John Chilton
b. 16 July 1932, London, England. A sound trumpeter and skilful arranger, Chilton led his own band in the mid-50s before joining the Bruce Turner Jump Band in 1958. He remained with Turner for five years, playing and writing arrangements. In the early '60s he was with Alex Welsh and Mike Daniels before forming another band of his own. At the end of the '60s he became co-leader with Wally Fawkes of a band they named the Feetwarmers, taking over as leader in 1974. Almost at once, Chilton became musical director for George Melly and ever since has toured, recorded and broadcast with the singer. So far as the wider public is concerned, Chilton's place in British jazz may rest on his relationship with Melly but for the cogniscenti it is his role as a writer and tireless researcher into jazz history that makes him a figure of considerable importance. Amongst his many publications are WHO'S WHO OF JAZZ (STORYVILLE TO SWING STREET), a work which ably demonstrates the awe-inspiring meticulousness of his research; LOUIS (THE LOUIS ARMSTRONG STORY), a biography written in collaboration with Max Jones; JAZZ, a history written for the Teach Yourself series of publications; BILLIE'S BLUES, a partial biography of Billie Holiday, plus historical accounts of the Jenkins Orphanage bands, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, the Bob Crosby Bobcats, and definitive biographies of Sidney Bechet and Coleman Hawkins. In the early '90s Chilton was still on the road with Melly and still writing about his branch of jazz, on which he is an acknowledged expert.