0:00:02 > 0:00:04TRAD JAZZ MUSIC
0:00:04 > 0:00:08In the post-war years, a bunch of British musicians
0:00:08 > 0:00:11looked to New Orleans for a taste of freedom
0:00:11 > 0:00:12and a generation caught on.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17- It was a journey of revelation. - Unbelievable.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19And desperation.
0:00:19 > 0:00:21That band shouldn't have been broken up.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24Of musical highs... and lows.
0:00:28 > 0:00:33A story of festival feuds, spats and squabbles.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37This was a jet airliner and they were a Tiger Moth.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41Purists and progressives, mouldy figs and dirty boppers.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44- The jazz police didn't like it. - HE LAUGHS
0:00:44 > 0:00:48Of how young ideals deteriorated into a commercial fad.
0:00:48 > 0:00:53And the forgotten moment when New Orleans jazz became great British pop.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56Get us back to New Orleans, man.
0:00:56 > 0:00:57Chutzpah!
0:01:07 > 0:01:10AIR-RAID SIREN BLARES
0:01:21 > 0:01:26Britain during the Second World War, a time of great uncertainty.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30For a young generation, the music of the day offered little hope.
0:01:30 > 0:01:31You got Music While You Work,
0:01:31 > 0:01:35which was the current popular records of the time,
0:01:35 > 0:01:38which was probably dance bands, I suppose,
0:01:38 > 0:01:40playing whatever new songs there were.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42SUPPER JAZZ MUSIC
0:01:44 > 0:01:47There were the great American swing bands.
0:01:47 > 0:01:54And you got dance bands basing their styles on that sound for dancers.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56But it had no character whatsoever.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03It was a sterile sort of music in terms of jazz.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07I suppose it was just... so predictable.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15For me, it was...my dad's music.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22Mum and Dad waltzed the night away,
0:02:22 > 0:02:26but strict tempo offered little to inspire a generation
0:02:26 > 0:02:29hungering for a music that moved them.
0:02:29 > 0:02:33The murmurings of an alternative began in amateur circles,
0:02:33 > 0:02:37underground cliques of jazz fans called rhythm clubs.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41They were just groups of collectors of gramophone records
0:02:41 > 0:02:43who got together probably once a week.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47These young people were discovering records of music
0:02:47 > 0:02:49that had been half forgotten about
0:02:49 > 0:02:53and much of it hadn't actually been heard in this country.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59These rare 78s became gospels,
0:02:59 > 0:03:03early jazz that held an instant emotional appeal.
0:03:03 > 0:03:08Records by Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver and Louis Armstrong.
0:03:08 > 0:03:14The music had a freedom to it which we didn't hear in the dance bands.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18You feel it. You can feel it. These guys are not playing off dots.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21So there seemed to be a kind of a zeitgeist
0:03:21 > 0:03:27for looking back at the earlier music that maybe wasn't as sophisticated as all the big bands.
0:03:30 > 0:03:36In 1943, at a pub in a Southeast London suburb, a handful of working-class amateurs
0:03:36 > 0:03:41inspired by the energy and authenticity of this early New Orleans jazz,
0:03:41 > 0:03:44tried to recreate the music live.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47The local dance band musicians
0:03:47 > 0:03:50played their jam sessions
0:03:50 > 0:03:53in The Red Barn at Barnehurst.
0:03:55 > 0:04:00They gave us a turn, but we would hardly play.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12The audience, they went wild.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15They were hearing in the flesh the live music
0:04:15 > 0:04:20that was similar to what they were having on gramophone records.
0:04:20 > 0:04:27And it was just sheer, raw emotion and passion, which they felt.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31It was the first live jazz I'd ever heard.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33As I walked in, they struck up.
0:04:33 > 0:04:35It was a big sound they had, a very big sound.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38And I was, you know, bowled over.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47And after a few months it was really packed.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51That was pretty exciting. It was very exciting, in fact,
0:04:51 > 0:04:56to be hardly starting to play and packing in people.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59That was the first band in this country
0:04:59 > 0:05:02that ever sat down and played,
0:05:02 > 0:05:08copied the...innovators, the Olivers and the Armstrongs
0:05:08 > 0:05:10and the early '20s.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13Nobody else was doing it.
0:05:16 > 0:05:21These ordinary young men, cartoonist, shopkeeper, librarian
0:05:21 > 0:05:26and factory worker started a revival of New Orleans jazz in Britain.
0:05:26 > 0:05:31In May 1945, as the war ended, the George Webb Dixielanders
0:05:31 > 0:05:33made their first recordings.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37The first records we made, we were virtually thrown out of Decca,
0:05:37 > 0:05:40because our technical ability was so poor.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44And the review of the first records when they eventually came out,
0:05:44 > 0:05:46we were condemned for being rough.
0:05:49 > 0:05:54Pro musicians from dance bands had no time for these DIY mavericks,
0:05:54 > 0:05:59but their mockery did little to affect a determined George Webb.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02Feisty little guy, very aggressive.
0:06:02 > 0:06:07I mean, considering he played with clenched fists, he did very well.
0:06:08 > 0:06:11And there was a time when we were playing in a concert
0:06:11 > 0:06:14and the other band was full of professional musicians
0:06:14 > 0:06:19and one of them put his head round the curtain and pulled a face.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21And George just stood up from the piano
0:06:21 > 0:06:27and whacked him straight in the face with his already clenched fist.
0:06:31 > 0:06:36This amateur music attracted a young generation looking to escape
0:06:36 > 0:06:39the musical and social dogmas of post-war life.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43In New Orleans jazz, they heard freedom for the individual.
0:06:43 > 0:06:48Early jazz was of course the ultimate example of nonconformity,
0:06:48 > 0:06:51not having to follow the rules of the older generation.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53It was a way of reinterpreting the rules
0:06:53 > 0:06:55and a way of rebelling against the rules
0:06:55 > 0:06:58without completely destroying everything.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05The 1920s' recordings of King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band
0:07:05 > 0:07:08were a key source for the Dixielanders.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12You know, King Oliver was a gardener at one time in New Orleans,
0:07:12 > 0:07:14he was ignored, what he thought didn't matter,
0:07:14 > 0:07:17he was just an anonymous black man.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20But through the music, he became royalty.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32King Oliver made his first recordings in Chicago,
0:07:32 > 0:07:37featuring a young protege who was set to change music for ever.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41He knew that Armstrong was developing well in New Orleans
0:07:41 > 0:07:45and he invited him to come up to Chicago to join his band.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47In 1923, they made this series of recordings
0:07:47 > 0:07:50that really took jazz from simply a way of playing music
0:07:50 > 0:07:53and elevated it to the level of art from.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04It wasn't long before Louis Armstrong broke free with a group under his own name.
