Acker Bilk vintage rarities featured this month on TJR

Bernard Bilk was born in Pensford, Somerset on January 28th, 1929, and the nickname of "Acker" was given to him at school. No-one, not even Acker himself, knows what it means (if anything), but this is of little consequence. The name somehow seems to fit, and it is certainly original. There's only one Acker whichever way you look at it. If Bilk's name came by chance, then also it would appear. did the fact that he took up music. 1947 was the date, Egypt the place, and Acker had been imprisoned for falling asleep on guard duty. He asked for a clarinet to help pass the time. and eventually got down to practising five hours a day. Acker's interest in music, and traditional jazz in particular. thus aroused he formed a semi-pro jazz band when he went to Bristol after his demob. Soon, his proficiency became such that he felt ready to come to London-and conic he did, joining the Ken Colyer band in 1954. But the urge was strong to again form a group of his own, and so it was that the Paramount Jazz Band came into being in 1957. One of their first assignments was to go to Poland, and then, after a while back in London, they did a stint at the Beer Bar in Dusseldorf with quite a measure of success. Back in London again it was not such a happy story, and shortage of work almost forced the group to disband. However, the original issue of the recordings contained in this album raised quite a lot of interest amongst agents and major recording companies, and things started to go Acker's way. The rest of the story is history. A great deal of clever publicity certainly helped to make the Acker Bilk story, but there was more to it than that; Acker's own ability and personality, aided and abetted by as loyal and dedicated a bunch of sidemen as any leader could wish for. These original recordings are not as polished as those which came later (nor in fact, of course, are the earlier recordings of Louis Armstrong and other jazz greats!), but they do have a character, sincerity and vitality all of their own, and a great feeling for the New Orleans idiom which will never date.
DOUG DOBELL