Britain has produced an impressive group of jazz clarinettists and Acker Bilk is perhaps the most famous, with his 1962 hit Stranger on the Shore topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
Also noteworthy are Pete Allen, Alan Barnes, Sandy Brown, Tony Carr, Randolph Colville, Wally Fawkes, Sid Phillips, and Monty Sunshine, who died last year.
Add Kenny Martyn, who will be appearing tonight at Ned Kelly's Last Stand, to that list, although the classically trained reedman's playing has been shaped less by British 'trad' jazz than by American swing-era clarinet virtuosi Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw.
Martyn got his masterclass training in Goodman's style more or less coincidentally. He was spotted playing swing clarinet on a TV show by English song and dance man Frankie Vaughan, who was sufficiently impressed to hire him.
Already in Vaughan's band was Canadian alto saxophonist Bob Burns, who had played with Goodman. Burns was well versed in the finer points of Goodman's technique and helped Martyn with his studies.
He proved an apt pupil. When the late Michael Brecker - who like many saxophonists started out on clarinet - heard Martyn he described him as 'the greatest exponent of the Goodman sound'. Tenor saxophonist Tommy Whittle says 'Benny Goodman lives again in Kenny Martyn', and trustees of the Goodman estate have given him access to the Goodman Band's original arrangements.
Martyn used this precious resource to develop a touring show called the Return of the King of Swing, working with a strong cast of British swing musicians, several of whom were stalwarts of the Ted Heath band - generally regarded as Britain's greatest big band, with a long list of admirers which included Count Basie, Stan Kenton and Woody Herman.