0:08:04 > 0:08:09In 1925, he made the first recordings with his Hot Five.
0:08:09 > 0:08:15In Louis Armstrong you had someone that was becoming a genius,
0:08:15 > 0:08:20someone that was taking this improvised music out of the ensemble
0:08:20 > 0:08:22and developing it as a solo art.
0:08:22 > 0:08:24TRUMPET TRILLS
0:08:28 > 0:08:31Armstrong was a huge influence on a young British trumpet player,
0:08:31 > 0:08:37who'd make a big impact when he joined George Webb's Dixielanders for a gig in Scotland.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41I taught him all the routines on the train journey up there.
0:08:41 > 0:08:47On the way back, I said to George, "If he joins the band, I leave."
0:08:47 > 0:08:49HE LAUGHS
0:08:52 > 0:08:55- He was too good. - HE LAUGHS
0:08:59 > 0:09:02For Old Etonian, Humphrey Lyttelton,
0:09:02 > 0:09:07Jazz offered liberation from the expectations of his formal upbringing.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10His accomplished style took things a step further.
0:09:10 > 0:09:15Suddenly there was somebody playing... Obviously, he was intending to play it right.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18He was actually playing phrases that actually were accurate phrases.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22And some of them, even Louis Armstrong phrases that one could recognise.
0:09:22 > 0:09:23HE HUMS
0:09:23 > 0:09:28Instead of being the slightly stodgy approach that we had...
0:09:28 > 0:09:31HE HUMS
0:09:35 > 0:09:38- He would go... - HE HUMS
0:09:38 > 0:09:40He'd be off, you know.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47The Dixielanders split.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49Humph formed his own band,
0:09:49 > 0:09:53eventually hosting regular club nights at 100 Oxford Street.
0:09:53 > 0:09:58A frustrated generation finally found release in this goodtime music.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02Art school and university students were the first catch on
0:10:02 > 0:10:05and a revivalist scene began to emerge.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09We used to go down and listen to Humph every Saturday and Monday.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12I said, "Can I sing a song with you, Humph?"
0:10:12 > 0:10:17And he gave the absolutely classic answer he gave to anyone
0:10:17 > 0:10:19who wanted to sing with him, "No."
0:10:19 > 0:10:21- And so... - HE LAUGHS
0:10:21 > 0:10:26I noticed he always closed his eyes during his solos,
0:10:26 > 0:10:29so I crept up to the stage and stood by
0:10:29 > 0:10:32while he played the chorus of Dr Jazz
0:10:32 > 0:10:37and then when he reached the last phrase, I jumped up on the stage, grabbed the mic and sang it.
0:10:37 > 0:10:38Chutzpah!
0:10:41 > 0:10:46A long-standing union ban prevented American musicians from playing in Britain,
0:10:46 > 0:10:52but in 1949, New Orleans legend Sydney Bechet was due to appear in France.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56For Lyttelton, it was too good an opportunity to miss.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59We were playing at the Winter Garden Theatre
0:10:59 > 0:11:05and we worked out a way of smuggling Bechet over from Paris,
0:11:05 > 0:11:06putting him in the audience
0:11:06 > 0:11:08and then inviting him onto the stage.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12He was black, he was from New Orleans,
0:11:12 > 0:11:16he had played with Louis Armstrong in the earlier days.
0:11:16 > 0:11:21The spotlight went onto the box and it was Bechet waving at the crowd.
0:11:21 > 0:11:22I thought, "Wow!"
0:11:37 > 0:11:39Unbelievable.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42It was unbelievable.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45No-one knew it was going to be on.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54We had no information and it was...
0:11:54 > 0:11:57And you can imagine that when...
0:11:57 > 0:12:00Sidney Bechet stood up and started playing...
0:12:04 > 0:12:06A magic moment.
0:12:06 > 0:12:07Absolutely magic.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19It was a flouting of the union ban,
0:12:19 > 0:12:22a purposeful rejection of the establishment.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24Organisers were fined heavily,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27but Bechet's appearance was a seal of approval.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31Revivalist jazz took off and bands formed all over Britain.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34It happen like a bushfire.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36It was spontaneous, if you like, all over the country.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39There were The Merseys, the Saints,
0:12:39 > 0:12:41the Yorkshire Jazz Band in the North.
0:12:41 > 0:12:43It was sort of exciting.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47It was far better than being in a bank or something.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49Bands like The Mick Mulligan Band,
0:12:49 > 0:12:51that was like a mobile drinking club, that was.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53HE LAUGHS
0:12:53 > 0:12:58We were terrible boozers and quite randy as well,
0:12:58 > 0:13:02so we had quite a bad reputation, rather like the Stones.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05TRAD JAZZ MUSIC
0:13:06 > 0:13:10But one man begged to differ with the source material.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14For him, the records the revival was based on weren't the pure New Orleans sound.
0:13:14 > 0:13:19Ken Colyer and brother Bill formed their own ramshackle outfit
0:13:19 > 0:13:22called the Crane River Jazz Band.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24We used to drink at The White Hart, Cranford.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26And the punters in the pub
0:13:26 > 0:13:30they were standing at the door listening to the band rehearsing.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33Bill Colyer suggested, "Well, if they're going to stand there,
0:13:33 > 0:13:36"why don't we charge them to come in?"
0:13:36 > 0:13:40Why should they, you know,... get in for free, sort of thing?
0:13:43 > 0:13:46It was quite different what Ken was trying to play as the Cranes
0:13:46 > 0:13:52to a lot of the other revivalist bands here who were copying 1920s' records.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01Colyer based his music on old-time musicians
0:14:01 > 0:14:04who stayed in New Orleans and didn't go to Chicago in the '20s.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08Jazz men like George Lewis and Bunk Johnson
0:14:08 > 0:14:11had only been recorded in the early '40s.
0:14:12 > 0:14:16Back in New Orleans, Bill Russell found Bunk Johnson,
0:14:16 > 0:14:20who had certainly preceded Louis and claimed to have taught him...
0:14:20 > 0:14:23Fitted him up with some spare teeth and dragged him off his tractor
0:14:23 > 0:14:24and got him playing again.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33It's not Louis Armstrong at his most sublime,
0:14:33 > 0:14:36it's basic playing, really.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40Not necessarily very technically able,
0:14:40 > 0:14:43but playing from the heart and moving you.
0:15:04 > 0:15:10Ken thought it was the most perfect example of jazz music.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14A kind of ensemble music where everyone played together
0:15:14 > 0:15:17and there were no real soloists.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21And there was this kind of thing going on in the band that was almost telepathic.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Colyer called this old-time style, traditional jazz,
0:15:33 > 0:15:37rather than revivalist and a new school of jazz was born.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41A high point for the Cranes was a rather royal affair.
