Jack Parnell obituary

Drummer, bandleader and musical director of popular TV showsTall, lithe, impeccably turned out, the drummer Jack Parnell, who has died aged 87, always carried the aura of the matinee idol he had once been. Like the American drummer Gene Krupa, a star player with Benny Goodman's band, the personable Parnell was often mobbed at the stage door after a Ted Heath concert in the 1950s. An outstanding big band drummer himself, Parnell liked to vocalise in the style of Phil Harris and later became a bu...

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