100 Jazz Tunes Everyone Should Hear (#21) Acker Bilk

#21 - Acker Bilk - In A Persian Market - 1962

There are several versions of Acker playing "In a Persian Market", all of them worth checking out. This one (from the movie It's Trad, Dad) is among my favorites, if only because we get a closeup of Acker's technique and a chance to see the stump of a finger he managed to play with on his left hand. Other than Pete Fountain, very few Trad clarinetists have had the ability to 'lift' a band the way Acker could, with a type of soaring power. While his technique wasn't as fluid as Fountain's, he had the ability to turn even novelty tunes into uplifting achievements -- a quality all but entirely lacking in modern jazz. There's a sense of fun, humor, and joy here at an unusually high level.

[ This is not a comprehensive list, nor is it representative of the "most important" or "best." Instead, following Duke Ellington's adage that the greatest music and musicians are "beyond category", I'm starting 2020 by sharing 100 jazz tunes I feel everyone should have the chance to hear--really just tunes and performances that I love. ]

'Goodbye Bowler Hat' (for Acker)

Here's a song I wrote as a tribute to Acker Bilk. A fan caught this performance on her iPhone one night at the Bop Stop in Cleveland, and graciously shared it with us...

Photo: Bill Laufer/Laufer Film

Acker Bilk and Hubert Rostaing at The Bop Stop

I've had a surge of gratitude since playing our concert last night at the Bop Stop. Those who were there know we started with a set of gypsy jazz, dedicated to Hubert Rostaing and Django Reinhardt. The second set was dedicated to Acker Bilk's compositions.

At the beginning of the second, I asked the audience how many folks had ever heard of Acker (he's not well known on this side of the pond). I was surprised that nearly every table had someone enthusiastically raising a hand.

At the very end of the gig, after we'd played "Coffee & Ackercake" I asked them how many had ever heard that song performed live. No one raised a hand...it was the first time any of them had gotten the chance to really hear it.

Both my wife (who was in the audience) and the manager of the Bop Stop, Gabe Pollack, told me stories of couples at tables reacting emotionally to what we were doing--excited to actually hear a band playing this music for once.

Acker's music has had a profound impact on my playing and song writing. It's deceptively simple, sunny music. What you find if you play it enough, though, is a unique type of joyful depth, demanding a soulful musical language of its own. To think that we brought that to people eager to hear it last night, in a creative way...to share musical goodness like that...that's what this historical jazz clarinet concert series is all about.

I love the Benny Goodman tributes, and all of those things...they are important and people love that music...but when we can perform tunes that would otherwise be entirely lost or unperformed...when we can essentially start a musical tradition before it can't be started...as an artist, let me tell you, that is truly a great privilege.

Thank you to everyone who came out last night. We play one more in this epic series--two weeks from now we'll focus on my originals (about 15-17 tunes worth of my stuff), and some other that we didn't get to this fall (I want to play "Si Tu Vois Ma Mere" by Bechet and some others yet..) So don't miss us on the 29th at 7pm--the final installment of the 2017 Historical Jazz Clarinet Series at the BOP STOP.

Eric Seddon's Hot Club at The BOP STOP in Cleveland

Mr. Acker Bilk and His Paramount Jazz Band * ACKER * Columbia Record 33 SX 1248 * 1960

White Cliffs of Dover

Snake Rag
2.19 Blues
Fancy Pants
Lazy River
There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder
Original Dixieland Onestep
Good Night, Sweet Prince
Good Woman Blues
Bottom of the Bottle
Milenberg Joys

Personnel [as listed in the album notes]:

Mr. Acker Bilk * clarionet and titular head 
Mr. Ken Sims * trumpet 
Mr. Jonathan Mortimer * trombone
Mr. Roy James * tenor banjo
Mr. Ernest Price * bass
Mr. Ronald McKay * traps and effects

recorded on the 5th, 7th, and 13th days of April, 1960

As with The Seven Ages of Acker and Band of Thieves, I'm sure I like this album way too much for my own good. From the zany liner notes and bowler hat cover to the vocal clarinet and loose but well balanced band, this is exactly what you'd expect from the golden era of Mr. Acker Bilk's Paramount Jazz Band, and it's probably one of their best albums.