0:15:41 > 0:15:441951 saw the Festival of Britain,
0:15:44 > 0:15:48where all the post-war blues were supposed to be cast off
0:15:48 > 0:15:52and they had a fantastic site on the Southbank.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54This is the Festival.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Something Britain devised halfway through this century
0:15:58 > 0:16:01as a milestone between past and future
0:16:01 > 0:16:03to enrich and enliven the present.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05They arranged a jazz concert.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07And they had people like the Lyttelton Band,
0:16:07 > 0:16:10the Freddy Randall Band, the Joe Daniels Band,
0:16:10 > 0:16:12the Crane River, the Manchester Saints.
0:16:12 > 0:16:17And that was a changing point in the music, because it became accepted.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19A lady called Princess Elizabeth came along.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22I believe she's done quite well since.
0:16:22 > 0:16:23And she was in the audience, you see.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27- So that was a bit of a prestige thing for jazzers. - HE LAUGHS
0:16:27 > 0:16:31- What did you think, my dear? - Quite remarkable, I thought.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35Couldn't get the hang of some of it at first. Artistic no doubt.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44Even though it had royal approval,
0:16:44 > 0:16:48British jazz was growing in a greenhouse and Colyer hungered for the real thing.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51The Crane River Band split
0:16:51 > 0:16:56and after three months with the Christie Brothers Stompers, he had a revelation.
0:16:56 > 0:17:01These men were still playing in New Orleans, they weren't all that old.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04And they must still be there and still playing,
0:17:04 > 0:17:06so the logical thing was to get there
0:17:06 > 0:17:09while they were still playing.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12And the only way I could think of doing this at the time
0:17:12 > 0:17:14was to rejoin the merchant navy
0:17:14 > 0:17:18and somehow or other find a boat that took me to New Orleans.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21They were looking for crew for this Empire Patria
0:17:21 > 0:17:25which was sailing out of Mobile, Alabama.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29As soon as I heard Mobile, Alabama, "That's near enough!"
0:17:29 > 0:17:30HE LAUGHS
0:17:38 > 0:17:43On 25th November, 1952, Ken jumped ship.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45Slipping away quietly at night,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48he caught a Greyhound bus on a single ticket
0:17:48 > 0:17:50and was in New Orleans by midnight.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56At the Mardi Gras Club on Bourbon Street,
0:17:56 > 0:18:00Colyer heard his heroes live for the very first time.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02TRADITIONAL JAZZ MUSIC
0:18:08 > 0:18:11"The Lewis Band were playing when I walked in.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15"I sat down. Then I ordered a drink and I almost went into a trance.
0:18:15 > 0:18:20"Marrero was about five feet away from me with Drag just behind him.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23"They all play unpretentiously and so wonderfully."
0:18:29 > 0:18:33"Fortunately, I met some friends of the band, the Bernants,
0:18:33 > 0:18:36"and I asked if there was any chance that I could sit in with them
0:18:36 > 0:18:39"and she said, "Of course!"
0:18:39 > 0:18:43"There was Marrero, Slow Drag Pavageau, Alton Purnell,
0:18:43 > 0:18:46"Jim Robinson and George Lewis."
0:18:50 > 0:18:51At Manny's Tavern,
0:18:51 > 0:18:55Colyer sat in with the George Lewis Band for the first time.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04"It's a dream to play with them men, no fighting, no carrying,
0:19:04 > 0:19:09"just sit back relaxed, blowing easy and play the greatest horn of your life.
0:19:09 > 0:19:13"I took the first break and heard Lawrence quickly turn his head
0:19:13 > 0:19:15"and say to George, 'Ain't that Bunk?'
0:19:15 > 0:19:21"I had a big, warm cavern of sunshine in my belly and not a care in the world."
0:19:30 > 0:19:33Ken's journey had led him to a musical paradise
0:19:33 > 0:19:35set in a social hell.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40In the 1950s there was still segregation going on.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43Black people were very limited in their mobility.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46You couldn't go to certain restaurants, clubs,
0:19:46 > 0:19:48bars, public facilities.
0:19:48 > 0:19:53You couldn't stay in certain hotels, you couldn't try on clothes in department stores.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57Black and white water fountains, black and white sides of a lunch counter.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59Even in death, black sides of the cemetery.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06Legally, blacks and whites were not supposed to socialise together.
0:20:06 > 0:20:14So it was actually dangerous for Ken Colyer to go into these bars where black musicians were playing.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18And certainly the idea of pulling out an instrument and sitting in
0:20:18 > 0:20:20and just sitting right next to them and playing like equals,
0:20:20 > 0:20:25I mean, that was a very, very risky and dangerous thing.
0:20:31 > 0:20:3715-year-old American Bill Huntington was well aware of the prejudice.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39He was studying with Lawrence Marrero,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42the banjo player in George Lewis's band.
0:20:43 > 0:20:47He would come out to our house on Sundays
0:20:47 > 0:20:51dressed in a three-piece suit with his banjo.
0:20:51 > 0:20:53And my mother would take his overcoat.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57"Mr Lawrence let me put your coat on the hanger." He would say, "No."
0:20:57 > 0:21:00And he would take his coat and fold it and put it on the floor.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06And then we would invite him to dinner...
0:21:06 > 0:21:09and he wouldn't sit at the table with us.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14He wouldn't, so my parents would make a special table
0:21:14 > 0:21:18for the two of us to sit together.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25You know?
0:21:35 > 0:21:38After staying in New Orleans for just over a month,
0:21:38 > 0:21:43Ken left his house with a view to extending his visa at the local immigration office.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45Things didn't go to plan.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52"I was taken into custody as soon as I had made a sworn statement.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55"It appears I have broken the law by obtaining work here for a start.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59"I'll be kept here now until they find me a ship or deport me.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02"Looks like my luck has run out."
0:22:05 > 0:22:09Dreams were in the dust, but eventually out on bail,
0:22:09 > 0:22:13while awaiting to be deported, Ken fulfilled another ambition.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15Along with Bill Huntington,
0:22:15 > 0:22:19he recorded with New Orleans clarinettist Mealy Barnes.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24We did this recording at Mealy's apartment.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27What I remember is how hot it was.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30And that people from the surrounding apartments
0:22:30 > 0:22:33were coming in to listen to the music.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38And that... I felt, like, scared to death
0:22:38 > 0:22:41but this is wonderful at the same time.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45Scared because I knew the implications of us all being together.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48And I remember that Albert Glenny was there.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50He passed out during the recording session.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54And they had to call an ambulance.
0:22:54 > 0:22:59And all the white people had to get out of the neighbourhood immediately.
