Lyttelton, Humphrey Richard Adeane

▪ 2009

“Humph” 

      British jazz musician and radio personality

born May 23, 1921, Eton College, near Windsor, Berkshire, Eng.

died April 25, 2008, London, Eng.

was a renowned trumpeter and bandleader, as well as a noted radio broadcaster, journalist, cartoonist, calligrapher, author, songwriter, and jazz critic. His trumpeting was strongly influenced by American Louis Armstrong, who reportedly considered him England's best. After serving in the Grenadier Guards during World War II, Lyttelton played with George Webb's Dixielanders and then formed (1948) his own popular traditional jazz combo. From the early 1950s he gradually led his band into a swing-revival idiom, adding saxophonist Bruce Turner and touring widely, including visits to the Middle East and to North America; they also accompanied top American players and singers on tours of Britain. In 1967 Lyttelton began hosting the weekly BBC Radio program The Best of Jazz, but he was most acclaimed as the ribald, though seemingly innocent, host of BBC Radio's weekly comedy game show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, which premiered in 1972. He continued to perform and to broadcast until shortly before his death.

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