Historic jazz
Two classic jazz greats will be in Cyprus this week for a concert in Paphos
It’s not often Cyprus welcomes a trumpeter who has hit the top of the British and American music charts and sold more than a million albums worldwide in addition to a clarinet-playing MBE holder and Honorary Master of Arts.
Kenny Ball and Acker Bilk – both celebrating more than 50 years in the music business – and their jazz bands, will be performing for one night only at the Coral Beach Hotel this Friday.
Essex-born Kenny – on his first visit to Cyprus – says he “took up the trumpet to attract the crumpet”, forming his own jazz band in 1958, and hitting the jackpot on both sides of the Atlantic with ‘Midnight in Moscow’ followed by ‘Samantha’ and ‘When I’m 64’. Now, with 20 albums behind him, he and his band still average 150 concerts a year.
Probably the greatest test of an artist’s success is his durability. Kenny is now a genuine institution and the most successful jazz trumpet player this side of the Atlantic. His landmark recordings in the 1960s catapulted him to worldwide fame and since then he has become a living legend. His autobiography is told with all the style, wit and passion that has characterised his life. It includes wonderful stories of his life on the road with such giants of the music world as Louis Armstrong.
Today, with his wife Michelle and a member of that original band (John Bennett, trombone) still on board, Kenny is a very content man who still produces great jazz!
Somerset-born Acker, married to childhood sweetheart Jean, has visited Cyprus several times, playing for the forces. In 2001 he was awarded the MBE for services to the music industry.
Like Kenny, he is a ‘larger than life’ character with a great sense of humour. He hails from Pensford in Somerset, where he earned the nickname ‘Acker’ which is Somerset slang for ‘friend’.
He did not start playing the clarinet until 1948, after working in a tobacco factory in Bristol and having a go at boxing. While serving in the Suez Canal Zone with the Royal Engineers he borrowed a military clarinet and practiced, practiced, practiced! When he was a kid he lost two front teeth in a brawl and half a finger in a sledging accident – he credits these for producing his distinct sound on the clarinet!
After being de-mobbed, Acker Bilk moved to London and formed the Paramount Jazz Band in1951. Their first big break was a six-week contract to play in a beer bar in D?sseldorf, Germany and on its return to the UK in 1961, the band recorded ‘Stranger on the Shore’, the first record ever to go to the No 1 slot simultaneously in both the American and British charts
There have been many other successes over the years and he still regularly goes on tour, which he combines successfully with a love of painting.
He and Kenny Ball have regularly appeared ‘Back to Back’ in concerts over the past two years and each one has been a sell out.
These two great jazz men are still very much in demand and it has taken Tony Willmett of Carpe Diem Promotions three years to bring them both to Cyprus – an extra special treat for jazz lovers as Acker Bilk rarely travels far afield as he hates flying.
Kenny Ball and Acker Bilk
Jazz concert to be opened by Paphos–based trio Da Capo. Friday, September 21, Coral Beach Hotel, Paphos. 8pm. £20. For tickets: 26-881000. Tickets are also obtainable from Leptos Kamares Club, Paphos,Hearn’s Bookshop, Gina’s Place, Oliver’s Deli, Moufflon Bookshop, Paphos and SWBA Hives. Pre-show buffet dinner at 7pm £14 per person.
The concert is supported by Leptos Calypso Hotels, Cyprus Airways, Riccos Sound & Light, Rock FM and Trodos CME
