous other orchestras from Ted Heath to Stan Kenton . Other well-known titles that followed in the next few years were Raunchy and No Hiding Place . The orchestra also accompanied Alma Cogan , Max Bygraves and Frankie Vaughan on recordings, appeared in the 1955 film An Alligator Named Daisy by J. Lee Thompson and later appeared on television on Come Dancing . The band also made frequent guest appearances in Blackpool and the Isle of Man. In the 1960s the orchestra also accompanied Shirley Bassey , Guy Mitchell , Jimmy Young and Johnnie Ray on tours. The band integrated elements of R&B and rock music into their sound and found their new place of work from 1963 in the Empire Ballroom in Leicester Square and in the 1970s in the Hammersmith Palais . In the 1980s he worked for Tom Jones , Shirley Bassey and Matt Monro and eventually had to break up the big band. In the 1990s he worked with a reduced formation and conducted the International Championships at the Royal Albert Hall for three years . In 2001 he was awarded the gold medal of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters for his contribution to musical development in Great Britain.

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personal data
SURNAME Mackintosh, Ken
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mackintosh, Kenneth Victor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British jazz and entertainment musician, big band leader
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Cleckheaton , Yorkshire
DATE OF DEATH November 22, 2005
Place of death Mitcham (London)