Saturday 26 April 2008

R.I.P. Humphrey Lyttelton.

A genuine hero of mine just died. Humphrey Lyttelton was an amazing man. One of the main men of the post war British jazz scene, he was an expert musician and composer. But he will be most fondly remembered for his radio presenting. This included his jazz shows on Radio 2 and most memorably, the Radio 4 comedy programme "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue."
This is undoubtedly the show he will be most remembered for, his perfect portrayal of the grumpy old man with is totally deadpan sarcasm and innuendos winning the hearts of many. His sheer strength of personality and perfect comic timing and delivery were a winning formula, making him surely the best comic presenter we have known.
Musically, he may well be best known as being the guy who was on the last track of that Radiohead album, but it would be an incredible disservice to him for that to be his musical epitaph. He was after all the first jazz artist to have a song enter the top 20 of the British Top 40 singles chart (with probably his best known tune, "Bad Penny Blues"), and was highly revered by many jazz musicians including the legendary Louis Armstrong, who famously called him "That cat in England who swings his ass off."

An innovator and a true original, and a hero of mine. He will be very much missed. Rest In Peace Humph. xx

1 comment:

Fat Chan said...

Very kind words Mr Axl, he certainly will be missed by many.