Kenny Ball (born Kenneth Daniel Ball, 22 May 1930, Ilford, Essex, England) is a British jazz musician,
best known as the lead trumpet player in Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen. Kenny Ball and his band had the
most successful and longest lasting chart success of the Trad groups that came to the fore during the
early 1960s. His success was probably due to a number of factors including his own skillful trumpet
playing and a judicious choice of material. Although the band received crticism from elitist jazz
'purists' for venturing too far from the boundaries (whatever they are) of traditional jazz, Kenny
helped to maintain the genre's high profile throughout the 1960s.

Ball began his career as sideman in bands, before forming his own trad jazz band in 1958. His dixieland
band was at the forefront of the early 1960s UK jazz revival.[1] Ball and his band have enjoyed the
longest unbroken spell of success for bands of their generation. Kenny Ball's list of hits include many
on which he sang as well as played. These include his first chart success 'Samantha' and his last chart
success 'When I'm 64'. Kenny is now well over 64, but is still loved by the many traditional jazz fans
that he enlisted during its era of greatest popularity.