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Ken Colyer

Kenneth Edward Colyer (18 April 1928 – 8 March 1988) was a British trumpeter and cornetist, devoted totally to jazz. His band was also known for interludes.

Biography

He was born in Great Yarmouth, grew up in Soho in and was a member of a church choir. When his older brother Bill (born William John Colyer in 1922 — died January 2009) went off to serve in World War II he left his jazz records behind, which hooked Ken. He joined the Merchant Navy at 17, travelled around the world and heard famous jazz musicians in New York and Montreal. In the UK he played with various bands and joined, in 1949, the Crane River (CRJB) with Ben Marshall, Sonny Morris and . The band played at the Royal Festival Hall on 14 July 1951, in the presence of HRH Princess Elizabeth. Parts of that group merged with other musicians including and Ian Christie to form the Christie Brothers' Stompers. Ken rejoined the Merchant Navy and jumped ship to get to New Orleans where he played with his idols in the George Lewis Band. He was offered the job of lead trumpeter on a tour but was then put in prison and deported. Bill posted his famous letters from New Orleans on the door of Dobell's Jazz Record Shop— so he returned home to a crusader's welcome. He was invited to take the trumpet lead for the Band and so formed the first Jazzmen: Chris Barber, Monty Sunshine, Ron Bowden (born Ronald Arthur Bowden, 22 February 1928, in Fulham, West London), and Jim Bray (born James Michael Bray, 24 April 1927, in Richmond, Surrey). They made their first recordings on Storyville in 1953. The next, brief, band in the mid-50s featured Bernard "Acker" Bilk on . Then came what most young, now old, fans ("when I was young and easy under the apple boughs" as Dylan Thomas wrote) consider their favourite in all of Ken's oeuvre: Mac Duncan (), Ian Wheeler (clarinet), Johnny Bastable (banjo), Ron Ward (bass) and the still remarkable Colin Bowden (drums), later joined by Ray Foxley (piano). This band played together until the early 1960s when the new front-line featured, at various times, and Tony Pyke (clarinet), Graham Stewart and Geoff Cole (trombone), Bill Cole (bass) and Malc Murphy (drums). In 1971, after a bout with stomach cancer, Ken took his doctors' advice to stop leading a band. The band continued to work under the leadership of banjoist Johnny Bastable, as his "Chosen Six", recruiting John Shillito to take the trumpet chair. Ken continued with a solo career into the 1980s. He had a row with Bill at the 100 Club, threw his trumpet down on the stage a la Bunk Johnson and moved to the south of France in his last years. He felt that he was let down by everybody throughout his life. Lake Records was started by a reissue programme of Ken Colyer albums (from the Decca catalogue) and the current catalogue contains most of his best recordings. Ken was sometimes wrongly seen as a kind of musical Luddite, opposed to all progress in jazz. It is true that, for himself, he only ever wished to play in the New Orleans style but he was more open than many people thought as was shown by his record collection and his playing of the tenor sax. He famously played with the Modern Jazz Quartet and "they did it my way". He included a skiffle group in most performances, playing guitar and singing with a distinctive accent. Recent histories of British (e.g. the film "Red White and Blues") see Ken as an important link in the development from jazz to skiffle (Lonnie Donegan) to blues/R & B. also played with him. Ken once said Joe Harriott would be welcome to sit in with him. His biography is being written by Mike Pointon (trombonist, musicologist, broadcaster extraordinnaire) and pianist Ray Smith (who played at St Paul's Covent Garden for the Celebration Service) and is to be published by the Ken Colyer Trust—set upon Ken's death in the Graham Wallas Room at the London School of Economics by Professor Edward Black to preserve the music and publish his autobiography When Dreams are in the Dust, now on their website. The Trust has now folded up and is using the surplus f66,000k to republish the autobiography and publish the biography which will be sent to all members & (still alive) gold card holders

Discography

It is believed by some that Ken peaked so early and then gradually burnt himself away ("he was a fool to himself"—Sonny Morris) so his best recordings were in his early years with the CRJB and in New Orleans, followed by the Christie Brothers Stompers ('Rum & Coca Cola').

Singles

Decca F10241....Goin' Home / Isle of Capri (1954) Decca F10332....La Harpe Street Blues / Too Busy (1954) Decca F10504....Early Hours / Cataract Rag (1955) Decca F10519....If I Ever Cease to Love You / The Entertainer (1955) Decca F10565....It Looks Like a Big Time Tonight / Red Wing (1955) Decca FJ10755....All the Girls Go Crazy About the Way I Walk / Dippermouth Blues (1956) Tempo A117....Just a Closer Walk with Thee / Sheik of Araby (1956) Tempo A120....If I Ever Cease to Love / Isle of Capri (1956) Tempo A126....My Bucket's Got a Hole in It / Wabash Blues (1956) Tempo A136....Maryland, My Maryland / The World is Waiting for the Sunrise (1956) Columbia DB4676....The Happy Wanderer / Maryland, My Maryland (1961) Columbia DB4783....Postman's Lament / Too Busy (1962)

Albums

Decca Skiffle Sessions, Lake Records, LACD 7, Live at York Arts Centre (1972), Upbeat, URCD 210, The Crane River Jazz Band Club Session with Colyer