Terry Lightfoot

Born on 21 May 1935 in Potters Bar, Middlesex, England, Lightfoot first surfaced on the British jazz circuit as a clarinettist during the early 1950s. He fronted his own ensemble for the remainder of that decade and carried the group forward into the 1960s, his standing sufficiently secure to withstand the waning appeal of traditional jazz. In the midst of the trad revival he took a screen role in the 1962 film It’s Trad Dad. Aside from a short tenure with Kenny Ball’s outfit, he steered his own band through the 1970s until, late in the decade, he turned briefly to hotel management. Even then he kept performing, returning to music on a full-time basis by the mid-1980s. Widely regarded as one of the most refined British exponents of traditional clarinet, Lightfoot consistently upheld exacting musical standards both in his own playing and in the calibre of the musicians he assembled over several decades.