- Born
- Died
- Birth nameHumphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton
- Nickname
- Humph
- Humph was born on May 23, 1921 in Eton College school, where his father was a housemaster and so he later attended England's most famous public school. During the War, he was an officer in the Grenadier Guards. After discharge, studied for two years at Camberwell Art School. But his love affair with the trumpet, which began in 1936, saw him form his first band in 1948. A 1949 recording contract with EMI was followed by many recordings, including 1956's Bad Penny Blues, the first British jazz record to enter the Top 20. Today Humphrey is busier than ever. His band, one of the most versatile in the world, still tours regularly. He presents The Best of Jazz on BBC Radio 2 and has chaired the hugely popular panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue on Radio 4 for 30 years. His authoritative and exquisitely bored tones lend the half-hour of innuendo and improvised madness an air of gravity. In 1993, Humph was also the recipient of the radio industry's highest honour: The Sony Gold Award. He has also received Lifetime Achievement Awards at both the Post Office British Jazz Awards in April 2000 and at the first BBC Jazz Awards in 2001. To paraphrase Humph at the close of his radio show "all good things must come to an end," and so must this biography.- IMDb Mini Biography By: garryq
- SpousesElizabeth Jill Richardson(1952 - 2006) (her death, 3 children)Patricia Mary Braithwaite(1948 - 1952) (divorced, 1 child)
- Mother, Pamela Lyttelton, a keen amateur musician, playing at various times piano, recorder and the guitar. Father George took up the cello while at Cambridge, but put it down again after a university magazine article said 'When George Lyttelton practises the cello, all the cats in the district converge upon his rooms in the belief that one of their members is in distress.'
- He was offered a knighthood, and turned it down.
- In 2001, he joined rock band Radiohead for a seven-hour session while they were recording their album "Amnesiac". They had written to him asking for help, as they were "a bit stuck".
- He got to meet his idol, Louis Armstrong, at the 1948 Nice (France) Jazz Festival. Armstrong always spoke warmly of the man he called "that cat in England who swings his posterior off".
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content