Ken Sykora

Background

Sykora was born in 1923 in Fulham, London, to a Czechoslovakian cavalry officer, Karel "Charles" Sykora (born 1884), and a Swiss mother, Rosa Von Dach (born 1895), who had eloped whilst pregnant and married in Westminster in 1911.

Education

He studied geography at the University of Cambridge, where he organized the Cambridge University Band Society. He then studied business and economics at the London School of Economics.

Career

During World World War II, he served as an intelligence officer in the Far East. After the war he taught in London at the London School of Economics and the College for Distributive Trades. Influenced by guitarist Django Reinhardt, he led his own band in the 1950s, appearing with other bandleaders such as Ted Heath.

During this time he worked on radio for the British Broadcasting Corporation. He hosted the popular British Broadcasting Corporation programme Guitar Club.

Foreign British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 2, he created and presented the program series Be My Guest, interviewing Count Basie, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Andrés Segovia, Isaac Stern and Gloria Swanson, among others In January 1962 he was a guest on Desert Island Discs.

In the 1970s, Sykora and his family moved to Scotland, where the couple ran a hotel in Colintraive on the Kyles of Bute. After five years he sold the hotel as Helen who had a drinking problem had struggled with such ready access to alcohol.

The Sykoras then moved to Blairmore and he continued to produce music programs for British Broadcasting Corporation Radio Scotland and for Radio Clyde.

Sykora died in Blairmore on 7 March 2006. In 2012, Linda Chirrey and Marc Mason created a documentary film about his life and career, The Manitoba with the Jazz Guitar.

Achievements

• During this time he appeared on the Melody Maker reader"s poll for best British jazz guitarist for five consecutive years and won it twice.