Acker Bilk MBE (born 28 January 1929), born Bernard Stanley Bilk (known more familiarly as Mr. Acker Bilk), is a clarinetist. He is known for his trademark goatee, bowler hat, striped waistcoat and his breathy, vibrato-rich, lower-register clarinet style. He was born in Pensford, Somerset, England. Bilk earned the nickname Acker from the Somerset slang for friend or 'mate'. His parents tried to have him learn the piano, but Bilk as a boy found it restricting upon his love of outdoor activities including football . He also lost two front teeth in a school fight and half a finger in a sledging accident, both of which Bilk has claimed impacted his eventual clarinet style. He eventually learned the clarinet while serving in the British Army, and by the mid-1950s he was playing professionally. Bilk was part of the boom in traditional jazz that swept the United Kingdom in the late 1950s and 1960s. He first joined Ken Co

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