Ken Colyer - He Knew

Tuesday 4 March
2233 - 2330

Billy Bragg investigates the history and importance of the music that pre-dated Rock 'n' Roll, focusing specifically on it's driving force, the relatively unknown jazz trumpeter called Ken Colyer.

Colyer, was a musical evangelist who joined the Merchant Navy not to see the world, but to see one specific part of it: New Orleans.

After jumping ship in Alabama, he immersed himself in the jazz scene, playing with the greats of the day.

British jazz players waited eagerly for him to return, desperate to pick up what he had learnt.

Among those waiting was jazz banjo player Lonnie Donegan.

Initially Donegan took on Colyer's techniques, but within a few years he shook off the shackles of the jazz scene to embrace the world of showbiz and skiffle music.

This programme examines the influence of "three-chord skiffle" on some of the great names of British music. Without skiffle, artists ranging from The Beatles to Pete Townshend to Martin Carthy would never have picked up a guitar.

Bragg, armed with improvised washboard, also joins skiffle fan Richard Hawley to play a skiffle classic and discusses British rock music's debt to Donegan and to Ken Colyer before him.

Contributors to this programme include: Pete Townshend, Richard Hawley, Ken Colyer’s nephew Martin and Lonnie Donegan's son Peter.

This programme was produced by All Out Productions