Humphrey Lyttelton

Born at Eton College - one of England's most prestigious schools where his father was a house master - "Humph" Lyttelton grew up to become one of the country's finest trumpeters, the face of British jazz and a greatly loved broadcaster and national institution. His love of jazz was forged at Eton through listening to greats like Louis Armstrong and Nat Gonella and he formed his first group while still at the school in 1936. After serving in the Grenadier Guards in the Second World War, he studied at Camberwell School of Art and became a cartoonist with the Daily Mail newspaper inventing the strip cartoon Flook with Wally Fawkes. In 1947 he and Fawkes both joined the George Webb Dixielanders and Lyttelton became a leading figure in the British trad jazz boom, recording with Sidney Bechet in 1949. In 1956 he had a hit single with Bad Penny Blues - the first British jazz act to score a chart hit - gradually expanding his style to incorporate more mainstream styles. His own eight-piece band became a popular fixture on the concert circuit, working with singers like Helen Shapiro and Elkie Brooks and in 2001 he even involved himself in rock music playing with Radiohead on the track Life In A Glasshouse on their Amnesiac album. In 1967 he started presenting The Best Of Jazz on BBC Radio 2 (a show he fronted for the next 40 years) as his deadpan humour became a staple part of British radio, notably on the comic and occasionally surreal panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, which he chaired until his death in 2008 at the age of 86.

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