Henry MacKenzie

Famed for his prolonged tenure less than bandleader Ted Heath, Henry MacKenzie towers among the leading clarinetists in Uk jazz. A complicated yet fiery participant, he also loved a long profession like a first-call program player, even adding to the Beatles’ landmark Sgt. Pepper’s Lonesome Hearts Club Music group. Given birth to in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Feb 15, 1923, MacKenzie analyzed accordion as a kid and later performed in an area Kids’ Brigade music group. By his past due teens he found out jazz and considered clarinet and tenor saxophone, learning under region musician Joe Marsh, an alumnus from the Edinburgh Empire pit orchestra. After a short apprenticeship as a car mechanic, Mackenzie released his professional music profession inside your home band in the Princes Road nightspot the Havana Golf club. Shortly after putting your signature on on at Leith’s Eldorado Ballroom in 1942, he was known as to serve in Globe War II, so that as a member from the Royal Military Services Corps he performed in the armed service band. On time for civilian existence in 1947, MacKenzie became a member of bandleader Tommy Sampson, and over another 12 months toured Britain, Italy, and Germany. Carrying out a short tenure with Paul Fenoulhet, he was recruited by Heath in Sept 1949, and continued to be until Heath’s loss of life in past due 1969. Often gaining favorable evaluation to Duke Ellington’s famed clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton, MacKenzie was reputed by critics and viewers as well for his elegant, exacting shows. In Dec 1966, he became a member of fellow clarinetists Robert Uses up and Frank Reidy in the studio room to record the whimsical “When I’m Sixty-Four,” one of the most beloved contributions towards the Beatles’ epochal Sgt. Pepper. After Heath’s transferring, MacKenzie was a preferred of arrangers including Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle, and Billy Might, and was a fixture of many Heath Orchestra revivals led by trombonist Don Lusher. Furthermore, through the 1990s he led his very own quintet for the air program Music WHEN YOU Work. After a short illness, MacKenzie passed away in Surrey on Sept 2, 2007.