#30 Kenny Ball, Chris Barber & Acker Bilk: The Best of Ball, Barber & Bilk

And now for something completely different…JAZZ!

(Pye Golden Guinea)

Released: August 1962

Topped the chart:

16th September 1962 (for 1 week)

14th October 1962 (for 1 week)

Four weeks total.

On the verge of the British pop revolution, topping the charts is a Dixieland (or “Trad”) jazz compilation inspired by the sounds of 1920s New Orleans.

Surely reaching the top spot thanks to the mammoth transatlantic success of Acker Bilk’s 1961 instrumental Stranger on the Shore, for a good portion of listeners, the sound produced from the speakers must have come as a shock. Gone are the smooth, comforting bath of sound from Bilk’s clarinet, replaced with a Creole-fried Ragtime party packed with horns, banjos and general good times by three of the most important pre-rock figures in British music. The songs are pure pre-war America, but the work of Ball, Barber and Bilk contain the birth screams of modern British music.

As explored previously, skiffle was the beginning of British popular music as we know it, and Lonnie Donegan’s Rock Island Line was year zero for the obscure genre’s British reimagining. Donegan was a member of Chris Barber’s jazz band and would perform the song live during “break out” sections where the band would reduce to a guitar-bass-drums-banjo set up as the rest of the band took a break. Recorded simply because Barber’s band didn’t have enough material for a 10” album, Rock Island Line was the song that would like a million tea-chest basses on the British public.

No time for skiffle here though, and so we have “Trad” Dixieland jazz in pure form. Essentially three EPs by the jazz bands smooshed together, Bilk, Ball and Barber’s style are similar enough to make the LP work cohesively, but there is enough variation in sound with each taking a different lead instrument in their respective line ups.

Far from the snooty image that British jazz has adopted in the last 50 years, the music from all three groups here is utterly joyful. The New Orleans style is well enough rendered to picture jug bands at Mardi Gras, parades and floats buoyed along on a propulsive beat. These days, much like Elvis, criticism can be levelled as British white (mainly) men performing what is classically Black American music, but their love and passion for these sounds is what shines through more than anything.

Acker Bilk & His Paramount Jazz Band lead the charge on the first four tracks. Bilk’s clarinet from Stranger on the Shore is most recognisable on Higher Ground, but his songs here are a full-on party. It’s his instrument that brings everything together, floating over a backing that sounds like it’s about to fall apart at any moment- trumpet, banjo and double bass all seem to be doing their own thing on Jump In The Line in glorious chaos, held together by the beat and each return to Bilk’s vocals. It’s glorious chaos. Bilk’s voice is effective as an instrument too, managing something of Louis Prima’s rasp, especially on the throaty Willie the Weeper.

In comparison, Ball’s selections are more immediately tuneful, which makes sense considering he was seen as more of a populist that the more staid Trad jazz of people like Ken Colyer. Hence The Teddy Bear’s Picnic, which works all the better the further it gets away from the traditional children’s tune. The switch to trumpet as lead instrument is striking, but while Ball handles the song’s melody as lead, it’s the clarinet and trombone in conversation beneath that’s most interesting. I Love You Samantha, a number 2 hit in 1961, proves that his vocal chops aren’t as strong as Bilk’s, and the song gets a significant lift when he returns his lips to his horn. Best of Ball is Chimes Blues, where the trumpeter plays with texture wonderfully.  The opening has a rigid military feel before descending into something seamier with longer-held notes, ending by opening up into a party for the final few bars.

Midwife to the Donegan revolution, most of Chris Barber’s tracks are the most playful of the trio, including a samba rhythm on Majorca (even if the banjo solo after the introduction brings proceedings to a screeching half), while Tuxedo Rag is heavy on the driving skiffle beat. Legendary blues vocalist Ottille Patterson—who would stay with the band for 15 years—gets her only outing on closer When The Saints Go Marching In. Her vocals lift the stale song in its first half, before an extended instrumental second half almost feels like a modern jam.

With just two weeks at the top of the chart, it’s a shame that it would be the only time this type of jazz would sit so highly in the wider British public imagination. Not that any of the three leads would have minded: never again mainstream, they would maintain a strong following in the jazz world, touring (often together) well in their dotage.

It's pleasing that the trio had their moment in the sun, with that most un-British of British jazz sounds, more New Orleans than Newton Abbot.

Score: 8/10

Tracklisting:

SIDE A

1.      Acker Bilk & His Paramount Jazz Band - Jump In The Line

2.      Acker Bilk & His Paramount Jazz Band - Higher Ground

3.      Acker Bilk & His Paramount Jazz Band - Willie The Weeper

4.      Acker Bilk & His Paramount Jazz Band - Gladiolus Rag

5.      Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen - Teddy Bears' Picnic

6.      Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen - Hawaiian War Chant

SIDE B

7.      Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen - I Love You Samantha

8.      Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen - Chimes Blues

9.      Chris Barber & His Jazz Band - Majorca

10.  Chris Barber & His Jazz Band - High Society

11.  Chris Barber & His Jazz Band - Tuxedo Rag

Chris Barber & His Jazz Band - When The Saints Go Marching In