Humphrey Lyttelton
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Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton (born 23 May 1921), also known as Humph, is a well-known British jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. He is a cousin of the 10th Viscount Cobham and a nephew of the politician and sportsman Alfred Lyttelton, who was the first man to represent England at both football and cricket.
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[edit] Early career
Lyttelton was born in Eton, where his father, G. W. Lyttelton (second son of the 8th Viscount Cobham), was a house master. From Sunningdale Preparatory School, Lyttelton duly progressed to Eton College. At Eton he developed his love for jazz, and being inspired by the legendary Louis Armstrong, he taught himself the trumpet and formed a quartet there in 1936 which included future journalist Ludovic Kennedy on drums.
After leaving school, Lyttelton served in the Grenadier Guards, seeing action at Salerno. Following demobilisation after World War II, he attended Camberwell Art College for two years.
In 1949, he joined the Daily Mail as a cartoonist, where he remained until 1956. Several of his cartoons have recently been on display in various branches of Abbey, as part of their new advertising campaign.
[edit] The jazzman
In the late 1940s and early 1950s Lyttelton was prominent in the British revival of traditional jazz forms from New Orleans, recording with Sidney Bechet in 1949. To do so he had to break with the Musicians' Union restrictive practices which forbade working with jazz musicians from the USA. In 1956, he had his only hit, with the Joe Meek-produced recording of Bad Penny Blues, which was in the UK Singles Chart for six weeks. As the trad movement (not quite the same thing as revivalism) developed, Lyttelton moved to a mainstream approach favoured by American musicians such as trumpeter Buck Clayton; they recorded together in the early 1960s. By now his repertoire had expanded, not only including lesser known Ellington pieces, but even The Champ from Dizzy Gillespie's band book. The Lyttelton band – he sees himself primarily as a leader – has helped develop the careers of many now prominent British musicians, including Tony Coe and Alan Barnes.
In 2001, Lyttelton and his band added trad jazz elements to the experimental Radiohead song "Life in a Glasshouse" on the Amnesiac album.
[edit] Radio personality
Lyttelton has presented The Best of Jazz on BBC Radio 2 since 1967, which continues to feature his idiosyncratic mix of top-quality recordings of all ages and current material.
In 1972 he was chosen to host the comedy panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue on BBC Radio 4. The show was originally devised as a comedic antidote to traditional BBC panel games (radio and television), which had come to be seen as dull and formulaic in keeping with the "Auntie Beeb" staid middle-class image. Lyttelton continues in this role, famed for his deadpan, apathetic, disgruntled and occasionally bewildered style of chairmanship, and for his near-the-knuckle double entendres which, despite always being open to an innocent reading, go far further than any other BBC pre-watershed humour. The success of the programme had a big influence on the manner in which comedy was presented on the radio. Lyttelton's persona was a big part of the success: he was a straight-man surrounded by mayhem, a very similar comedy device to the role of Kenneth Horne in Round the Horne a generation earlier.
As well as his other activities, Lyttelton is a keen calligrapher and President of The Society for Italic Handwriting. He named his own record label after this extra-curricular interest. Calligraph, which he founded in the early 1980s, not only issues his own new albums and those of associates, but also re-issues (on CD) his analogue recordings made for the Parlophone label in the 1950s.
[edit] The Humphrey Lyttelton Band
Humphrey Lyttelton's current eight piece band is made up of:
- Humphrey Lyttelton - trumpet, clarinet;
- Ted Beament - piano;
- Jo Fooks - tenor saxophone and flute;
- Jimmy Hastings - alto sax, clarinet and flute;
- Adrian Macintosh - drums;
- John Rees-Jones - double bass;
- Karen Sharp - tenor sax, baritone sax and clarinet;
- Ray Wordsworth - trombone.
The band has a busy schedule, performing (frequently sell-out) shows across the country. Performances occasionally include a guest singer, or a collaboration with another band. During the 1990s the band toured with Helen Shapiro in a series of Humph and Helen concerts.
Lyttelton has a long established relationship with UK singing sensation Elkie Brooks. After working together in the early sixties they rekindled their working partnership in early 2000 with a series of sell out and well received concert performances. They released the critically acclaimed album Trouble In Mind in 2003 and have continued to perform occasional concerts in support of this work.
[edit] Trivia
- Lyttelton is well known for his ancient and disreputable Volvo 200 series estate car, in which he has reportedly clocked up over a quarter of a million miles.[1]
- Lyttelton is widely reported to have turned down a knighthood from John Major's government in 1995.[2]
[edit] Notes
[edit] Books
- Humphrey Lyttelton: It Just Occurred to Me...: An Autobiographical Scrapbook (Robson Books Ltd: London, September 2006) (224pp.; ISBN 1-86105-901-9
- Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Barry Cryer, Humphrey Lyttelton: The Little Book of Mornington Crescent (Orion: 2000) (112 pp.; ISBN 0-7528-1864-3)
- Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Humphrey Lyttelton, Barry Cryer, Willie Rushton: I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue: the Official Limerick Collection (Orion: 1998) (128 pp.; ISBN 0-7528-1775-2)
- Humphrey Lyttelton: The Best of Jazz (Robson Books: London, 1998) (423pp.; ISBN 1-86105-187-5)
- Humphrey Lyttelton: The Best of Jazz: Vol 2 — Enter the Giants (Robson Books: London, 1998) (220pp.; ISBN 1-86105-188-3)
- Julian Purser Humph: A discography of Humphrey Lyttelton 1945-1983 (Collectors Items: 1985) (49 pp.; ISBN 0-946783-01-2)
- Humphrey Lyttelton: Why No Beethoven?: Diary of a Vagrant Musician (Robson Books: 1984) (176 pp.; ISBN 0-86051-262-2)
- Humphrey Lyttelton: Jazz and Big Band Quiz (Batsford: 1979) (96pp; ISBN 0-7134-2011-1)
- Humphrey Lyttelton: The Best of Jazz 1: Basin Street to Harlem: Jazz Masters and Master Pieces, 1917-1930 (Taplinger Publishing Co: London, 1978) (220pp.; ISBN 1-86105-188-3)
- Humphrey Lyttelton: Best of Jazz (Robson Books: 1978) (224 pp.; ISBN 0-903895-91-9)
- Humphrey Lyttelton: I play as I please: The memoirs of an Old Etonian trumpeter (MacGibbon and Kee: 1954) (200pp.; B0000CIVX1)
- Humphrey Lyttelton: Second chorus (MacGibbon and Kee: 1958) (198 pp.; B0000CK30P)
- Humphrey Lyttelton: Take it from the Top: An Autobiographical Scrapbook (Robson Books: 1975) (168 pp.; ISBN 0-903895-56-0 )
[edit] External links
- BBC — I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue official site
- BBC — The Best of Jazz official site of his Monday night show
- Calligraph Records official site
- Humphrey Lyttelton at the Internet Movie Database
- allmusic - Humphrey Lyttelton biography, discography, songs and credits
- The Radio Academy - Humphrey Lyttelton with audio clips
- Blowing Humph's trumpet 80th birthday tribute by David McKie
- In praise of ... Humphrey Lyttelton on his 85th birthday
- Petition the UK government to bestow a suitable honour (British citizens only). Deadline 10th July 2007.
- The South Bank Show, ITV, UK on March 23rd 2007 broadcast a tribute show, here is a clip.
| I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue |
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| Tim Brooke-Taylor — Barry Cryer — Graeme Garden — Humphrey Lyttelton — Willie Rushton — Colin Sell |