The English Trad Jazz scene has historically been a bit of an anomaly to us Americans, though it's so little known in the United States, in a general sense, that to even call it that might be a little strong. Without putting too fine a point on it, the approach to the ambiance of the music, and sometimes to the social meaning of it, tends to be different on either side of the pond. Whereas the American attitude generally ranges anywhere from solemnity to a festive presentation of the music, there almost always seems a zany, Marx-brothers type approach not far in the background of British Trad. This can get annoying for Americans like myself, and it can be prohibitive to enjoyment of some bands, however well the musicians might play. To some very serious traditionalists here in the US, it can seem downright insulting to the music. Why Acker Bilk's Paramount Jazz Band is an exception, despite their use of comedy, is of interest to me, and something I've spent time considering.

My answer is simply that, for all the silliness of the liner notes, striped waistcoats, bowler hats, and hijinx, this is really fine, soulful music making. Bilk's clarinet is immediately identifiable: you can hear right to his heart and soul every time he picks up the horn. He had unique intangibles that were impossible to measure: like how to "lift" an entire performance when he added his voice, and how the band "goes" with him emotionally.

Over the last couple  of years, especially, I've been an advocate for Acker's music here in Cleveland. Many of the musicians I've played with, some of them considerably older than I am, hadn't really heard his playing before I started putting tunes on set lists and scheduling Acker Bilk themed concerts. I'd send bandmates recordings to listen to and we'd talk about them on set breaks or to and from gigs. The response has often been exactly my feelings about the music: that Acker had a unique lyricism, a very touching voice, and the band had an infectious joy about them. The approval hasn't been universal, or without criticism, but many musicians I've talked to have been very impressed. Even the humor that surrounds Bilk's packaging seems specifically good humored, and not just silly.

This album evokes WWII era nostalgia with "White Cliffs of Dover" immediately, then reaches back to early numbers like "Snake Rag" and "2.19 Blues" which originate with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band and Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet, respectively. Immediately after that, though, we get an Acker Bilk original, "Fancy Pants", which might seem just goofy and simple, capitalizing on the caribbean/calypso fad of the late '50s and early '60s. On the surface, there's really nothing to this song: It's just made of a few simple, arpeggiated chords, modulates very obviously, upwards, and is nothing to write home about. But all that aside, it's a great little tune, and it's Acker's joyful sound, as usual, that makes it more than the notes themselves. Most impressively, despite all of the stylistic shifts and eras represented on the album (including another Bilk original "Good Night, Sweet Prince" and the howling howler "Good Woman Blues") the band has a unified concept and approach, making the whole program sound as though the tunes could have been written the day they were recorded.        

This is the real addictive thing about Bilk and his band, especially of this era: They play with such joy and zest, and interpret tunes with such freshness, that all eras seem irrelevant when they're playing. It's just music, and their happiness to be sharing it is obvious. For me, this is vintage Acker Bilk, and even though I've only known of his music for a few years now, it's become an indispensable part of my regular listening (and as a band leader, my set lists).

Promotional poster from our first Acker Bilk tribute concert, back in 2015

  

Mpingo Documentary by Sir David Attenborough featuring Acker Bilk * 1992

Catching a reference to it on social media earlier today, I dug up a 1992 tv/e documentary called  Mpingo: The Tree That Makes Music, by Sir David Attenborough. It's a wonderful film giving excellent footage of mpingo wood, from the trees in Tanzania all the way to the concert halls and pubs of Europe.

When first clicking, I had no idea it would feature so much jazz clarinet. The great Acker Bilk was, in fact, the very first clarinetist shown (or even heard) on this documentary, near the seven minute mark, performing what appears to be a humble pub gig. Then, while showing off the manufacturing process of Buffet clarinets around the twenty minute mark, we're treated to Barney Bigard's classic performance of "Clarinet Lament (Barney's Concerto)" with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. At around 37:30 we're back at Acker Bilk pub gig, getting the chance to hear him, without strings or extended orchestration, launch into his most famous tune, "Stranger on the Shore." After this clip, Bilk offers his opinion that the clarinet is essential to jazz performance--which is not the sort of thing clarinetists are used to hearing when jazz is discussed, but Acker makes it clear he feels something is missing from a jazz band without it. It's great to hear him mention the light and dark qualities, the shadings the clarinet possesses in contrast to other instruments, noting that mpingo wood is responsible for the special warmth and tone quality of the instrument. Overall, it's a unique little moment of grateful reflection for the instrument, and a brief but eloquent argument for the clarinet's importance in our music.

