Alan Thompson writes: I worked with Kenny Ball on a number of occasions. One programme I co-produced was Kenny's Personal Choice from Bristol which was broadcast by Radio 2 in 1991. Kenny told me once, in an interview recorded at a 60s festival, that he owed much of his success to Lonnie Donegan at Pye Records and that although he and his band had recorded a version of Hello, Dolly! no one could match the version by Louis Armstrong. That was Kenny – appreciative and modest about his achievements.
Mervyn Leah writes: In 1964, Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen were booked to appear at Leeds University with Sonny Boy Williamson II (aka Rice Miller), one of the American musicians who inspired the British blues boom. Sonny Boy had never worked with Ball's band and there had clearly been no rehearsals either, nor even an agreed running order. Before he was due on stage, Sonny Boy held court with a group of admiring students, telling tales about his colourful life and giving inpromptu performances on his harmonica. Envoys from the band came and went, but got nothing out of him.
The band went on first and played a string of their standard material. Then Sonny Boy shuffled up to the front of the stage and launched into a flawless performance, exchanging a few words with Kenny at the start of each number. This was sheer professional musicianship at work – and nothing whatever to do with planning or rehearsal.