John Dankworth
Desert Island Discs
BBC
4.3 • 14.3K Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 1986
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
John Dankworth studied music at the Royal Academy when jazz was not an approved subject - "I used to pretend my saxophone was a bassoon when I put it in the left luggage department of the Academy".
In conversation with Michael Parkinson, he talks about his career as a jazz musician and composer, and about how he is trying to break down the musical barriers at the Stables in Wavendon and with his Summer Pops season at the Barbican.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: When That I Was and A Little Tiny Boy by Cleo Laine Book: The Exchange & Mart Luxury: Solar-powered synthesizer
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. |
| 0:05.3 | For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. |
| 0:08.4 | The program was originally broadcast in 1986, and the presenter was Michael Parkinson. |
| 0:15.1 | Music |
| 0:29.6 | Our guest today is about to be a cast away for the second time. |
| 0:32.8 | He was first banished to our Desert Island in 1957, |
| 0:36.6 | and then as now he's renowned as a musician and a composer. |
| 0:40.0 | He is John Dankworth. |
| 0:41.7 | John, welcome back to your Desert Island. |
| 0:44.0 | You can of course choose the same records, but I see in fact you have chosen to repeat |
| 0:48.0 | only two, and one of them is the Benny Goodman version of Clionette Aller King. |
| 0:52.4 | Why is that? |
| 0:53.6 | Well, I think when one's choosing records for a Desert Island, especially for a second time, |
| 0:58.0 | you're torn between having the same solution as you did when you were 28 years younger, |
| 1:03.1 | and doing something different for the sake of a variety. |
| 1:05.7 | But there was one record and one artist that I couldn't possibly leave behind, |
| 1:09.4 | because he was my first inspiration to be a jazz man. |
| 1:13.2 | And he was my first excuse for being allowed to be a jazz man. |
| 1:17.1 | It was Benny Goodman. |
| 1:18.4 | I came from a family where classical music was considered to regir, |
| 1:23.4 | and the only way I could really convincingly get my parents to believe that I was serious |
| 1:28.5 | about playing jazz Clionette was by choosing an instrument played by Benny Goodman, |
... |
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