The tributes that followed were unanimous in their praise for his true dedication to the music of New Orleans. Typical was this comment by the late James Asman, writing in Footnote magazine: "Ken Colyer will be a legend. His influence extended far beyond the shores of Britain, to the Continent and as far afield as Australia. His dedication was absolute and his bearded sallow face brooked no contradiction. He was moody and introspective, a solitary uncompromising advocate of New Orleans jazz. As a performer he had, over the years, won the respect of most of the great pioneers. To men of the calibre of George Lewis, Kid Thomas, Kid Howard, Louis Nelson he was more than a friend…he was one of them."

What is so special of this man and musician? Pianist Pat Hawes: "many people imagined Ken was a musical reactionary, who had no time for any jazz other than the kind his own band played. Nothing was further from the truth. He listened over the years to all kinds of jazz, and had a high regard for the Ellington and Basie Orchestras, early big bands like McKinney’s Cotton Pickers and Bennie Moten — and had a soft spot for the Eddie Condon groups of the 30s and 40s. Indeed, he long talked of the impression Wild Bill Davison made on him in 1948 when he visited New York while in the Merchant Navy. He also told of an unknown piano player he had heard in Toronto, Canada. His name? Oscar Peterson.

"He once claimed to me that he knew 2000 tunes — New Orleans parade marches, rags, spirituals, blues, old pop songs. He used them all and developed his own inimitable playing style — light, around the beat and swinging with a sensible use of dynamics and intelligent muted effects. The Guv’nor will be greatly missed."

So when all is said and done, just how much influence did Ken Colyer have on the jazz scene? Trumpeter, jazz lecturer and founder member of the George Webb Dixielanders Owen Bryce had this to say on an LP sleeve note in the 1960s: "When it is all over, and the definitive history of jazz comes to be written, I prophesy that only four jazzmen will find a place of consequence in the British section: George Webb (who gave it its start), Humphrey Lyttelton (who gave it respectability), Chris Barber (who gave it popularity)…and Ken Colyer, who, almost single-handed changed its whole course and brought the word ‘dedicated’ into the cliché repertoire of every jazz critic in the country."

And as long ago as 1972, Steve Voce, writing in Jazz Journal had this to say about Ken: "The quality of Ken Colyer’s music that made it so notable was its unity. All the musicians, including Colyer, were dedicated primarily to achieving a group sound by improvisation. Nobody did this better or over a longer period of time than Ken Colyer. The sound was a delicate one because Colyer’s own lead directed it that way. He had a natural feel for dynamics that raised what was basically a simple music (and none the worse for that) into a creative sound with a definite end in mind. Within the fairly strict boundaries imposed on it, Colyer's band was master of its idiom."

More recently Paul Adams, the boss of Lake Records, who more than anyone has done the most to ensure Ken’s records are available on CD, had this to say about Ken in a letter to Jazz Beat, the magazine of the GHB Jazz Foundation in New Orleans: "Ken Colyer was Ken Colyer — take him or leave him. An inspiration to many, a genius to some, ‘off his rocker’ to others. He wasn’t a god, though some would have you believe it. Ken Colyer was a jazzman capable of playing some beautiful music. That, in his own way, he was one of the greats I have no doubts, but in the end it is the music which counts and he certainly knew how to play it."

But let’s leave the last word to Ken himself: "There are too many people who think New Orleans jazz is quite a simple music to play…make no mistake about it, there is nothing simple about the real New Orleans music. At its highest order it is very complex indeed, and I have no hesitation in saying that the Colyer band never achieved the ultimate."

Maybe not Guv’nor — but countless numbers feel that on many occasions, both live and on record, you came very close!

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