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When John Dankworth died back in February, British jazz lost one of its founding fathers and best loved figures.. Here was a man who was mates with Duke Ellington, played with Sidney Bechet, Gerry Mulligan and Phil Woods and even lent Charlie Parker his alto saxophone. His own bands (in particular the big band he founded in the early 50s) were partly responsible for proving to our American cousins that the Brits could swing, and helped foster the careers of a whole bunch of musicians from John Taylor to John McLaughlin. He was even sampled by Gang Starr, Madlib, Gorillaz and Cee-Lo.

Here’s the John Dankworth Seven from 60 years ago with an intricately arranged take on a Charlie Parker classic.

But there was more than one string to Dankworth’s bow. Unlike many jazzers of the time, he’d studied at the Royal Academy (at his mother’s insistence), which meant he knew the mechanics of music inside out. This was something that enabled him to earn a crust as a composer for film and television outside the confines of the jazz club.

And it probably helped him emulate the style of pretty much any jazz composer or arranger you could think of.

As a child of the 60s I grew used to seeing John (or sometimes Johnnie) Dankworth cropping up on the telly, as well as hearing his theme tunes on a weekly basis. He was usually there alongside his wife Cleo Laine, and although John would be in the background, conducting and stepping out for a solo or two, he would have probably been one of the few British jazz musicians the bloke on the Clapham Omnibus would have been able to name in the 60s and 70s. He was definitely the first British jazz musician to be knighted. You’d think the Tomorrows World theme tune would be enough to deserve that on its own, frankly, but this was possibly as much earned for his lifelong commitment to music education, based around a stated and determined aim to break down the barriers between genres. He also chaired the rather ponderously titled ‘’, the precursor to the more snappily named campaign.

Ö÷²¥´óÐã Four are devoting much of their schedule this Friday to the work of Sir John and his family, which will include plenty of archive material of the great man in performance. It’ll be worth a watch.

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Ö÷²¥´óÐã Four - Friday 5 November:

9pm: Sir John Dankworth at the Ö÷²¥´óÐã
10pm: Legends - The Dankworths
11pm: Jazz 625

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