Duncan Lamont

Duncan Lamont (4 July 1931 - 2 July 2019) was a saxophonist, composer and bandleader active for many years in London's Soho jazz scene. His soundtracks include the music to the 1970s children's television animation series Mr Benn. Early career Lamont was born in Greenock, the son of a shipyard worker. He began learning the trumpet at the age of seven because “it was the cheapest instrument I could get – it cost 30 shillings”. He started playing with local dance bands while still at school. After a time working in the shipyards, Lamont moved to London to play with Kenny Graham's Afro Cubists and (switching to tenor saxophone) with the Johnny Keating band in 1957. In 1958 he toured the US with Vic Lewis. During the 1960s he became a member of the Johnny Scott Quintet. Soho jazz For several decades Lamont worked as a freelance musician (on flute and clarinet as well as saxophone), based around Archer Street in Soho and playing in the surrounding jazz clubs. He often performed with British bands accompanying American vocalists, including Fred Astaire, Tony Bennett, Bing Crosby, Sammy Davis Jr., Marlene Dietrich, Peggy Lee and (for 19 seasons) with Frank Sinatra. He also played with touring bandleaders such as Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Henry Mancini. Lamont led his own band for 11 years. He worked on recording and performing projects with Kenny Wheeler for many decades. Composer Lamont was a prolific composer of concert works, library music, television music and songs. The Young Person's Guide to the Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, composed for a BBC broadcast in 1979, provides a jazz orchestra alternative to Benjamin Britten's classical variations, also for orchestra and narrator. The Sherlock Holmes Suite was commissioned by the City of London to commemorate the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes in The Strand magazine, and featured his friend and collaborator Spike Milligan as narrator. It was recorded for the BBC in 1989.