Mr. Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Band

Four years ago Acker was honoured with an MBE for his services to the Music Industry, well deserved, we feel, and maybe a little over due. January 2004 saw Acker's "arrival" in Who's Who, although Acker and I are not sure what this exactly signifies! In 2005 Acker was awarded, firstly, the BBC Jazz Awards for his unique contribution to Jazz in UK, and secondly, Acker accepted an Honorary Master of Arts Degree from the University of Bristol'. It certainly shows how far Acker has come since his humble birth in Pensford, Somerset on 28 January 1929: his actual names are Bernard Stanley were short-lived as he was soon called Acker by all, this being Somerset for friend or mate, and if you meet Acker you will agree this name is apt, his warmth of character and wicked humour makes him friend to all. His youth was spent in Somerset where his parents tried to teach Acker the piano, but the practising restricted him from being in the countryside, playing football or even a little poaching! Acker lost two front teeth in a school punch-up, and half a finger in a sledging accident, and this he claims is the reason for his recognisable style of clarinet playing.

Before Acker became a musician he worked in the Bristol Wills Tobacco factory for £1. 4s per week, also dabbled in a little boxing. He married his childhood sweetheart, Jean. Then in 1948 he started playing the clarinet and whilst in the Royal Engineers in the Canal Zone he borrowed a military clarinet and began copying records. He was sent to the glasshouse for sleeping on duty and endured the boredom by practising.

Demobbed, Acker formed his first Band in Bristol, but then he and Jean moved to London so he could become the clarinettist with the Ken Colyer Band, but he hated London and returned to Bristol to form the Bristol Paramount Jazz Band. In 1951 this Band came to London and Acker and Jean survived in a factory attic in Plaistow until the Band got their first big break - six weeks constant playing in a beer bar in Dusseldorf. This really disciplined the Band musically and they never looked back. Hit jazz records followed such as Summer-set and Creole Jazz.