Ken Sykora

Ken Sykora (13 April 1923 – 7 March 2006), born Charles Kenneth Sykora, was an English jazz guitarist and radio presenter.

Sykora had two older sisters.

He studied geography at the University of Cambridge, where he organized the Cambridge University Band Society.

He then studied business and economics at the London School of Economics.

During World War II, he was a military intelligence officer in East Asia.

After the war, he taught in London at the London School of Economics and the College for Distributive Trades.

He had a short first marriage to Margery Mileham whom he had married in 1947.

Influenced by guitarist Django Reinhardt, he led his own band in the 1950s, appearing with other bandleaders such as Ted Heath.

During this time he appeared on the Melody Maker reader's poll for best British jazz guitarist for five consecutive years and won it twice.

Following his move to Suffolk he worked on radio for the BBC.

He hosted the BBC programme Guitar Club.

For BBC Radio 2, he created and presented the programme series Be My Guest, interviewing Count Basie, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Andrés Segovia, Isaac Stern and Gloria Swanson, among others.

He married his second wife, cabaret singer Helen B. Grant, in 1957 in Westminster.

The couple moved to Suffolk, where their three children were born.

In January 1962 he was a guest on Desert Island Discs.

In the 1970s, Sykora and his family moved to Scotland, where the couple ran the Colintraive Hotel in Colintraive on the Kyles of Bute.

After five years, they sold the hotel.

The Sykoras then moved to Blairmore in Argyll, and he continued to produce music programmes for BBC Radio Scotland and for Radio Clyde.

Sykora died in Blairmore on 7 March 2006.

In 2012, Linda Chirrey and Marc Mason created a documentary film about his life and career, The Man with the Jazz Guitar.