Ken Childerhouse writes: In the late 1950s as secretary of the sixth-form society of the boys’ county school, Harrow, I regularly engaged Johnny Chilton and his Dixielanders to play at Saturday-night school hops. New Year’s Eve drew especially large crowds from the local neighbourhood who joined regulars from the school’s Afro-American Music Society. Jazz was a word the head would not allow. Many years later, I turned up at Ronnie Scott’s with a ticket for a 1958 dance featuring the Dixielanders. After a few moments John appeared and welcomed me in as a long lost friend who had given him one of his earliest breaks.
Alan Lovell writes: Researching for Living Jazz, Jack Gold’s debut film in 1961 about the Bruce Turner Jump Band, I travelled for several weeks with the band and soon realised how important to it were John Chilton’s good sense and quiet authority. Bruce had a fantasy that this was going to be a Hollywood-style film, but John understood what we were doing and helped us in every way. Many years later, reading his autobiography, I remembered what a good guy he was.
- This article was amended on Monday 14 March 2016. An earlier version wrongly identified Ken Childerhouse as John Childerhouse.
