Henry Mackenzie

Born: 15 February, 1923, in Edinburgh.

Died: 2 September, 2007, in Carshalton, Surrey, aged 84.

THROUGHOUT the Ted Heath Band's 18-year history, they kept sending for Henry Mackenzie. And he never had far to travel.

Heath himself invited Mackenzie from the saxophone section, where he played tenor sax, to stand out front and solo on his favourite instrument, the clarinet.

Mackenzie was hailed as one of the finest clarinetists produced outside the United States. He was a facile, fastidious exponent whose musicianship earned the respect of his fellow professionals - and the public, who consistently voted him into top spot in national jazz polls - and guaranteed full employment.

From school in Edinburgh at Preston Street and James Clark's he became an apprentice motor mechanic. He hated that every bit as much as the accordion his mother bought him.

But when she equipped him with a saxophone, his natural aptitude and jazz "feel" soon paid off. Coached on the sax by local veterans Joe Marsh, a member of Edinburgh Empire pit orchestra, and Mev Taylor, Mackenzie soon found work in the Havana Club on Princes Street and the Eldorado Ballroom in Leith, before his army call-up in 1942.

On demob in 1947, he joined the 17-piece Tommy Sampson band, resident at the Eldorado. Heath, looking to form a band of his own, raided the Sampson ranks, and Mackenzie was one of several Scots who left Leith, eventually to sign up with him in London, joining the nucleus of an outfit that was to win acclaim in Europe on the way to challenging the best in the States.

Mackenzie played in the Paul Fenhoulet Orchestra before embarking, in 1949, on a star-spangled journey with Heath. The band's record sales at home and abroad and a reputation built largely on regular radio broadcasts with the BBC paved the way to four tours of the US and three of Australia.

His London-born wife, Barbara (neither had married before they wed in 1976), said at their home near Epsom, Surrey: "Henry was probably the longest-serving member of the Heath band, rivalled in service terms only by Glaswegian trumpet player Duncan Campbell.

"When he eventually left Heath - he said Ted was a hard but fair man to work for - he was never short of work, freelancing in London with Americans Henry Mancini, Billy May and Nelson Riddle [he was obliged to play piccolo for some Mancini pieces and hated the piccolo every bit as much as he abhorred the accordion] and in the Black and White Minstrel Show which had a long run on TV."

He formed his own quintet for Music While You Work radio broadcasts and was in the Andy Ross Orchestra featured in another staple TV series, Come Dancing.

"Henry was renowned almost as much for his musicianship as for his reserve. He was what his co-musicians regarded as a 'typical Scot'. Few knew that he was on the Beatles' Sgt Pepper album and that he featured in the score for the Charles Dance/Joss Ackland film White Mischief, said Barbara.

"And when trombonist Don Lusher reformed the Heath band, he was an automatic recruit," she added.

For Mackenzie's funeral at Leatherhead, in Surrey, there was no problem choosing a piece to remember him by.

"It had to be Send for Henry. It was his anthem in so many concert halls in so many cities in the UK - the Usher Hall in his home town included - throughout Europe and the US, including New York's Carnegie Hall," said his wife.

Henry Mackenzie is survived by his wife.