The Humphrey Lyttelton Band - Biography

In January 2008, Humphrey Lyttelton celebrated sixty unbroken years as a bandleader, and following his death a few months later the band continued to celebrate Humph’s music and his philosophy of versatility, reflected in a repertoire which extends from early traditional to modern by way of Ellington and Basie. Its range is also shown by the cast-list of artists whom it has accompanied on disc or in special presentations over the years, among them instrumentalists Buck Clayton and Buddy Tate, singers Jimmy Rushing, Big Joe Turner, Elkie Brooks, Helen Shapiro, Stacey Kent and Tina May. Perhaps surprising is a single-track appearance on a CD called Amnesiac by the esoteric pop group, Radiohead, recorded in July 2000. The track is called Life In A Glass House.

Many composers and arrangers have contributed to the band’s repertoire. Not to be forgotten are Humph's own compositions, of which he has recorded well over two hundred, including 'the medley of his hit', Bad Penny Blues, so it's little surprise that the prevailing reaction from audiences is 'We never thought a jazz concert could have such variety!'.

The most important ingredients are, of course, THE MUSICIANS, all stars in their own right

Tony Fisher was Bert Kaempfert's lead trumpet player since 1970

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Tony started playing at a very early age and by the time he was 13 years old he was touring the theatres and concert halls of the UK. He later worked with many of the "name" bands including harry James, Les Brown, Ted Heath and Johnny Dankworth, and with The London Symphony Orchestra, the Francy Boland-Kenny Clarke Band and the Metropole Orchestra and the Ted Heath and Don Lusher Big Bands.

Eventually settling in London he became one of the most in-demand studio musicians, working on countless films, TV shows and recordings. The artists he played for include, among others, The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Bassey, Sarah Vaughan, Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Tony Bennet, Sammy Davis jr., Henry Mancini, Barbra Streisand, Tom Jones, Johnny Mathis, Liza Minelli and Antonio Carlos Jobin.

As well as his duties as leader of the Bert Kaempfert Orchestra he is currently playing every week on the "Parkinson" BBC-TV show - normally transmitted on Friday night. He is also playing and does various "one-off" TV shows and film recordings in the UK and in Europe.

piano.

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Ted Beament was self-taught in his youth, later studying with bassist and teacher Peter Ind. In his own words, he sidled into, rather than burst upon, the London jazz scene. For many years he did gigs with his own trio and with other freelance groups, reaching a point at which many top international musicians were happy to have him supporting them.

He is also a superb and sensitive accompanist, as singers Maxine Daniels and Helen Shapiro have readily testified. Over the years, he has played frequently with Lyttelton band colleagues Adrian Macintosh and the late Paul Bridge, but when he himself joined the band in 1995, it was his first-ever job with a regular working band, an extraordinary fact which he puts down to being a 'late developer'!

tenor sax, baritone sax and clarinet.

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Robert Fowler began his musical career in Bristol, while he was studying graphic design. Work with a variety of local bands, often sitting in with visiting solo stars of the calibre of Danny Moss and Roy Williams, eventually put the design career on hold when he became a popular attraction in his own right. Over recent years, he has played regularly with the Humphrey Lyttelton band, deputizing variously for Kathy Stobart, Jimmy Hastings and Karen Sharp.

After a long wait of almost Gordon Brown proportions and the departure of Karen for fresh pastures, he has become a full-time member, bringing with him enormous experience in bands ranging from the Pasadena Roof Orchestra through the swinging Back to Basie Orchestra to the adventurous Alan Barnes Octet. On whichever instrument he chooses to pick up, he has shown himself a show-stopper.

alto sax, clarinet and flute.

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Jimmy Hastings auditioned for Humphrey Lyttelton's band when Tony Coe left in the early Sixties. Then primarily a tenor saxist, he had to borrow Tony Coe's alto for the audition, which may be why he wasn't immediately accepted ! Since then he has become one of the most highly-respected musicians on the music scene, in demand for session and theatre work as well as many jazz assignments in top bands both large and small.

Jimmy Hastings finally joined the band in the mid-Nineties. ('Thirty-odd years may seem a long time to mull over an audition, but one doesn't rush into these things! Jimmy's versatility is now a prime asset' H.L.).

drums.

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Adrian Macintosh came to London from Yorkshire in the 1960s, where he soon became much in demand as a freelance. His musical associations, national and international, are too numerous to list here. He became a member of the Humphrey Lyttelton band in 1982, and within a year, was joined in the rhythm section by the late Paul Bridge. The rapport between them did much to create the most swinging rhythm team in town.

When Ted Beament came into the band in the mid-Nineties, that rapport was further enhanced, leading to a trio with the versatility to work as a band unit and a group in its own right. That group, called Trio Time, has recorded successfully for Humph's Calligraph label, proving that, when the ingredients are right, you can have your cake and eat it!

double bass.

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John Rees-Jones classically trained as a cellist, toured and recorded as such with Keith Tippet's CENTIPEDE, an early cross-over group, and subsequently appeared with, among others, Yehudi Menuhin and Peter Pears. He moved over to double bass and bass guitar in the late 1970s. A list of those with whom he has worked in jazz and also theatre music (in nineteen countries) would constitute a show-business encyclopedia. In all of this he has found time to act as visiting teacher of jazz double bass and bass guitar at Eton College and to tutor several hundred jazz workshops nationwide.

In early 2004, after deputising frequently with Humph, he brought his vast experience to the band on a permanent basis (the permanent bassist, in other words, and I get that in before he does ! H.L.)

trombone.

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Ray Wordworth was born in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. By the age of ten he was playing trombone with the Rawmarsh Brass Band and, at fourteen, gigging with a local jazz band. It’s little wonder that he turned professional on leaving school, and began a career which took him from work with Joe Daniels, Sid Phillips, Ken Macintosh and other name bands to the Principal Trombone chair with the BBC Radio Orchestra.

His route into the Humph band in 2004 has taken in bands from Freddie Randall to Stan Tracey, and studio work has equipped him with a bagful of stellar names from Sinatra downwards and sideways which, but for his natural modesty, he could scatter like confetti. All of which can be summed up in two words – talent and experience.