0:22:59 > 0:23:04Because they were aware that the police would come and if they saw us all mixing together,
0:23:04 > 0:23:06there would be a big problem with that.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09SHIP'S HORN
0:23:18 > 0:23:23You know, after hearing such a wide selection of jazz over the years,
0:23:23 > 0:23:26I finally resolved to the New Orleans style.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29I felt that was the essence of the thing.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31I still think it is.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43In early March 1953, Ken was deported back to England.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45A young Chris Barber,
0:23:45 > 0:23:47who'd recently formed his first professional band,
0:23:47 > 0:23:49was waiting for him.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52When you get deported, they send you first class.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55On the best liner in the world, it was.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57HE LAUGHS
0:24:01 > 0:24:04Chris Barber was looking for a new trumpet player.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08Together with Monty Sunshine and the then Tony Donegan,
0:24:08 > 0:24:13they became Ken Colyer's Jazzmen and made a groundbreaking record.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17New Orleans to London, 1953.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20I love to hear it because I enjoyed it so much.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22It was beautiful music to make.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25There's one tune on here called The Isle Of Capri.
0:24:27 > 0:24:29Let's see if I can make it start at the right place.
0:24:31 > 0:24:32There, got it.
0:24:32 > 0:24:34MUSIC STARTS
0:24:43 > 0:24:48It's a record that...began my professional life, just about.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51And I'm still proud of it when I hear it.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01What Ken Colyer introduced with Chris Barber
0:25:01 > 0:25:05was the pianoless sound, which for us,
0:25:05 > 0:25:08that was something fresh and new.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22Together they had created a brand-new British sound.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25But Ken and Chris had opposite ideas.
0:25:25 > 0:25:31Chris was much more meticulous in his approach.
0:25:31 > 0:25:33Ken was more traditional.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36Don't rehearse too much, you know.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39Let it all hang out sort of thing.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44In little over a year, tensions came to a head.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47Ken's brother Bill was managing the band.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50Bill finally broke the band up in front of Ken.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52Ken's standing there, not saying a word, he never did.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55He had the opposite of gift of the gab.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59And Bill just said, "Ken and I are not happy with how things are going."
0:25:59 > 0:26:01He fired the rhythm section. Ron Boyden was too modern,
0:26:01 > 0:26:06Jim Bray didn't swing and they hated Lonnie's guts.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08So, of course, Chris piped up and said,
0:26:08 > 0:26:13"Ken is in no position to sack anybody in this band.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16"It's not his band. It's his name but it's not his band."
0:26:16 > 0:26:20And then Chris said to Bill, "WE are going to sack HIM."
0:26:25 > 0:26:28They found a tape of that band from about a month before we broke up.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31I heard that back, I cried,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34because that band shouldn't have been broken up.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37HE SOBS
0:26:37 > 0:26:40It was... To play with that band was perfect.
0:26:48 > 0:26:51Ken and Chris went their separate ways.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55This new traditional jazz drew more young fans into the fold
0:26:55 > 0:26:58and was cutting across class divides.
0:26:58 > 0:27:04Around Soho, cellar clubs and late-night dives throbbed with young, sweaty jivers.
0:27:09 > 0:27:10Ow! Oh.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15Windmill Theatre. And our rehearsal rooms.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18Cy Laurie moved in. Band leader, played the clarinet,
0:27:18 > 0:27:22and he ran an all-nighter every Saturday night for some time.
0:27:27 > 0:27:32Can't see a number. 44 was right over here somewhere.
0:27:32 > 0:27:36One of those there. Now it's fresh meat and fish, chilled and frozen foods.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39And that same premises...
0:27:39 > 0:27:4461 years ago when I played in it... was a jazz club.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52Now this was Studio 51.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55Which became Ken Colyer's club.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57I played there about a year before he started there.
0:27:58 > 0:27:59A very long time ago.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18Wow! The 100 Club. Dear me.
0:28:18 > 0:28:21TRAD JAZZ MUSIC
0:28:24 > 0:28:28I think the stage came across from about there to here. It was quite big.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34There and back to...here.
0:28:37 > 0:28:39And it was quite... About this high.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45All I wanted to be was a part of the movement that is traditional jazz...
0:28:45 > 0:28:50a part of it, not an outsider playing a bit of it or imitating it, but being in it.
0:28:54 > 0:28:58But alongside this scene, a rival movement had developed...
0:28:58 > 0:28:59modern jazz.
0:28:59 > 0:29:01BEBOP MUSIC
0:29:04 > 0:29:07This was jazz from New York.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11It was harmonically extended, high-speed and heavily improvised.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14At that time, bebop was roaring.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18New York, 52nd Street, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie's Big Band,
0:29:18 > 0:29:20the whole street was rocking.
0:29:23 > 0:29:29British musicians like Ronnie Scott and John Dankworth had been digging this contemporary jazz.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33It was the antithesis of the New Orleans sound.
0:29:33 > 0:29:39Dixieland had a definite, sweet, deliberate, non-offensive line,
0:29:39 > 0:29:46as it were, and we were exploiting the "urhh, eeeh", all those things to stop and make you think.
0:29:48 > 0:29:52The squabbles within the traditional jazz scene were nothing compared
0:29:52 > 0:29:55to the war between them and the British beboppers.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58It was called bebop because it went, "ba-boomp".
0:29:58 > 0:30:01"Ba-doodle-di-ba-doodle-ba-bomp."
0:30:01 > 0:30:05"Loo-ba-bop-la-loo-ka-mop That's Professor Bop."
0:30:05 > 0:30:08# There's a cat in Harlem town
0:30:08 > 0:30:10# Got a new craze going round
0:30:10 > 0:30:12# Ooh-be-da-bla-hey-ya-vop
0:30:12 > 0:30:14# Call Professor Bop... #
0:30:14 > 0:30:19The war is over, the world's going forward, we're heralding it with
0:30:19 > 0:30:22this great music, this pull towards something.
0:30:22 > 0:30:24Didn't quite know where it was going
0:30:24 > 0:30:27but it wasn't going backwards, it was going forwards.
0:30:27 > 0:30:32Forward to what? To a rhythm section that doesn't swing? It didn't.
0:30:32 > 0:30:37It was modern, but anything modern, "We don't want that.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39"Get back to New Orleans, man."
0:30:39 > 0:30:43We dressed in suits. A zoot suit with a reet pleat.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47A big... It had to be...
0:30:47 > 0:30:49You had to be cool.
0:30:49 > 0:30:55Quite different to the sandals and the hairy shirts of the traditionalists.
0:30:56 > 0:31:01This was a jet airliner and they were a tiger moth.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04PROPELLER RATTLES
0:31:04 > 0:31:07PLANES DRONE
0:31:07 > 0:31:10INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
0:31:15 > 0:31:18The boundaries of traditional jazz were set.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22At Birmingham Town Hall, in a bid for progress, Humphrey Lyttelton
0:31:22 > 0:31:26invited saxophonist Bruce Turner to join his band.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31So we had an alto sax instead of a trombone. "Hey..."
