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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZBILK, 'Mr Acker'(b Bernard Stanley Bilk, 28 January 1929, Pensford, Somerset, England; d 2 November 2014, Bath) UK clarinettist and bandleader ('Acker' is rural English for 'mate' or 'chum'). He allegedly took up the instrument to pass time while in the guardhouse in Egypt '47; formed a band '58, played in Bristol, England, and in German beer cellars; then the trad boom hit the British pop business and his slow blues 'Summer Set' reached no. 5 UK '60. A total of eleven singles and nine albums charted '60-78, including top tens; two albums charted in the USA and one single: the Bilk composition 'Stranger On The Shore' (with a string arrangement) was no. 2 UK '61, no. 1 USA '62; it was originally called 'Jenny', and reportedly sold four million copies. Briefly a pop star, he remained a very good mainstream jazz musician and a good entertainer, popular everywhere he went. In particular, when this writer co-founded a jazz club in rural England with cornettist Gerry Salisbury in the late 1990s, Acker played at our first gig, getting us off to a good start, and the club ws still going 25 years later. |