One of the most moving moments of the documentary, for me, was hearing a conservationist named Robert Lamb describe the sound of the clarinet, in terms that I think will resonate with all of us who play this instrument: "What you're hearing is nature's voice: a direct connection between nature and music." This is highly recommended viewing for clarinetists and anyone interested in this remarkable wood.

Book Review: The Book of Bilk * Peter Leslie & Patrick Gwynn-Jones * MacGibbon & Kee, London * 1961

Of all the books written on the subject of jazz clarinet and jazz clarinetists, this one is probably the most absurd, entertaining, and downright ingenious. The full title of this slim, 96 page volume is The Book of Bilk: 41 Characters in Search of an Acker, the front cover featuring a photograph of a dapper Mr. Acker Bilk, in striped waistcoat and bowler hat, raising his glass in a toast to the reader. The back cover delivers blurbs from the Daily Mirror ('A huge success...')  and Francis Newton of The New Statesman, who said the contents of the volume 'Makes most open fun of tradition, of pompousness and history, while simultaneously implying the moral certainties of an older, stabler, epoch.'

I don't know how Newton arrived at such a conclusion from the book itself, or even whether the blurb was an actual quote or a fabricated part of the bizarre, satirical illusion of the book itself, but it does capture something true not only about the sketches inside, but Bilk's music as a whole. There is something ridiculous, but also something stable, unlike any art out there.

Reading the book itself like watching Monty Python, though it predates that Flying Corps by nearly a full decade, which just goes to show that no art is created in a vacuum. The Book of Bilk is comprised of literary and historical parodies from prehistoric man to the present, including (but not limited to):

Pithecanthropus Ackererctus
Ackermemnon
KingAckery VIII
Johann Sebastian Bilk
Edgar Acker Poe
Buffalo Bilk

...and more, all the way to Mr. Acker Bilk himself, descended of these esteemed forefathers (and mothers). The writing is hilarious--filled with satires of Chaucer, Longfellow, Shakespeare, and various historians).

Get one while they're still out there: it's the perfect tonic for an age of solemnified ignorance.

Eric Seddon's Hot Club Live @ The British American Club

We'll be doing a tribute to the great Acker Bilk, who passed away last November 2nd. C'mon out and hear us play great originals of his, such as 'Stranger on the Shore', 'Summer Set', and 'Band of Thieves', along with many other standard New Orleans jazz favorites!

Mr. Acker Bilk and His Paramount Jazz Band * The Seven Ages of Acker * 1959

In a Persian Market (Ketelby)
I'm Going Home (Bilk)
Ory's Creole Trombone (Ory)
Summer Set (Bilk)
The Light from the Lighthouse (Traditional)
The Gay Hussar (Lincke)
Tiger Ray (LaRocca/DeCoste/Shields)
Lucky Rock (Rainey)
Cushion Foot Stomp (Williams)
Run Come See Jerusalem (Blake)
Old Comrades March (Teike)

Columbia - 33SX 1205

Mr. Acker Bilk * clarinet, vocals
Mr. J. Mortimer * trombone
Mr. K. Sims * trumpet
Mr. R. McKay * traps, background vocal on "The Light from the Lighthouse"
Mr. E. Price * double bass
Mr. R. James * tenor banjo
Mr. D. Collett * piano on "Summer Set"


Technological advance, methodical and relentless use of resources, constant innovation understood as a virtue, commercialism as a way of life, gratuitous competition as a means of marketing: these are aspects of the American psyche which tend to spill over from economics and industry into the rest of our culture as well. Jazz history has been no exception. Sometimes this mindset has produced explosively creative results; at other times the inability of the American mind to cease its restless, insatiable consumerism seems to get ahead of itself and leave little ground unscorched before it could be properly developed.