0:31:33 > 0:31:36"This is disgraceful(!)"
0:31:42 > 0:31:45In the middle of the concert, Bruce Turner came in
0:31:45 > 0:31:47and played the saxophone.
0:31:47 > 0:31:52They stood up with a banner which said, "Go home, dirty bopper."
0:31:52 > 0:31:54Which he'd never been.
0:31:59 > 0:32:03For avid traditionalists, the sax was an icon of the modern movement
0:32:03 > 0:32:06and had no place in a true New Orleans-style band.
0:32:06 > 0:32:12Humph had defected, but in 1956 his Bad Penny Blues became
0:32:12 > 0:32:14the first jazz track to make the top 20.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17It so happened that the first of what I call
0:32:17 > 0:32:21the creative sound mixers...
0:32:21 > 0:32:24Joe Meek, came in,
0:32:24 > 0:32:28and being Joe Meek, he fiddled about with everything.
0:32:28 > 0:32:30I went off on holiday for about three weeks
0:32:30 > 0:32:34and I hadn't heard it then,
0:32:34 > 0:32:37and if I'd heard what Joe Meek had done to it, he distorted
0:32:37 > 0:32:39the bottom end of the piano,
0:32:39 > 0:32:41so that it made a sort of bonging noise.
0:32:44 > 0:32:46Pianos don't go, "Bong-om-bong-om-bong."
0:32:48 > 0:32:53And he heavily over-recorded Stan Greig's brushes.
0:32:53 > 0:32:55"Boom-phrum-phroom-phrum."
0:32:58 > 0:33:02If I'd heard a test pressing in time, I would have rung up whoever
0:33:02 > 0:33:08produced the record at EMI and said, "I don't want that to go out."
0:33:10 > 0:33:12However, by the time I got back from holiday,
0:33:12 > 0:33:15it was number 19 and I shut up.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
0:33:27 > 0:33:30Meanwhile, Chris Barber was also
0:33:30 > 0:33:32kicking against the traditional jazz boundaries
0:33:32 > 0:33:36and had discovered a young Irish girl with a remarkable voice.
0:33:36 > 0:33:41Ottilie Patterson was the best blues singer of either sex
0:33:41 > 0:33:45ever produced by, not just Britain, Europe.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49# I'm feeling so down-hearted
0:33:49 > 0:33:53# Ain't ever felt so blue
0:33:53 > 0:33:56# I've done spent all my money... #
0:33:56 > 0:34:01This petite lady singing in that style, but in her own way,
0:34:01 > 0:34:07and she got inside it and there's been no-one like her.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17The other people singing traditional jazz at that time had no timbre,
0:34:17 > 0:34:18no tone, no phrasing.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21What else can you not have?
0:34:23 > 0:34:26The recording of hers that's best, seriously,
0:34:26 > 0:34:29is the one where they'd all play with the band, doing St Louis Blues.
0:34:29 > 0:34:31I'll tell you what.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35If you weren't a serious student of it, of the style,
0:34:35 > 0:34:39and someone said to you, "That's Mavis Staples," you'd say, "OK, it is."
0:34:39 > 0:34:41HE SCOFFS
0:34:44 > 0:34:50That's the absolute perfection, singing, that is. Really great.
0:34:50 > 0:34:56# I-II hate to see
0:34:57 > 0:35:05# That old evening sun go down... #
0:35:10 > 0:35:13The Barber band also sparked a new teenage craze,
0:35:13 > 0:35:16which tapped even further into jazz's amateur roots.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21In between sets, they thrashed out old American folk songs
0:35:21 > 0:35:23and called it skiffle.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26They put the skiffle group number into the show,
0:35:26 > 0:35:29which would be a couple of guitars usually.
0:35:29 > 0:35:33Chris would move onto the bass, which was his other instrument,
0:35:33 > 0:35:35and a washboard perhaps.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38People were staying in during the interval rather than go out during the interval
0:35:38 > 0:35:41because of the skiffle group. It became popular in that way.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45For the skiffle numbers - Tony, now Lonnie Donegan -
0:35:45 > 0:35:47took centre stage.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50To all intents and purposes, Lonnie Donegan started the craze.
0:35:50 > 0:35:55He was fearless with an audience, which is a special quality.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58# I fooled you, I fooled you... #
0:35:58 > 0:36:04Lonnie had showmanship and a personality that came across the footlights.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06# Did I tell you where I'm goin', boy?
0:36:06 > 0:36:07# Where are you going, boy? #
0:36:07 > 0:36:11It was like turbo-charged folk music.
0:36:11 > 0:36:13# Well the Rock Island line
0:36:13 > 0:36:14# She's a mighty good road
0:36:14 > 0:36:16# The Rock Island line is the road to ride
0:36:16 > 0:36:18# The Rock Island line is a mighty good road
0:36:18 > 0:36:19# And if you want to ride
0:36:19 > 0:36:21# You've got to ride it like you find it
0:36:21 > 0:36:24# Get your ticket at the station on the Rock Island line... #
0:36:24 > 0:36:28When Rock Island Line hit the charts in '56, all the groups started
0:36:28 > 0:36:33listening to that kind of music and emulating or trying to copy Lonnie.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37It was some new sound and it was accessible.
0:36:37 > 0:36:39# You've got to ride it like you find it
0:36:39 > 0:36:40# Get your ticket at the station
0:36:40 > 0:36:43# On the Rock Island Line... #
0:36:44 > 0:36:47You would get a tea chest and a broom handle
0:36:47 > 0:36:52and a bit of string and something else, and you had a skiffle group.
0:36:52 > 0:36:53Now we'll try playing it.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56THRUMMING
0:36:58 > 0:37:03Skiffle broke free and became its own DIY '50s phenomenon.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06One instrument was free and ready-made.
0:37:06 > 0:37:08You can scrub it or beat it.
0:37:08 > 0:37:10Beryl Bryden used to play it across her chest.
0:37:10 > 0:37:12RHYTHMIC RATTLING
0:37:12 > 0:37:15Like that. When I do a solo I put it between my legs
0:37:15 > 0:37:16and I use both sides.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23She often used to sit in with jazz bands, sometimes to their annoyance,
0:37:23 > 0:37:26but much more often to the audience's pleasure.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29RHYTHMIC RATTLING
0:37:30 > 0:37:32I hated it.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34HE WHEEZES
0:37:35 > 0:37:38Meanwhile, Britain was getting richer.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42Home luxuries that were previously unaffordable became commonplace.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45Washing machines, electronic coffee grinders,
0:37:45 > 0:37:47state-of-the-art hairdryers,
0:37:47 > 0:37:51blenders you could buff kitchens with.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55Frost-proof houses, and the occasional bottle of champagne.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58ARCHIVE VOICEOVER: 'That isn't champagne, it's a "sham bottle".'
