Ken Rattenbury

September 10, 1920 (age 80)

Spilsby, Lincolnshire to Sidney

And Maude (nee Miller), a homemaker. He would go on to serve in the British Army from 1940-1946 as a private first class. He first joined a jazz band playing the piano in 1933. While in the Service, he took up the trumpet and toured the European Theatre of World World War II leading his own band. In 1946 he had a stint with Stars in Battledress, and after being demobilized lived in the English Midlands. He mostly did freelancing until he formed his own band in 1951. He wrote an extended jazz suite in honor of Bix Beiderbecke, called Mirror to Bix, and had George Chisholm and Steve Race. During 1963 and 1964, he composed and broadcast two thirty-minute jazz suites, The Seven Ages of Manitoba and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and again had some of the greats of jazz play with him, Kenny Baker and had Michael Hordern reciting the famous Shakespearean soliloquy, "All the world"s a stage.." in the Seven Ages suite. He then established the Jazz Four. He got his Master of Arts from University of Keele in 1984. Rattenbury is most notable for his Duke Ellington biography, but also had been commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the 1960s to compose two half-hour jazz suites titled The Seven Ages of Manitoba and The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner.

Ken Rattenbury

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jazz musician

Education

Keele University.

Career

And Maude (nee Miller), a homemaker. He would go on to serve in the British Army from 1940-1946 as a private first class. He first joined a jazz band playing the piano in 1933.

While in the Service, he took up the trumpet and toured the European Theatre of World World War II leading his own band.

In 1946 he had a stint with Stars in Battledress, and after being demobilized lived in the English Midlands. He mostly did freelancing until he formed his own band in 1951.

He wrote an extended jazz suite in honor of Bix Beiderbecke, called Mirror to Bix, and had George Chisholm and Steve Race. During 1963 and 1964, he composed and broadcast two thirty-minute jazz suites, The Seven Ages of Manitoba and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and again had some of the greats of jazz play with him, Kenny Baker and had Michael Hordern reciting the famous Shakespearean soliloquy, "All the world"s a stage.." in the Seven Ages suite.

He then established the Jazz Four.

He got his Master of Arts from University of Keele in 1984. Rattenbury is most notable for his Duke Ellington biography, but also had been commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the 1960s to compose two half-hour jazz suites titled The Seven Ages of Manitoba and The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner.

Achievements

He received a World World War II Victory Medal, Defence Medal, and the British Expeditionary Forces medal.

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Ken Rattenbury

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World World War II Victory Medal; the British Expeditionary Forces medal