Kenny Ball, jazz trumpeter, dies at 82
Jazz trumpeter Kenny Ball has died at the age of 82 after suffering from pneumonia, his manager has confirmed.
He was best known as the lead trumpet player in the band Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen in the late 1950s and 1960s and for his regular TV appearances with comic duo Morecambe and Wise.
Ball's manager, Les Squire, said that the musician passed away on the morning of 7 March.
"If he could have been on stage tomorrow, he would have been," he said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21700146
Back in the day , 1960 when I first started going to jazz clubs during the revival which Ken Colyer had started some years earlier , I didn't think Ball was all that regarding him as an opportuntist jumping on the bandwagon. Long ways later ,early 2000's, there was a charity event at the Royal Albert Hall for the British Heart Foundation and Ball was playing. I was stunned at how good he was. Sad loss today. The Hall were our hero's that night too : they took out the centre seats in the floor area so's we could all dance.
From the past :