Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Band - Creole Jazz

It’s trad, Dad! Mr Acker Bilk and his Paramount Jazz Band stomp up a storm of Creole Jazz in this early 60s promo film

Trad jazz - trumpet and clarinet led jazz, played in the Dixieland ragtime style - became briefly trendy in early 60s pre-Beatles Britain, and bearded, bowler-hatted Mr Acker Bilk was one of its most successful proponents. Here a steamy Creole setting is enthusiastically (if economically) approximated in a London studio, in full colour, for the short-lived Cinebox film jukebox system.

Creole Jazz was a top 30 hit for Mr Acker Bilk late in 1961. Dancing to the track here are Boscoe Holder and his troupe. Trinidad-born Holder had many strings to his bow - he was also a painter of international renown, and his company danced for Queen Elizabeth II at her coronation in 1953.