julian_craster

Bandleader who appeared in 'An Alligator Named Daisy' (1955)
when at his most popular in the mid-1950s, accompanying comedy vocalist Ronnie Stevens....


The Times Obituary
Ken Mackintosh
August 4, 1919 - November 22, 2005

Bandleader and saxophonist whose suave orchestral accompaniments entertained
London's West End

TO DANCERS at the great London ballrooms of the Empire, Leicester Square,
and the Hammersmith Palais, the name of Ken Mackintosh was synonymous with
suave orchestral accompaniments, which he provided for more than 14 years in
the 1960s and 1970s.
To fans of Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and Matt Monro, Mackintosh was the
bandleader who frequently backed them on national tours. To enthusiasts of
big band music, he was a musician who kept the spirit of the great 1940s
swing dance orchestras alive, while providing more contemporary fare for
younger audiences.



Kenneth Victor Mackintosh was born near Cleckheaton in the West Riding of
Yorkshire. His family was musical, and his father was an established local
violinist and trombonist. As a young boy, Mackintosh used the half crown he
earned each week as scorer for the local cricket club to finance the
purchase of his first alto saxophone, and by the time he was in his early
teens was playing for various jazz and dance groups around Leeds and
Bradford, including Roland Powell’s band.

In 1939 he was conscripted into the Royal Army Service Corps, and his unit
was sent to the Cherbourg peninsula after the relief of Dunkirk to help to
bring home any remaining troops. Cut off by a German patrol during his third
week in France, Mackintosh threw his rifle and kit into a ditch, and
clutching his precious alto saxophone, made his way on foot to Cherbourg,
where he was picked up by a British ship.

The exploit made the papers, but he was to serve two more years before
leaving the Army to join the Anglo-Belgian trumpeter Johnny Claes and his
Clay Pigeons in 1944.

Despite playing lively swing with Claes, Mackintosh did not enjoy London,
and briefly returned to Yorkshire, before being lured south again to play
for Oscar Rabin, with whom he stayed for two years until joining Frank Weir’
s band in 1947.

At this point Weir’s band included not only George Shearing and Ralph
Sharon, who were arguably Britain’s best jazz pianists of the period, but
also a reed section with such famous names as Bill Lewington and Aubrey
Franks.

This was a valuable professional apprenticeship that stood Mackintosh in
good stead when he launched his own first band at the Nottingham Astoria in
March 1948.

Periods in Glasgow and Wimbledon followed, always accompanied by frequent
BBC broadcasts, until in 1952 he landed an HMV recording contract.
Mackintosh’s The Creep became a hit record, and he began several years of
national touring until he was invited to open the new Empire ballroom in
Leicester Square in 1963.

By this time, Mackintosh had recorded with such rising stars as Frankie
Vaughan and Alma Cogan, as well as making discs that featured his own
saxophone playing. He had his own television show in the mid-1950s and also
appeared in films, including An Alligator Named Daisy (1955).

When his final long-term residency at the Royal in Tottenham came to an end
around 1980, he continued to broadcast and record, and once again he took to
the road, albeit on a smaller scale than he had in the 1950s.

He was never afraid to embrace contemporary sounds, and when he opened at
the Empire, some big band purists were aghast to see his line-up had
incorporated an electric bass and a Hammond organ, but he managed to
maintain his appeal to traditionalists while gaining a lot of press
attention in the mid-1960s for his rousing version of the Twist in which his
tenor saxophonist would play a honking blues solo to the accompaniment of an
electric guitar.

He continued to lead a rehearsal band in Streatham in the 1990s, and his
lifelong musical achievements were marked by a presentation from the Coda
Club and with the Freedom of the City of London.

An avuncular, bespectacled figure, Mackintosh was much liked by his
musicians. His son, Andy, and nephew, Robert Hartley, both went on to make
careers in music.

His wife, Elsa, predeceased him. He is survived by a son and daughter.

Ken Mackintosh, band leader and saxophonist, was born on August 4, 1919. He
died on November 22, 2005, aged 86.

harryfielder

I remeber his music well in the 50s. BTV. (BEFORE TELEVISION) [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

Aitch.

http://www.turnipnet.com/aitch/aitch/gallery.htm