0:38:02 > 0:38:07Along with this era of mass consumption came another new music.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10# We're going to rock around the clock tonight
0:38:10 > 0:38:11# Put your glad rags on
0:38:11 > 0:38:14# Join me, hon We'll have some fun
0:38:14 > 0:38:15# When the clock strikes one... #
0:38:15 > 0:38:20'I don't think too much of rock 'n' roll. I think it's a bit samey.'
0:38:20 > 0:38:24But it didn't bother us, we just went on playing our jazz.
0:38:24 > 0:38:28For jazz fans, rock 'n' roll was a poor man's 12-bar blues.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32In 1956, they weren't interested in Bill Haley.
0:38:32 > 0:38:38A relaxing of the union ban saw their hero set foot on British soil.
0:38:38 > 0:38:43Just like one of them old home weeks, the homecoming, all the cats from the years
0:38:43 > 0:38:45when I first came here.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48Blowing out there, just brings back old memories.
0:38:48 > 0:38:52- Pretty solid, do you think? - Yes, more than that.
0:38:52 > 0:38:54Anyway I would say great, personified.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56LAUGHTER
0:38:56 > 0:38:59INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
0:39:04 > 0:39:08'First time I met him, it was at a dinner in his honour.
0:39:08 > 0:39:14'We ate the meal with Louis, then there was a jam session. Terrific bloke.'
0:39:14 > 0:39:17I took my courage in both hands
0:39:17 > 0:39:20and walked up to Louis and said,
0:39:20 > 0:39:25"Mr Armstrong, is there any one tip
0:39:25 > 0:39:28"you can give me about band leading?"
0:39:28 > 0:39:34And the great man thought for a few seconds and then said, "Yes, Daddy, never do it for nothing."
0:39:34 > 0:39:36HE LAUGHS
0:39:45 > 0:39:47The gates were open.
0:39:47 > 0:39:49Many jazz and blues greats followed
0:39:49 > 0:39:52and British jazz was endorsed by the gods.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11CND, the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament,
0:40:11 > 0:40:15is founded in 1958 as a public response
0:40:15 > 0:40:17in protest at the development
0:40:17 > 0:40:21of these super-destructive nuclear weapons.
0:40:24 > 0:40:26When the CND started,
0:40:26 > 0:40:28jazz musicians in bulk followed that movement.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37'On the political demonstrations, it's actually not so much folk,'
0:40:37 > 0:40:42it's New Orleans jazz, which is the music of choice.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47There was no doubt about it that most of us were
0:40:47 > 0:40:49decidedly left-wing.
0:40:49 > 0:40:54'You get Webb's Dixielanders having early gigs put on by the Young Communist League,
0:40:54 > 0:40:58'you get Ken Colyer, The Crane River Band, 1951, they go off to East Berlin
0:40:58 > 0:41:00'to play at Communist rallies.'
0:41:00 > 0:41:05So there's this real link of left-wing sympathies with
0:41:05 > 0:41:09what's seen as this new grassroots, democratic, accessible,
0:41:09 > 0:41:12collectively-oriented musical practice.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18The Aldermaston march was the perfect opportunity
0:41:18 > 0:41:21for Ken Colyer's Omega Brass Band,
0:41:21 > 0:41:25inspired by the jazz funerals he'd witnessed in New Orleans.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28SOMBRE MUSIC PLAYS
0:41:35 > 0:41:40As the body came out, the brass band would play a slow dirge.
0:41:46 > 0:41:50And right before they get to the graveyard, the band would split up
0:41:50 > 0:41:54on both sides of the street, and let the hearse through.
0:41:55 > 0:42:01After the body is dismissed, then they start the happy, up-tempo
0:42:01 > 0:42:03joyous music and second line dancing.
0:42:03 > 0:42:05UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS
0:42:08 > 0:42:12'And the true spirit of what that was all about,
0:42:12 > 0:42:18'the idea of sending someone off to a better place, to true freedom,'
0:42:18 > 0:42:20that was a time for happiness and joy.
0:42:25 > 0:42:29This spirit of freedom and community and the jazz of New Orleans
0:42:29 > 0:42:33resonated with the ideals of the marchers at Aldermaston.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36Colyer, as always, kept things authentic.
0:42:36 > 0:42:38'The costumes were based on'
0:42:38 > 0:42:40white shirt, black trousers,
0:42:40 > 0:42:42white hats, New Orleans.
0:42:42 > 0:42:47Ken knew somebody that worked on the buses and we got bus conductors' hats.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54There was always someone who could help you out.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56You want to know why we came here?
0:42:56 > 0:43:00The simple reason is we are lovers of good music, for one thing,
0:43:00 > 0:43:02and if this hell of a lot goes up,
0:43:02 > 0:43:04we're not likely to hear good music any more.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYS
0:43:12 > 0:43:16While Colyer persisted with purism, Chris Barber was making early appearances
0:43:16 > 0:43:20on BBC TV, swinging on the Six-Five Special
0:43:20 > 0:43:24and traditional jazz was more popular than ever.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28Jazz clubs had got bigger and bigger and bigger
0:43:28 > 0:43:31'and were making more and more money.'
0:43:31 > 0:43:33There were so many bands about
0:43:33 > 0:43:35you could hear it anywhere you wanted, really.
0:43:35 > 0:43:37All over the country.
0:43:46 > 0:43:49By 1959, jazz was ripe,
0:43:49 > 0:43:52and Britain's rock 'n' roll explosion was fizzling out.
0:43:52 > 0:43:57Clarinettist Monty Sunshine copied an old Sidney Bechet record
0:43:57 > 0:43:59and took the tune to Chris.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02Monty played this tune. It was in A flat minor.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05We found out that Monty's record player played fast.
0:44:06 > 0:44:09Bechet played it in G minor, but we had the hit.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19It might have been in the wrong key,
0:44:19 > 0:44:21but it was a watershed moment.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24In 1959, Petite Fleur hit the top ten,
0:44:24 > 0:44:27heralding the start of a boom in popularity
0:44:27 > 0:44:29and traditional jazz got a new name.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34'We had a recording contract with a guy called Denis Preston.'
0:44:34 > 0:44:39He said, "We need a short name that rolls off the tongue
0:44:39 > 0:44:46"so that people don't have to say this is traditional jazz music."
0:44:46 > 0:44:50The next time we had a record out, there was the word "Trad" on it.
0:44:50 > 0:44:56Trad is a suitable name for a soap powder, not for music.
0:44:56 > 0:44:59The jazz police didn't like it. HE CHUCKLES
0:45:05 > 0:45:07If Terry Lightfoot gave trad its moniker,
0:45:07 > 0:45:11it was a West Country chum who gave it a trademark image.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15- ARCHIVE VOICE-OVER:- 'Acker Bilk. Sorry, Mr Acker Bilk.'
