| Acker Bilk |
| Background information |
| Birth name |
Bernard Stanley Bilk |
| Born |
January 28, 1929 (1929-01-28) (age 78) |
| Origin |
 Pensford, Somerset, England |
| Genre(s) |
Dixieland
Easy Listening
Pop music |
| Occupation(s) |
Clarinetist |
| Instrument(s) |
Clarinet |
| Years active |
1950s – 1990s |
| Label(s) |
Castle Records
Phillips Records
GNP Records
Stomp Off
Records |
Associated
acts |
Acker
Bilk and His Paramount Jazz Band |
Acker Bilk (b. 28 January
1929), born Bernard
Stanley Bilk (known more familiarly as Mr. Acker
Bilk), has been one of the world's greatest clarinetists
since the late 1950s. His trademark goatee, bowler hat, and striped waistcoat are
almost as recognizable as his breathy, vibrato-rich, lower-register
clarinet style. He was born in Pensford, Somerset, England.
Bilk earned the nickname Acker from the Somerset slang
for friend or 'mate'. His parents tried to have him learn the piano, but Bilk as a
boy found it restricting upon his love of outdoor activities including football
(soccer). He also lost two front teeth in a school fight and half a
finger in a sledging accident, both of which Bilk has claimed impacted
his eventual clarinet style. He eventually learned the clarinet while
serving in the British Army, and by the mid-1950s he
was playing professionally.
Bilk was part of the boom in traditional jazz that swept the United
Kingdom in the late 1950s and 1960s. He first joined Ken
Colyer's band in 1954, and then after he formed his own
ensemble in 1956. Four years later, his single "Summer Set" (a pun on
his home county) hit the British charts and it began a run of eleven top 50 hit singles.
Bilk was not an international star until an experiment with a
string ensemble and a composition of his own as its keynote piece made
him one in 1962. He wrote "Stranger on the Shore" for a
British television
serial series, and recorded it as the title track of a new album in
which his signature deep, quivering clarinet was backed by the Leon
Young String Chorale. The single was not only a big hit in England but
shot to the top of the American charts as well – at a time
when the American pop charts and radio playlists were open to just
about anything, in just about any style [1] – making Bilk the first British
musician ever to put a song in the number one position on the U.S.
charts kept by Billboard. The
album was also highlighted by a striking interpretation of Bunny
Berigan's legendary hit "I Can't Get Started." At one point, at the
height of his career, Bilk's public relations workers were known
as the "Bilk Marketing Board", a play on the then Milk
Marketing Board.
Bilk recorded a series of albums in England that were also
released successfully in the United States (on the Atlantic
Records subsidiary Atco),
including a memorable collaboration (Together) with
Danish jazz pianist-composer Bent
Fabric ("The Alley Cat"). But his success tapered off when British rock
and roll made its big international explosion beginning in 1964, and
Bilk shifted direction to the cabaret circuit. He finally had another
chart success in 1976, with "Aria," which went to number five in
England. In the early 1980s, Bilk and his signature hit were newly
familiar, thanks to "Stranger on the Shore" being used in the
soundtrack to Sweet Dreams,
the film biography of country music legend Patsy
Cline.
Bilk has been described as "Great Master of the Clarinet" [2] and is often said to be the
originator of 'Hyung-Tiger' playing, often copied by such artists as
Johnny Range and Ted Morton. His clarinet sound and style was at least
as singular as had been those of American jazzmen such as Benny
Goodman, Artie
Shaw, and Russell Procope, and "Stranger on
the Shore" – which he was once quoted as calling "my old-age pension" –
remains a beloved standard of jazz and popular music alike.
By 2000, Bilk was reportedly semi-retired and taking up
painting as a hobby, but still appears with contemporaries, also born
in 1930, Chris Barber and Kenny
Ball as the 3B's. One of his best recordings is ironically
with the Chris Barber band, sharing the clarinet spot with the band's
regular reedsmen, John Crocker and Ian Wheeler. He has
appeared on two recent albums by Van Morrison, Down
the Road and What's
Wrong With This Picture?.
See also
- West Country accents
- Django Reinhardt, another
influential jazz musician whose dexterity seemed unimpaired by
finger-damage
External links
