Humph: the end of an era

April 7, 2007 at 12:14 am (jazz, Jim D)

This coming Monday will be, for me,  yet another intimation of mortality: no more Humphrey Lyttelton on (BBC) Radio 2.  The great man himself says: “I say at once that this is solely my own decision. I’ve presented The Best Of Jazz for almost 40 years continously, at a rate of around 50 a year, choosing and scripting some 20,000 items and I now want to have a bit more time for other things, my own still active and flourishing band, high among them”.

As a callow schoolboy in the mid-1960’s, in love with jazz, but knowing little about it, or its practitioners, Humph’s radio programme was my lodestar, introducing me to such neglected giants as Vic Dickenson, Joe Thomas, Buddy Tate, Dave Tough and Joe Bushkin (just a random selection of the musicians I can remember Humph ‘featuring’ on his programme).

His was a  radio show that educated you, in the most entertaining and un-didactic way imaginable.

Apparently, Humph’s Monday night slot will be taken by Jools Holland (with Humph putting in an appearance every quarter): with all due respect to Mr Holland, this is clearly an example of the BBC “dumbing down”. Jools Holland is an affable guy and a reasonable boogie-woogie piano-player: but he doesn’t come even close to Humph’s encyclopedic knowledge of jazz in all its styles, forms and periods.

Humph’s last regular programme (April 2nd) was made up of classic fare: post-war Basie (Whirly-Bird); a Fats solo (Zonkie); a relatively recent discovery (Stacey Kent); an almost painfully delicate Pee Wee Russell/Jess Stacy collaboration (Take Me To The Land of Jazz); Louis and Teagarden at the New York Town Hall (Sunny Side); an Earl Hines Solo, and Mezzrow getting in the way of Bechet on Ol’ Miss.

When life gets me down, that is the stuff that keeps me going; I thank Humph for educating me on it. From now on life will never be the same – especially on Monday evenings. Below is Humph playing James P. Johnson’s “One Hour Tonight”: just what I’ll be missing this Monday.