0:45:15 > 0:45:19There was a bloke called Peter Leslie.
0:45:19 > 0:45:20He was a publicity guy.
0:45:20 > 0:45:25He said, "What about a bowler hat and waistcoat and spats?"
0:45:25 > 0:45:29I drew the line at that. I said, "I don't want any spats on."
0:45:29 > 0:45:32INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
0:45:34 > 0:45:37The uniforms came in for a record cover.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42The promoters then said, "We want the band as seen."
0:45:44 > 0:45:46So we had to wear these bloody uniforms.
0:45:46 > 0:45:51But, of course, Acker being the quality player he was,
0:45:51 > 0:45:54could back it up with his solo things.
0:45:54 > 0:45:59MUSIC: "Stranger On The Shore" by Acker Bilk
0:46:05 > 0:46:07I wrote it and called it Jenny after my daughter.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11She was born about that time, a bit earlier.
0:46:12 > 0:46:17And... It went on a TV show, I think, didn't it?
0:46:21 > 0:46:26The TV drama, Stranger On The Shore, was perfect publicity for Acker.
0:46:26 > 0:46:31The theme tune was a number one hit in both the UK and USA.
0:46:32 > 0:46:37As a solo piece, it's superb. The tone is marvellous.
0:46:37 > 0:46:39The tone, I don't really understand.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42I don't know. I just blew a clarinet and that was it.
0:46:42 > 0:46:47I didn't go to lessons or anything. I just blew it.
0:46:47 > 0:46:50I haven't got any teeth in the front, maybe that helps.
0:46:53 > 0:46:56APPLAUSE
0:46:56 > 0:47:00Acker and his huge success and popularity was the reason for
0:47:00 > 0:47:05so many bands adopting the idea of uniforms to attract attention
0:47:05 > 0:47:06and create work.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
0:47:11 > 0:47:15Some of the creations that they came up with!
0:47:17 > 0:47:21We were Mississippi gamblers. There were lots of others. Dick Charlesworth was City Gents.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25Bowler hats and waistcoats.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31Bobby Mickleburgh had a band dressed as Confederates.
0:47:31 > 0:47:33The culmination of it for me was I actually saw
0:47:33 > 0:47:38a band on television called the Louis XIV Jazz Band.
0:47:38 > 0:47:44These sons of bitches were all dressed up in French frock coats and playing... Oh, man!
0:47:48 > 0:47:50Trad jazz became pop.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53It was the sound to let your hair down to
0:47:53 > 0:47:57and Acker's trademark bowler was a must-have accessory.
0:47:57 > 0:48:01Over five years, Beaulieu Jazz Festival swelled from hundreds to
0:48:01 > 0:48:06thousands of ravers and in 1960 trad and modern fans clashed.
0:48:06 > 0:48:11We were on a big stage with a tent on the top.
0:48:11 > 0:48:13Some guy got on the stage.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15Of course, all of them got up there then,
0:48:15 > 0:48:18a lot of them climbing up the pole and on the roof...
0:48:18 > 0:48:24Above us here we had a lighting scaffold which is no longer.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26That folded up literally with the pressure of bodies.
0:48:26 > 0:48:28Is that what I see behind me here?
0:48:28 > 0:48:31The shambles is over here. This has all been dismantled now.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35If you think of one subcultural group fighting against another one,
0:48:35 > 0:48:38usually you think of mods versus rockers.
0:48:38 > 0:48:44'What you don't think about is trad jazz fans versus modern jazz fans.
0:48:44 > 0:48:47'It's jazz music. What's the problem here? Why are we fighting?'
0:48:47 > 0:48:51The music really, really mattered to them at that time.
0:48:51 > 0:48:54Mad about jazz. That's how you can put it. Mad.
0:48:54 > 0:48:56Would you say you are madder about jazz than about sex?
0:48:56 > 0:49:00Yes, if it came to it, honestly I would prefer jazz than sex.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
0:49:06 > 0:49:10The master of turning jazz into pop was a moustachioed trumpet ace
0:49:10 > 0:49:13who'd cut his teeth playing with Sid Phillips.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21He was a fantastic trumpet player.
0:49:21 > 0:49:24He had that natural feel for jazz trumpet playing
0:49:24 > 0:49:29in the Dixieland style, which in a sense made him unique.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32Kenny Ball had a trad trick. Take a strong tune,
0:49:32 > 0:49:36give it the trad treatment and you've got yourself a hit.
0:49:36 > 0:49:40His most famous record had a rather strange source.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43It was a traditional Russian folk song.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47It was the theme tune for the Russian radio.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50CHORAL MUSIC
0:49:53 > 0:49:56HE HUMS
0:49:59 > 0:50:03We were in Belarus, we played it there, and they didn't
0:50:03 > 0:50:07like the Russians, and we were told to cut it out of the programme.
0:50:07 > 0:50:12But we thought playing a Russian folksong, they'd love it.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25Midnight In Moscow was a copyright-free money-spinner.
0:50:25 > 0:50:28By 1962, even the films cashed in on the boom.
0:50:28 > 0:50:32Anything with a banjo was co-opted under the trad banner.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36Surrealist art-schoolers, The Temperance Seven, slipped into the bracket
0:50:36 > 0:50:40with their mixture of Victoriana and 1920s' dance music.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43It wasn't really a pose.
0:50:43 > 0:50:46We drove these old cars, dressed this way all the time,
0:50:46 > 0:50:49happily evading reality to a time when...
0:50:51 > 0:50:53..it seemed the world was a kinder place.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58# Sugar, that's what I'll name you
0:50:58 > 0:51:00# Sugar... #
0:51:00 > 0:51:02We played these art school dances and we were booed,
0:51:02 > 0:51:04and pelted with toilet rolls.
0:51:04 > 0:51:06So we kept changing our name.
0:51:06 > 0:51:08We started off as Paul McDowell And His Jazzmen,
0:51:08 > 0:51:11and then the next gig we called ourselves
0:51:11 > 0:51:14Grover And His Bicycling Jazz Aces,
0:51:14 > 0:51:17and the people who saw it was the same band were furious.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21# Skiddy-iddy-iddy-iddy Iddy-iddy-iddy-iddy... #
0:51:21 > 0:51:27The Temperance Seven's first hit was produced by a young George Martin.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31The record was You're Driving Me Crazy.
0:51:31 > 0:51:35# You, you're driving me crazy
0:51:36 > 0:51:41# What did I do to you? #
0:51:41 > 0:51:48I think not only to his surprise, but our surprise, it was a number one.
0:51:48 > 0:51:53Gave George Martin his first number one long before The Beatles.
