Billy Harper on Jacky Denton

So desperately sad to hear of the death of one of my oldest & respected colleagues, a fellow Francophile who spent all his holidays in France in his caravan which was permanently garaged in France during the winter. Before Anne & I left for France, we talked about the possibility of him & his wife Margaret dropping in to visit us "en-route" but this proved to be almost impossible because of the distances involved & sadly we never caught up with each other. I first worked with Jack in 1957 whilst I was doing my National Service in the RAF. I was posted to Acklington which allowed me to do gigs in Newcastle & I took the piano chair in the reformed Mighty Joe Young Band -- Jack was the drummer & the others were Hughie Aitchison ,Brian Clarke, Trevor Johnson, Ronnie Maclean, Brian Fisher & Joe himself.

Jack had something that can't be taught -- a natural driving swing that kicked the band along beautifully (just reminding myself that Joe & myself are the only surviving members) .Jack didn't stay long as he was called for National Service & was replaced by Ian Forbes. Having done his 2 years in the Army, he reclaimed his drum chair in the band & stayed for some time until he joined forces with Mike Carr & John McLoughlan for a season at Ronnie Scott's in London where he was highly thought of by the top guys. But he told me that he was unhappy about the drug scene down there & was not prepared to settlewith his family & eventually he returned to Gateshead. At this point I had left the Mighty Joe Young Band and formed a trio with Jack & Brian Fisher at the Five Bridges Hotel which eventually folded. Although I was by now heavily involved in commercial music (10 years in the Mayfair Ballroom) & Jack had serious medical problems, we still managed to do the odd gig together from time to time & in 1998/9 we had a great time (musically!!!!) in the Jazz Cafe with Jack, Roly Veitch & Ian Heslop. I gave Jack "free rein" & he proved what I had always known -- his drumming had lost nothing over the years. From 1999 to 2004 my trio was employed ay the Bude Jazz Fest. in Cornwell as the House band for the week,supporting the "bigboys" from Town & in 2004 my normal drummer Nigel Cretney from Buxton, was taken seriously ill at the last minute & a dep was urgently required. My first call was Jack & without knowing what the money was like, he immediately agreed to do the gigs. We travelled together to Bude & shared an appartment close to the venues & had an absolute ball. Jack played out of his skull! Our first gig was with Alan Barnes with whom I have worked with many times & who does not "take prisoners". At the end of the first number Alan came up to me, with a huge smile on his face & said "Wow! Where have you been hiding this guy?" Mark Nightingale gave an almost identical response & several of the older musicians remembered him from his short stay in London. I overheard conversations at other gigs people suggesting to their friends that they must go & see this great drummer with the trio. In fact Jack was the star of the week & deservedly so. Many people who didn't know him very well thought that he was a noisy, insensitive, rough diamond but nothing could be further from the truth. Underneath that brash exterior was a nice man who didn't tolerate fools gladly but was warm & thoughtful with a lovely sense of humour--- I am proud to have known him as a friend & colleague -- he will be greatly missed. Bill Harper p.s. Jack made great bread!

Photo was supplied by Peter Sanderson.

More on Jacky Denton here.