Jazzman, raconteur, writer, historian what can I say that won't be said more eloquently elsewhere? Nothing, except to thank Humphrey Lyttleton for the pleasure he has given me over the years with his music, his books and his sense of humour.
Musically, the band he lead in the 1950s with Tony Coe, Jimmy Skidmore and Joe Temperley, was the one I remember most fondly; I heard them many times at the 100 Club on Oxford Street. I also had the priviledge of playing in the support band at a dance at one of the Durham Colleges. Humph gave me ten bob and asked me to pick Bruce Turner up from Durham railway station and give him a lift to the gig which I did - possibly my greatest contribution to British Jazz.
His autobiography 'I Play As I Please' and subsequent tomes are entertaining, often essential, reading for students of jazz.
Sadly missed.
2 comments :
Ronnie Scott, George Melly, and now Humph, we're losing all the real characters of jazz. Let's hope Alan Barnes and Diggers live to a ripe old age.
How fortunate our generation has been to have had these giants of jazz to influence us, and also to have seen them in the flesh...these memories live on forever. I feel that way about Sinatra, Ella...magic moments!
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