In 1959, at the height of the traditional jazz boom, Petite Fleur became a hit, one of very few instrumental records to do so. It enjoyed 18 weeks in the charts, peaking at number four. The famous clarinet solo on the record was played by Monty Sunshine.
Sunshine continued, both with his own band and as a solo artist, for a further half-century. His melodic style and warm, limpid sound had a special appeal for audiences in Germany, Holland and Scandinavia, where he seemed to have permanent celebrity status.
Born in Stepney on April 8, 1928, it was as a student at Camberwell School of Art that Sunshine fell in love with jazz and took up the clarinet. At the age of 20 he joined the Crane River Jazz Band, led by the legendary Ken Colyer and devoted to recreating the original New Orleans jazz style. Through various splits and changes this became Ken Colyer’s Jazzmen and finally the hugely successful Chris Barber band. During Barber’s first Danish tour, in 1954, a fan, Karl Emil Knudsen recorded the band playing the famous pop tune Ice Cream. This caught on so well that Knudsen founded the successful Storyville Records label on the strength of it.
Apart from a dip in the mid-sixties, when his original fans were bringing up small children, the name Monty Sunshine could be guaranteed to attract packed houses of all ages until his retirement in 2003.
Sunshine died on November 30, 2010, aged 82.
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