On Saturday, February 6 Sir John Dankworth died at the age of 82. He was the first big jazz musician that England has known. He and his wife Dame Cleo Lain were famous at a large public in de world of jazz and also on an international scale they knew how to touch people with their music. Born in 1927, Dankworth grew up in Walthamstow in a family of musicians and began playing clarinet. Eventually he started playing saxophone and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. He worked with famous artists like Sidney Bechet and Charlie Parker.

John had been struggling with his health for a while. Last November, he was hospitalised just before the London Jazz Festival where he would make his appearance. In the end he appeared at the festival and completed his performance in a wheelchair. Forty years ago the married couple established a theatre named The Stables, who was settled in the garden of their home. On the night of his death Lain performed at The Stables. “the concert was an honouring to him,” declared his agent.