Comparing jazz history to European concert music history reveals this compression--whereas Functional Tonality took centuries to develop, and stylistic epochs in classical music history stretched sometimes for multiple generations, Jazz went from polyphony to an early 'gallant' style to high romanticism to full fledged modernism in about four decades. Some of this was simply a result of the interaction of jazz with modern European music, but certainly much of it had to do with the restless, voracious, and nervous American muse. Because of this, we've often depended upon other cultures to maintain, value, and support styles invented here and abandoned before they've even reached full fruition. France, England, and Japan have often, since the mid-20th century, been more supportive of American jazz musicians than their native country. Because of this, the spread of jazz has not necessarily followed the trajectory abroad that it has at home -- "Trad Jazz" is not only celebrated on other continents, but it has produced heirs from other cultures who have added their particular voice and ethnic flavor to the music.

One of the strongest of these Trad Jazz currents flowed through Great Britain in the 1950s and '60s, and a major focal point was the fascinating and soulful music of clarinetist Acker Bilk. Bilk's contribution is beyond that of being a curator of New Orleans style tunes abroad--he actually advanced the art of jazz in ways that have yet to be fully appreciated on this side of the pond.

First, perhaps, a discussion of his sound is necessary. It's an interesting coincidence of history that the traditionally broad, mellow, full sound of English clarinetists has more in common with early New Orleans style clarinet than the 'American School' of classical clarinetistry. As such there was a natural sympathy between Bilk and New Orleans players such as George Lewis, Albert Nicholas, and Raymond Burke. It would be a mistake to think of Bilk as an English copy of New Orleans sound, though--there were many differences. His chalumeau, while strong and expressive, didn't have the typical New Orleans richness, and while his clarion register could hold with the best of the NOLA crowd, it's his altissimo that is so striking: Bilk's altissimo was actually much stronger than most Crescent City traditionalists, making him able to sustain lines with strength and clarity in unique ways. His intonation was also quite good--and while he always honored George Lewis and other foundational New Orleans players, he didn't fall into the trap of playing too flat so often (which seems to plague many NOLA style traditionalists). All in all, he took the style and brought strength, clarity, and a certain amount of virtuosity (though never descending into mere flashiness).

The Seven Ages of Acker likewise takes New Orleans style as a point of departure, applying it broadly, not only by playing standards (such as Tiger Rag and Ory's Creole Trombone), but in terms of repertoire. In it, Bilk expanded the base of traditional jazz, integrating light music that was popular with British audiences in the early 20th century such as Ketebey's "In a Persian Market," and Lincke's "The Gay Hussar." Significantly, this music was the direct precursor of British Invasion rock (several Brit Rock bands and players of the following decade cut their teeth in trad-jazz groups of the '50s). Like those bands' backbeats, which were based upon American Rhythm & Blues, but didn't really sound or feel like it, there is a distinctive English quality to the way Acker Bilk's Paramount Jazz Band swings--a quality that Americans ought to take more seriously, because to dismiss it is only to lose the creativity and subtle innovative quality that this music offers. The more you listen to English Trad Jazz, the more you hear the long history of the British brass band and light music blending into the New Orleans style. That it is such a good fit is both fascinating and enjoyable. As with so much English music, there's always an admirable emphasis on soul and real emotion rather than mere technique. That's wasn't always the case with American jazz since the bop era, and can serve as quite an antidote to self-conscious modernism.

It's noteworthy that a Bilk original from this album, "Summer Set", was a top ten hit on the UK charts, setting the stage for his biggest: 1961's "Stranger on the Shore"-- the first British tune to hit number one on the American Billboard charts (predating Beatlemania). "Summer Set" is a very simple tune, but the bright sincerity of it serves as foreshadowing to the lighter, optimistic hits of Paul McCartney during his Beatle days.

This band, and this album, is one of the most intriguing of the Trad Jazz contributions from the British heyday of the '50s and '60s. They didn't just serve as a cover band, but as a creative, innovative group in their own genuine and humorous way. There is still much to be learned from what those English traddies did, and for those who haven't yet delved into it, this album is highly recommended.

The Seven Ages of Acker gets The Jazz Clarinet's highest rating: Five Good Reeds, for the command Bilk shows on clarinet (especially his masterful altissimo) while expanding and moving the music forward. While Americans had by 1959 largely abandoned the New Orleans model, Bilk & Co added to it, showing there was still much work to do, and that the style can be developed continuously.