Alec Dankworth is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 bassist

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

Dankworth was born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, the son of John Dankworth

John Dankworth

Sir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE , known in his early career as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist and clarinetist...

 and Cleo Laine

Cleo Laine

Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth, DBE is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range...

. He grew up in the villages of Aspley Guise

Aspley Guise

Aspley Guise is a village and civil parish located in central Bedfordshire, England. It is just over the county border from Woburn Sands in the Borough of Milton Keynes and about by road to Milton Keynes Centre and to the M1 London to Yorkshire motorway junction 13.-Notable buildings:The...

 and Wavendon

Wavendon

Wavendon is a village and civil parish in the south east of the Borough of Milton Keynes and ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England. The village name is an Old English language word, and means 'Wafa's hill'. In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 969 the village was recorded as Wafandun. The...

, living at the Old Rectory, Wavendon, where his parents established the Wavendon All-Music Plan (WAP) which includes the Stables

The Stables

The Stables is a music venue situated in Wavendon, a small village on the south-east edge of Milton Keynes....

 Theatre. After attending Bedford School

Bedford School

Bedford School is not to be confused with Bedford Modern School or Bedford High School or Old Bedford School in Bedford, TexasBedford School is an HMC independent school for boys located in the town of Bedford, England, United Kingdom...

, he studied at the Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...

 in Boston, Massachusetts in 1978, and then joined his parents' quintet. Between 1980 and 1983 he toured the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, and Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 with them, going on to work with Tommy Chase, the BBC Radio Big Band, and Clark Tracey

Clark Tracey

Clark Tracey is an English jazz drummer. He is the son of Stan Tracey.Tracey played piano and vibraphone before switching to drums at age 13, studying under Bryan Spring. Tracey played in several ensembles with his father, including in a quartet called Fathers and Sons with John and Alec Dankworth...

, with whom he recorded two album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

s.

Dankworth recorded Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

's Black, Brown, and Beige

Black, Brown, and Beige

Black, Brown and Beige is a jazz symphony written by Duke Ellington for his first concert at Carnegie Hall, on January 23, 1943. Ellington introduced it at Carnegie Hall as "a tone parallel to the history of the Negro in America." It was Ellington's longest and most ambitious...

with violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist Nigel Kennedy

Nigel Kennedy

Nigel Kennedy is a British born violinist and violist. He made his early career in the classical field, and he has performed and recorded most of the major violin concerti...

 in 1988, with whom he also performed Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...

's The Four Seasons

The Four Seasons (Vivaldi)

The Four Seasons is a set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Composed in 1723, The Four Seasons is Vivaldi's best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces of Baroque music. The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season...

. He also played in the 1980s with Dick Morrissey

Dick Morrissey

Richard Edwin "Dick" Morrissey was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor sax, soprano sax and flute.- Background :...

, Spike Robinson

Spike Robinson

Henry Berthold "Spike" Robinson was a tenor saxophonist. He began playing at age twelve, making recordings with famous jazz and bop musicians on several labels including Discovery, Hep and Concord. However, he sought an engineering degree and followed that profession on a fulltime basis for nearly...

, Jean Toussaint

Jean Toussaint

Jean Toussaint is a jazz tenor saxophonist. He was born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.Toussaint learned to play calypso as a child, and attended the Berklee College of Music in the late 1970s. In 1979 he played with Wallace Roney, and from 1982 to 1986 he was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz...

, Michael Garrick

Michael Garrick

Michael Garrick MBE was an English jazz pianist and composer, and a pioneer in mixing jazz with poetry recitations.-Biography:...

, Tommy Smith

Tommy Smith (saxophonist)

Tommy Smith is a jazz saxophonist, composer and educator. The late jazz critic Richard Cook said of him, 'Of the generation which emerged in the mid-80s, he might be the most outstandingly talented'.-Biography:...

, Julian Joseph

Julian Joseph

Julian Joseph is a jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger and broadcaster. Joseph has worked solo, in his all-star big band, trio, quartet, forum project band or electric band....

, and Andy Hamilton

Andy Hamilton (saxophonist)

Andy Raphael Thomas Hamilton MBE is a Jamaican-born British jazz saxophonist and composer.Hamilton was born in Port Maria, Jamaica, and learnt to play saxophone on a bamboo instrument...

, as well as leading his own quartet.

In 1990 he was invited to join and tour with Dave Brubeck

Dave Brubeck

David Warren "Dave" Brubeck is an American jazz pianist. He has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills...

's band, and in 1993 he worked with Abdullah Ibrahim

Abdullah Ibrahim

Abdullah Ibrahim , born Adolph Johannes Brand, 9 October 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa, and formerly known as Dollar Brand, is a South African pianist and composer...

, touring Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. He has played with Mose Allison

Mose Allison

Mose John Allison, Jr. is an American jazz blues pianist and singer.-Biography:...

, Clark Terry

Clark Terry

Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...

, Mel Tormé

Mel Tormé

Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...

, Anita O'Day

Anita O'Day

Anita O'Day was an American jazz singer.Born Anita Belle Colton, O'Day was admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band appearances shattered the traditional image of the "girl singer"...

, Peter King

Peter King (saxophonist)

Peter John King is an English jazz saxophonist, composer, and clarinettist.- Early life :Peter King was born in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, on August 11, 1940. He took up the clarinet and saxophone as a teenager, entirely self taught...

, Alan Barnes

Alan Barnes (musician)

Alan Barnes is an English Jazz musician.- Career :Alan Barnes attended Leeds College of Music between 1977–80 where he studied saxophone, woodwinds and arranging before moving to London. In 1980 he played with the Midnight Follies Orchestra and the following year was with the Pasadena Roof...

, David-Jean Baptiste, Van Morrison

Van Morrison

Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...

 and Martin Taylor

Martin Taylor

Martin Taylor, MBE is a British jazz guitarist who has performed in groups, guitar ensembles and as an accompanist to many of the world’s most famous musicians...

, among others. He also co-led a fourteen piece band with his father, John Dankworth — the Alec and John Dankworth Generation Band (or "Generation Band"), with which he has recorded two albums.

Alec is also a tutor for the National Youth Jazz Collective.

Discography as co-leader

• 1994: Nebuchadnezzar (Jazz House)
• 1996: Rhythm Changes (Jazz House))

Sources and external links

• Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, & Brian Priestley. Jazz: The Rough Guide. ISBN 1-85828-528-3
• Richard Cook & Brian Morton. The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD 6th edition. ISBN 0-14-051521-6
• [ Alec Dankworth] — discography from Allmusic