Monty Sunshine

Jazz clarinetist and bandleader, born in London on 8 April 1928, died 30 November 2010. Was at the forefront of the traditional jazz boom in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Monty Sunshine's great-great-grandparents had come to England from Romania and had anglicised their surname to Sunshine. His father was a tailor who also played the violin. During the war, he was evacuated to Northampton and he later studied at the Camberwell School of Art. Sunshine was in the RAF from 1946 to 1950 and played in the Eager Beavers, a jazz band at RAF Wroughton. He joined the Crane River Jazz Band in 1949 . In 1957 Sunshine recorded "Petite Fleur" in a small group with Dickie Bishop, Dick Smith (bass) and Ron Bowden. Later formed his own band and worked with such stalwarts as Johnny Parker and Diz Disley. Sunshine toured regularly, either as a guest artist or with his own band, sometimes using Beryl Bryden and George Melly as guest vocalists. In 1972, he played with a reunion of the Crane River Jazz Band and from 1975, took part in reunions with Chris Barber. In 1987, he and Lonnie Donegan formed Donegan's Dancing Sunshine Band.