autumn 2014 the trombonist
my life with humph by Ray Wordsworth
In my life as a Professional trombone player I’ve been fortunate to work with some brilliant musicians. Humphrey Lyttelton was one of the best. He was a unique charismatic man with an aura about him. Not at all pompous, he always gave you his full attention.
The late Humphrey Lyttelton
I worked with Humph over many years as a guest and depping with the band for my old chum Pete Strange, who had been with Humph’s band for many years. When Pete became ill in 2004 I stepped in to help out, something which lasted about six months until sadly Pete died. Humph asked me if I would like to replace Pete and join the band, which I was only too happy to do. Humph was always a gentleman, polite, courteous, and a very kind individual. And remember he was not only wonderful musician, he was a very talented presenter, broadcaster, writer, and calligraphist, a huge and varied talent. He was very observant too. Once when travelling in my car with me driving, he noticed the huge digital speedometer on my dashboard and, remembering I had only months before got caught on camera for speeding, remarked. “How the hell did you get done for speeding with a speedometer as big as that?” 16
He would tell some lovely stories on stage and whilst travelling. One of my favourites was about trumpet player Wingy Manone, so called because he only had one arm. Wingy was asked by a club owner to book a 7-piece band for his club for one week, which Wingy did. As the band arrived on the first day the club owner was watching them coming in, he noticed the guitar player only had one eye, one of the other’s had a limp, there was something amiss with nearly all of them. Nevertheless they did a great job every night. At the end of the
week, Wingy went in the office to get paid, the club owner puffing on his big cigar counted out the money. At this point Wingy noticed the owner had only paid for 6 musicians. When questioned the owner said, “I’ve been watching you guys all week and the way I see it, you’re one whole man short”. True story. On one occasion travelling to a gig in the car I mentioned I was doing a gig the next evening with the Glenn Miller Orchestra UK, at which point Humph immediately told me a true story about Glenn Miller. Glenn was a strict