The Seven Ages Of Acker – ACKER BILK***

In A Persian Market/I’m Going Home/Ory’s Creole Trombone/Summer Set/Let The Light From The Lighthouse Shine/The Gay Hussar/Tiger Rag/Lucky Rock/Cushion Foot Stop/Run Come See Jerusalem/Old Comrades

Acker Bilk & his Paramount Jazz Band were one of the leading exponents of the UK trad jazz boom of the early 1960s, the popularity of which evaporated almost overnight with the arrival of the beat groups. The Seven Ages Of Acker includes the UK top five hit single Summer Set, a play on words for his home county. (UK:6)

“It is great music and very typical Acker Bilk.”

“Music is just as I remembered it. A good cross section of the music played by Acker Bilk in his heyday.”

“Brilliant....bought this in 1960 and loved it.....I still do. This is Acker Bilk at his best.”

“Summer Set is a fabulous Acker Bilk composition with an equally fabulous Acker Bilk clarinet solo.”

“Acker Bilk was at the forefront of the traditional jazz boom of the late 1950s in Britain. His UK success had been cemented with the single Summer Set, a top ten hit at the turn of 1960.”

“Traditional jazz played in a lyrical, enthusiastic and melodic manner by some of Britain’s finest jazz men at a time when they could be said to have been at their peak. The tune Summer Set did well in the charts and it wasn’t just trad fans buying it.”

“As a trad jazz musician, Bilk rejected the use of amplified instruments and was also against the use of saxophone, most commonly associated at the time with bop and hard bop jazz, using instead the instrumentation most commonly associated with jazz music prior to World War II. As a result, his early recordings featured Bilk on clarinet, with accompaniment on banjo, trumpet, trombone, drums and piano.”