Jim Parker (composer)

James Mavin Parker (18 December 1934 – 28 July 2023) was a British BAFTA-winning composer. Career After graduating as a silver medallist at the Guildhall School of Music, Parker played with orchestras and chamber groups in London as well as being a key part of The Barrow Poets for whom he provided both original instrumental music and music to accompany the performance of a wide range of poetry spoken or sung by the rest of the band. This music was played on a variety of instruments including the bass cacofiddle, a homemade sort of double bass with knobs on, invented and played by William Bealby-Wright, while Parker mostly played oboe and cor anglais. Parker subsequently concentrated on composing and conducting. He had early success with a series of recordings in which he set the poems of the British Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman to music; Banana Blush, Late Flowering Love (both 1974), Sir John Betjeman’s Britain (1977) and Varsity Rag (1981). The albums, in which the poet recited his own words and the composer conducted a small group of musicians, have continued to be held in high regard by listeners and critics. These and subsequent records, including Captain Beaky and His Band,