Daily Dose Of Jazz…

John Russell Parnell was born on August 6, 1923 in Paddington, London, England and raised in Wembley. The only son of vaudevillians, his father a ventriloquist, his mother, a gifted classical pianist, worked as her husband’s accompanist. He toured with his parents as a very young child and standing in the wings enthralled by the big bands that were often top of the bill in the late 1920s. He started piano lessons as a four-year-old and could pick up tunes easily. Sent away to boarding school from the age of six, he began to take an interest in drums, and this soon became a consuming passion.

Not much interested in academic study, Parnell bought all the jazz records he could, starting with Duke Ellington and moving on to the more informal Chicago school epitomised by trumpeter Muggsy Spanier. Armed with a Premier drum kit purchased by his mother from the window-cleaner for £15 and following six lessons from Max Abrams, at 15 he ventured north to Scarborough to start his professional career playing for the summer season at the town’s theatre.

During his military service in the 1940s he became a member of Buddy Featherstonhaugh’s Radio Rhythm Club Sextet and played drums with Vic Lewis and other servicemen who were keen on jazz. From 1944 to 1946 he recorded with the Lewis-Parnell Jazzmen’s version of Ugly Child.

During the 1940s and 1950s, Parnell was voted best drummer in the Melody Maker poll for seven years in succession. He composed many television themes, including Love Story, Father Brown, The Golden Shot and Family Fortunes. He was a regular judge on the ATV talent show New Faces and the musical director for The Benny Hill Show.

He was appointed as the musical director for ATV in 1956, a post he held until 1981, and was the conductor for The Muppet Show orchestra for the series’ entire run. Jack composed the score theme for ITC Entertainment. Throughout the 1960s, Parnell directed the pit orchestra for Sunday Night at the London Palladium.

In the 1970s, he co-founded the group The Best of British Jazz with Kenny Baker, Don Lusher, Betty Smith, Tony Lee, and Tony Archer, which performed until 1985. From 1991 on Parnell was part of the Norfolk-based Mike Capocci Trio who backed saxophonists Johnny Griffin, Ronnie Ross, and Kathy Stobart. In 1994, he took over as the leader of the London Big Band.

Drummer and musical director Jack Parnell, whose uncle was the theatrical impresario Val Parnell, transitioned from the effects of cancer at 87 on August 8, 2010 in Southwold, Suffolk, England.

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