Terry Lightfoot is a leading member of the “trad” generation of British jazzmen. Like the other star names (Barber, Ball and Bilk) who still prosper, his music shows many differences from that he played at first. Terry is as likely to solo on alto saxophone nowadays as he is to perform on clarinet, the instrument for which he’ so widely known. Many of his band numbers now reflect the influence of Ellington’s marvelous small groups with their attractive voicings and powerful swing.

Terry Lightfoot was born on May 21, 1935, and came to jazz while at school in Enfield. Although he would have preferred trumpet, he selected clarinet to accommodate the needs of the traditional jazz band being formed by friends, taught himself to play and happily, having mastered this most demanding of instruments, has remained loyal to it ever since. After leaving school, Terry formed his first band, the Wood Green Stompers, and then started the Jazzmen in 1955, concentrating on the lively London club scene.

Lightfoot and company were soon in demand to accompany visiting artists, and in 1959, were chosen to open for Kid Ory’s Band on a nation-wide tour. Terry retains very happy memories of this episode, recalling the contributions of Henry “Red” Allen on trumpet with especial delight. Thereafter, chart success helped to make the band one of the most prominent in jazz, earning them the status of Britain’s top traditionalists in the 1960 “Melody Maker” poll and a place in the film “It’s Trad, Dad”. Despite the impact of the Beatles, Lightfoot’s band kept busy, touring the USA in 1964 and later accompanying jazzmen like trombonist Vic Dickenson and concretizing with Louis Armstrong and the All Stars.

Since those halcyon days, Terry and his Jazzmen have continued to criss-cross this country and to perform world-wide, to unstinting public acclaim. He says, “I like to think I’ve got a band which can play jazz of a high order and present itself so as to get the music across to a broad public.”

That such a laudable aim can be achieved consistently owes a lot to Terry’s own instrumental flair and to his affable stage presence, of course, but could not be accomplished without the support of his excellent musicians. Trumpet Ian Hunter-Randall (born 1938) joined Lightfoot in 1968 and has been at his side ever since. Another who has enjoyed a prolonged association with Terry is Phil Rhodes. He’s something of a musical all-rounder: a formidable Ory man on trombone, Phil is a capable arranger an more surprisingly perhaps, an excellent organist, formerly resident at the Latin Quarter in London.

Pianist Bruce Boardman first recorded with Lightfoot in 1977. His versatility allows him to perform graceful ragtime pieces or hard-swinging up-tempo things with equal facility. Drummer Johnny Armatage (born 1929) is a British jazz veteran and one of our best swing drummers. He started out with Bruce Turner’s now legendary Jump Band and has also played extensively with Alan Elsdon. Completing the personnel are bassist/saxophonist Andy Lawrence (once the band’s “roadie”) and ex-Kenny Ball, Alex Welsh and Acker Bilk bandsman Tony Pitt on banjo and guitar, who was specially added for this recording.