Jack Emblow

Last updated

Jack Emblow
Birth nameJack Alexander Emblow
Born (1930-06-27) 27 June 1930 (age 94)
Lincoln, England
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician
Instrument(s)Accordion
Years active1941–2016
Labels
  • Columbia
  • Chevron
  • Dansan
  • Maestro
  • Pickwick Music

Jack Alexander Emblow (born 27 June 1930) is a British jazz accordionist who is best known for his musical work accompanying the Cliff Adams Singers on BBC Radio.

Contents

Biography

Emblow was born on 27 June 1930 in Lincoln, England. His father sang a little and his mother played piano but not professionally. He studied the piano at the age of nine although moved on to the accordion aged 11. In his early teens he was a member of Jack Kitson's Accordion Band. It was with this band that he met his future wife and fellow accordionist, Pat Lowe. At 15 he was part of a stage act with jazz pianist Eddie Thompson and in 1947, aged 17, he auditioned with the BBC. In addition to solo broadcasts, as a young man he played with Al Podesta & His Accordion Band also in the 1940s.

He worked at the Berkeley Hotel in Piccadilly, playing for Ian Stewart for three years. He formed a sextet (The Jack Emblow Sextet) in 1956 which made its radio debut in the programme Music While You Work and remained with them until 1961. Emblow performed in over 500 broadcasts of which 54 were in Music While You Work. He also contributed the music to the radio programmes Bright and Early, Morning Music and On with the Bands. The Sextet was regarded by senior BBC producers as 'the best small group on radio, led by one of the most skilful accordionists in the country'. [1]

As a session player, he worked with a huge number of artists, including singers and bands such as Alma Cogan, Elton John, Elaine Paige, the Beat, Curved Air, Rolf Harris, Michael Holliday, Tom Jones, Grace Jones, Donovan, Peter Sarstedt, Sandie Shaw as well as accordionists Jimmy Shand and Dermot O'Brien. He has also worked with orchestras led by George Martin, Ted Heath, Michel Legrand, Henry Mancini and bandleader Nelson Riddle. On 25 June 1967 he played on the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" session held at Abbey Road Studios number 2 playing on the first live, worldwide satellite programme to an international audience in excess of 350 million. He is also featured on the soundtracks of many films, radio and TV programmes. [2]

He has been regarded as Britain's top jazz accordionist[ citation needed ] although Emblow has always said that he is a 'general all rounder'. For over 40 years he provided the accordion accompaniment for the Cliff Adams Singers in their half hour broadcasts on BBC Radio called Sing Something Simple . [3] During a BBC Radio 2 revamp, starting in January 1973, Emblow was asked to form and front a quintet called 'The French Collection' which he led on the French Musette accordion. It was created to offer light-hearted happy sounding incidental music for the Ray Moore Show on BBC Radio 2. The group became very popular and several LP recordings were made.

Emblow uses a straight-tuned Excelsior accordion, which has a dedicated tone chamber enabling him to create a mellow tone. He has contributed to the incidental music for the sitcom television series Last of the Summer Wine as well as playing the theme music to the sitcom 'Allo 'Allo! . His long career brought him the British Academy of Songwriters Composers and Authors Gold Badge of Merit for Music. [4]

In more recent years Emblow has worked with jazz guitarist Martin Taylor on recordings of Spirit of Django series. One of the tracks from the series was used in a well known television car advert featuring characters 'Nicole' and her ‘papa’. In 2002, he was elected Honorary President of the National Accordion Organisation of the United Kingdom and continued to give recitals throughout the UK until his retirement in July 2016. He has been dubbed 'Peter Pan' by his fellow musicians due to his young appearance for his age. He cites his influences as Art Van Damme and Ernie Felice, both of whom were accordionists with the Benny Goodman Band. [5] [6]

Personal life

Emblow married Pat Lowe, a fellow accordionist, whilst he was with the Amalfi Trio in London's west end. He also met friend, and jazz accordionist, Tony Compton in the early 1960s. They began playing together in 1985 at an impromptu session at the jazz masterclass at an accordion festival. They continued to play together for many years after this.

Discography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Accordion</span> Bellows-driven free-reed aerophone musical instrument

Accordions are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type. The essential characteristic of the accordion is to combine in one instrument a melody section, also called the diskant, usually on the right-hand keyboard, with an accompaniment or Basso continuo functionality on the left-hand. The musician normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the right-hand side, and the accompaniment on bass or pre-set chord buttons on the left-hand side. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist.

