Jazz Legend Lyttelton Dies

Legendary trumpeter, bandleader, journalist and radio presenter Humphrey Lyttelton died April 25 following heart surgery. He was 86.

Although a giant of the jazz world for more than 60 years, many knew him best as the chairman of the popular BBC Radio 4 panel game, "I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue," a program renowned for what must be the most sexually suggestive humour the network has ever aired.

In 1949 Lyttelton’s group began recording for Parlophone and came under the wing of George Martin, the producer later dubbed "the fifth Beatle."

Joe Meek, the pioneering English record producer and songwriter, was to have a hand in Lyttelton’s "Bad Penny Blues" in 1956, the first British jazz record to reach the Top 20.

Shortly afterward, he began to move nearer to the swing style of the ’30s and ’40s, although the move wasn’t popular with his more purist fans.

By 1988, his 40th year as a bandleader, Lyttelton had played more than 10,000 concerts. He stepped down in March 2008.