0:51:58 > 0:52:02The Temperance Seven took the Britishness of trad to the extreme.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05They whetted our insatiable appetites for novelty and pantomime.
0:52:05 > 0:52:07Denatured and kitsch,
0:52:07 > 0:52:12trad was a long way from the revivalist streams of New Orleans.
0:52:12 > 0:52:18The two forms of music I hate the most is rap and English trad.
0:52:18 > 0:52:19Oh, man!
0:52:19 > 0:52:24Unless you really copy New Orleans jazz from New Orleans,
0:52:24 > 0:52:28really copy it note for note, you're not going to get the same sound.
0:52:28 > 0:52:30Especially being British.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34They are 6,000 miles away from the real McCoy,
0:52:34 > 0:52:37and the difference, you could tell an English band a mile off.
0:52:37 > 0:52:39I can, even today.
0:52:39 > 0:52:40Different beat.
0:52:40 > 0:52:45# Over in the glory land
0:52:45 > 0:52:50# I hear that happy angels' band
0:52:51 > 0:52:56# Over there in glory land. #
0:52:58 > 0:53:03You see, you are using two beats on that bass drum, not four beats.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07But in the English band, they would be "ba-ba-ba-boom."
0:53:07 > 0:53:10I don't know what they'd be doing.
0:53:14 > 0:53:19In spite of criticism, the trad fad looked set to soundtrack the '60s,
0:53:19 > 0:53:23but with every pop scene, there is another hot on its heels.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26There was a cool Liverpudlian breeze in the air.
0:53:28 > 0:53:32'We used to play the Cavern. The Cavern was originally a jazz club.'
0:53:32 > 0:53:37They used to have skiffle bands during the interval which were the local musicians.
0:53:39 > 0:53:41We went out, you go out for a beer,
0:53:41 > 0:53:48and we came back and I saw a drum kit with BEAT - big -
0:53:48 > 0:53:52and L-E-S, small.
0:53:52 > 0:53:55Beat. You know, beat.
0:53:55 > 0:54:00I read it as a French band. Les Beats, right?
0:54:00 > 0:54:03Really. And I thought, "Oh, Lord."
0:54:05 > 0:54:10The next time we went there... they played the first set.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15The next time we went there, WE played the first set
0:54:15 > 0:54:16and we never went there after that.
0:54:16 > 0:54:19# Love, love me do
0:54:19 > 0:54:23# You know I love you
0:54:23 > 0:54:25# I'll always be true
0:54:25 > 0:54:30# So, please
0:54:30 > 0:54:33# Love me do... #
0:54:33 > 0:54:38The agents who were making a lot of money out of traditional jazz,
0:54:38 > 0:54:43suddenly became uncontactable when The Beatles came along.
0:54:46 > 0:54:50Trad was middle-aged and a new generation with electric
0:54:50 > 0:54:54instruments and slightly more sex appeal took over the pop scene.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58Many jazz bands folded or went back to the pubs and clubs,
0:54:58 > 0:55:02but for some there was always a variety spot on Saturday night TV.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05# There's a tavern in the town
0:55:05 > 0:55:07# In the town
0:55:07 > 0:55:10# Where my true love sits him down
0:55:10 > 0:55:11# Sits him down
0:55:11 > 0:55:16# I'm going to hang my heart on a weeping willow tree
0:55:16 > 0:55:20# And may all the world go well with thee... #
0:55:20 > 0:55:24My band of that time was the most broadcast
0:55:24 > 0:55:27'and televised band in the country.'
0:55:27 > 0:55:31So it didn't completely disappear.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34- Ladies and gentlemen, it's Kenny Ball.- Are you sure?- Yes.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36APPLAUSE
0:55:38 > 0:55:42MUSIC PLAYS
0:55:44 > 0:55:47We done five years with The Morecambe And Wise Show.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50'Only playing one number every night, but it was'
0:55:50 > 0:55:52an audience of about 20 million.
0:55:52 > 0:55:55- There'll be nothing permissive in this show tonight.- You want to bet?
0:55:55 > 0:55:59- I do.- You look over there. Kenny Ball. Go on.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01LAUGHTER
0:56:03 > 0:56:08You'd be stood behind the piano with our top halves showing
0:56:08 > 0:56:12and it looked as though we were standing there knacker-naked.
0:56:12 > 0:56:15- Horrifying that, isn't it? - Horrifying? It's disgusting.
0:56:15 > 0:56:18- Looks like a butcher's shop. - LAUGHTER
0:56:22 > 0:56:27Trad became an entertainment staple, homogenised and showbiz..
0:56:27 > 0:56:31With Ottilie, Chris Barber moved more towards R&B.
0:56:31 > 0:56:36For him, the commercial hijacking of jazz was Frankenstein's monster.
0:56:36 > 0:56:40It began to turn into kind of a Chas & Dave sort of jazz. You know?
0:56:42 > 0:56:45APPLAUSE
0:56:49 > 0:56:52MUSIC PLAYS
0:56:56 > 0:56:59One man remained steadfast in his purism,
0:56:59 > 0:57:04continuing a lifelong quest for the true New Orleans sound.
0:57:07 > 0:57:09Ken was no Kenny Ball.
0:57:09 > 0:57:14Kenny Ball could absolutely be your Saturday night entertainer.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18Ken, not in a million years.
0:57:18 > 0:57:23Certainly the trad boat sailed and Ken was not on it.
0:57:30 > 0:57:33Although one of the pioneers of British jazz,
0:57:33 > 0:57:38Ken Colyer remained uncompromising to the end of his days in France,
0:57:38 > 0:57:40never receiving huge public acclaim.
0:57:40 > 0:57:44# Well, if home is where the heart is
0:57:44 > 0:57:49# Then my home's in New Orleans... #
0:57:50 > 0:57:53New Orleans jazz had a fleeting moment in the spotlight, but
0:57:53 > 0:57:57for those who brought it to Britain, it would be a lifelong obsession.
0:57:57 > 0:58:03It sort of went through the boom into the big commercial venues...
0:58:04 > 0:58:09..and when that finished, it went back into the pubs and clubs.
0:58:09 > 0:58:13It still went on in clubs and jazz clubs and all over.
0:58:13 > 0:58:15It's still going on. I'm playing Saturday.
0:58:15 > 0:58:17HE CHUCKLES
0:58:17 > 0:58:19Gives me a buzz.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22Dr Jazz, they call it.
0:58:22 > 0:58:24It does do the trick.
0:58:24 > 0:58:27You get young people dragged into our concerts by their elders.
0:58:27 > 0:58:30They all seem to be enjoying it very thoroughly and they say so.
0:58:30 > 0:58:35When that band is ticking, everybody is in their places,
0:58:35 > 0:58:37terrific feeling.
0:58:37 > 0:58:40It's great. Nothing like The Beatles.