Pete Jolly was a two-time Grammy-nominated American West Coast jazz pianist and accordionist. He is known for his performance of television themes and movie soundtracks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Serry Sr.</span> American concert accordionist, arranger, and composer

John Serry Sr. was an American concert accordionist, arranger, composer, organist, and educator. He performed on the CBS Radio and Television networks and contributed to Voice of America's cultural diplomacy initiatives during the Golden Age of Radio. He also concertized on the accordion as a member of several orchestras and jazz ensembles for nearly forty years between the 1930s and 1960s.

Don Harper was an Australian jazz violinist and composer. During his long and diverse career, both in his native Australia, and the UK, he was a regular on radio and TV music shows, and recorded many albums, as a solo performer, or leader of a group. He also composed themes for TV shows including “World of Sport” and “Champion House”, as well as incidental music for “The Invasion "

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shep Fields</span> American jazz bandleader

Shep Fields was an American bandleader who led the Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm orchestra during the 1930s. His distinctive Rippling Rhythm sound was featured on big band remote broadcasts from historic hotels nationwide and remained popular with audiences from the 1930s into the early 1960s.

Louis Stone known professionally as Lew Stone was a British bandleader and arranger of the British dance band era, and was well known in Britain during the 1930s. He was known as a skillful, innovative and imaginative musical arranger.

Patrick Cairns "Spike" Hughes was a British musician, composer and arranger involved in the worlds of classical music and jazz. He has been called Britain's earliest jazz composer. Later in his career, he became better known as a broadcaster and humorous author.

The Cliff Adams Singers were a British male/female vocal group, known for ballads and novelty songs, and especially their regular performances on BBC Radio from the 1950s onwards. The ensemble was established in 1954 by Clifford William Adams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geraint Watkins</span> Musical artist

Geraint Meurig Vaughan Watkins is a Welsh singer, songwriter, rock and roll pianist and accordionist. He has backed many notable artists, including Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Van Morrison, Mark Knopfler, Paul McCartney, Roy St. John, Shakin' Stevens and most recently Status Quo. He has also pursued a solo career and issued a number of albums under his own name, the most recent of which, Rush of Blood, was released in September 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenny Baker (trumpeter)</span> English jazz musician and composer (1921–1999)

Kenny Baker was an English jazz trumpet, cornet and flugelhorn player, and a composer.

Mat Mathews, born Mathieu Hubert Wijnandts Schwarts, was a Dutch jazz accordionist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maida Vale Studios</span> Broadcasting facility in London, England

Maida Vale Studios is a complex of seven BBC sound studios, of which five are in regular use, in Delaware Road, Maida Vale, west London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tito Burns</span> English musician (1921–2010)

Tito Burns was a British musician and impresario, who was active in both jazz and rock and roll.

Charles Magnante was an American piano-accordionist, arranger, composer, author and educator. His artistry helped raise the image of the accordion from an instrument considered suitable only for folk music to an instrument accepted in many music genres.

Sing Something Simple was a half-hour radio programme, which featured Cliff Adams and The Cliff Adams Singers, with Jack Emblow on accordion. The programme ran for 42 years from 1959 until 2001, initially on the BBC Light Programme and later on BBC Radio 2, and earning itself the title of the longest-running continuous music programme in the world.

Bobby Gardiner is an Irish accordionist and lilter. He was recruited by Micheal O'Suilleabhain to the Music Department in University College Cork where he has been teaching traditional music for the last 25 years.

John Serry Jr. is an American jazz pianist and composer, as well as a composer of contemporary classical music works that feature percussion, on which he also doubles. He is a son of the accordionist and composer John Serry. His debut solo album was 'Exhibition', for which he received a Grammy Nomination for his composition, 'Sabotage'.

Philip Green, sometimes credited as Harry Philip Green or Phil Green, was a British film and television composer and conductor, and also a pianist and accordion player. He made his name in the 1930s playing in and conducting dance bands, performed with leading classical musicians, scored up to 150 films, wrote radio and television theme tunes and library music, and finally turned to church music at the end of his life in Ireland, a song from which period proved so popular that it reached No. 3 on the Irish chart in 1973.

The BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra (SRO) was a light music broadcasting orchestra based in Glasgow, Scotland, maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation from 1940 until disbandment in 1981.

References

  1. Jack Emblow Masters of Melody www.mastersofmelody.co.uk Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  2. Jack Emblow Music Career www.accordions.com Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  3. Sing Something Simple Jack Emblow with the Adams Singers.www.radiorewind.co.uk. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  4. Jack Emblow Accordionist Biography www.allmusic.com Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  5. Jack Emblow 'The Gov' boxandfiddlearchive.weebly.com Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  6. Jack Emblow Retires accordions.com Retrieved 28 May 2020.