Acker Bilk, MBE was born Bernard Stanley Bilk on January 28, 1929 in Pensford, Somerset, and was an English clarinettist and vocalist. After Acker left school, he worked in a cigarette factory and ...

You may not be familiar with his name, but if you're into some of the biggest hits of the '60s, you've likely heard his work. Acker Bilk, born Bernard Stanley Bilk, was a jazz clarinetist who, among ...

There are performers who are best known for something which is not representative of their principal work – Don McLean's "American Pie", Lita Roza's "Doggie In The ...

Acker Bilk, who has died aged 85, was a jazz clarinettist and bandleader who became a hugely popular figure in the wider world of entertainment; his recordings, in particular Stranger On The Shore, ...

Stranger on the Shore is the haunting song that made Acker Bilk an international star. It was originally a shorter piece called Jenny that was named for his daughter. But when a 1960 children's TV ...

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Bedecked in bowler hat and waistcoat and brandishing a clarinet, he seemed an unlikely figure to help lay the ...

'Stranger on the Shore' stayed in the UK chart for one year. Clarinettist Acker Bilk, who personified the trad jazz revival of the 1950s and '60s, has died after a lengthy illness at the age of 85.

With his goatee beard, bowler hat and striped waistcoat, Acker Bilk was one of the most recognisable musicians of the post-war British trad jazz boom. His 1961 record, the haunting Stranger on the ...

With his goatee beard, bowler hat and striped waistcoat, Acker Bilk was one of the most recognisable musicians of the post-war British trad jazz boom. His 1961 record, the haunting Stranger on the ...

Once rock’n’roll reared up behind it in the early 1950s, jazz rarely found itself in the pop charts again. And when it did, it was hardly ever for the characteristic instrumental sound of jazz itself, ...