They've all gone now - Acker Bilk, Humphrey Lyttelton, George Melly, Kenny Ball, John Chilton, George Chisolm - and yesterday, Mr Chris Barber joined the "most remarkable trad jazz band ever" in Fabulon...
Lonnie Donegan, Ken Colyer, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, Monty Sunshine and Jools Holland - he played with them all! Unsurprising, really, since at the time of his retirement in 2019, he had led his band almost continuously for 70 years.
By way of a tribute, here are just two of his remarkable numbers [for more, see my previous tribute on the occasion of his 90th birthday last April]:
So sad, now that Mr Barber's gone and the specialists of his ilk are getting rarer amongst younger generations, to experience a genre we love so much slowly sinking into [especially in mainstream broadcast terms, with the misguided axing of Clare Teal from BBC Radio 2] oblivion, generally disregarded in popular culture. Fingers crossed that its last bastion, live music, will make a resurgence in post-vaccination 2021!
We at Dolores Delargo Towers urge you [if, of course, it is available to you] to tune into Miss Teal at her new home of Jazz FM.
This Sunday I have no doubt she will be doing her own tribute to Mr Barber. He deserves it.
RIP Donald Christopher Barber OBE (17th April 1930 – 2nd March 2021)
Sweet Georgia Brown before breakfast!
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, I think Radio 2 have shot themselves in the foot - I have found Graham Norton on Virgin Radio, so I now listen to that on Saturdays and Sundays. And you have found Miss Teal on Jazz FM - we're probably not the only ones jumping ship - and who wants to listen to Claudia Winkleman drivel on?
Sx
Radio 2 is getting worse and worse. According to this article in the Telegraph, the idiots in charge are so determined to appeal to "less well-off women aged 35-44" that they've practically abolished any shows that feature music from the 1960s and earlier (apart from Tony Blackburn's show, which has been sidelined to the "graveyard slot" anyway). Watch out, Johnny Walker - they'll be coming for the '70s next! Jx
DeletePS Of course we're listening to Clare Teal on Jazz FM - I even added the link into the post. We haven't started listening to Mr Norton on Virgin yet, however. We tend to have Radio 3 or Classic FM on Saturday mornings now. Definitely not the Winkleman woman!
Oh dear...I'm a world away from Radio 2.3 nd 4(hated #1), but all those greats, checking in their dinner pails...makes me look over my shoulder.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, if I make a new poodle skirt and dig out some old 45rpms...
Nah, that'd make things worse!
But I'm proud to say I listened to many of them and even knew some.
Ooh - pray tell. What beatnik circles were you mixing in, Dinah? Jx
DeleteWith his passing we have come to the end of an era but his and his companions music lives on.
ReplyDeleteAnd on our playlist quite regularly. Jx
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