Bilk adquirió su apodoAcker del argot de Somerset que quiere decir algo así como camarada, amigo.
Los padres de Acker Bilk trataron de imponerle el piano, pero Bilk, como niño que era en esa época , interpretó este acto como algo restricitivo que le impedia su amor por las actividades al aire libre, tales como la práctica del futbol. Durante esta époco de la niñez perdio dos dientes frontales en una pelea escolar y la mitad de un dedo en un accidente en un trineo, bilk considero que ambos acciedentes influyeron o afectaron su forma peculiar de tocar el clarinte. Aprendió a tocar el clarinete mientras prestaba su servicio militar en el cuepro de Ingenieros Reales en la Zona del Canal de Suez y a mediado de los cinuentas ya se econtraba tocando el clarinete profesionalmente.
Bilk formó parte del boom de jazz tradicional que barrio el Reino Unido a finales de los cincuentas. En ese entonces se unió a la banda de Ken Colyer's en el año de 1954, y luego luego formó su propia banda de ensamble, a la que bautizó con el nombre de The Paramount Jazz Band, cuatro años después su exito solitario "Summer Set" (un juego de palabras o albur de su region Somerset) pego duro en las listas de exitos de Inglaterra y así comenzó una serie de once exitos que pegaron también duro en las listas de exitos de aquellos dias en el Reino Unido(Inglaterra).
Bilk was not an international star until an experiment with a string ensemble and a composition of his own as its keynote piece made him one in 1962. He wrote "Stranger on the Shore" for a British television serial series, and recorded it as the title track of a new album in which his signature deep, quivering clarinet was backed by the Leon Young String Chorale. The single was not only a big hit in the United Kingdom (where it stayed on the charts for a remarkable 55 weeks, gaining a second wind after Bilk was the subject of the TV show This Is Your Life) but shot to the top of the American charts as well – at a time when the American pop charts and radio playlists were open to just about anything, in just about any style[3]; making Bilk the first British artist to have a single in the number one position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.[4] (Vera Lynn was the first British artist to top the U.S. Billboard charts with "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" in 1952). "Stranger on the Shore" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.[5] The album was also highlighted by a striking interpretation of Bunny Berigan's legendary hit "I Can't Get Started." At one point, at the height of his career, Bilk's public relations workers were known as the "Bilk Marketing Board", a play on the then Milk Marketing Board.
Bilk recorded a series of albums in England that were also released successfully in the United States (on the Atlantic Records subsidiary Atco), including a memorable collaboration (Together) with Danish jazz pianist-composer Bent Fabric ("The Alley Cat"). But his success tapered off when British rock and roll made its big international explosion beginning in 1964, and Bilk shifted direction to the cabaret circuit. He finally had another chart success in 1976, with "Aria," which went to number five in the United Kingdom. In the early 1980s, Bilk and his signature hit were newly familiar, thanks to "Stranger on the Shore" being used in the soundtrack to Sweet Dreams, the film biography of country music legend Patsy Cline. Most of his classic albums with the Paramount Jazz Band have been reissued and are available on the UK based Lake Records label.
Bilk has been described as "Great Master of the Clarinet"[6] and is often said to be the originator of 'Hyung-Tiger' playing, often copied by such artists as Johnny Range and Ted Morton. His clarinet sound and style was at least as singular as had been those of American jazzmen such as Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Russell Procope, and "Stranger on the Shore" – which he was once quoted as calling "my old-age pension" – remains a beloved standard of jazz and popular music alike.
By 2000, Bilk was reportedly semi-retired and taking up painting as a hobby,[2] but still appears with contemporaries, Chris Barber and Kenny Ball (both of whom were born in 1930) as the 3B's.
One of his recordings is with the Chris Barber band, sharing the clarinet spot with the band's regular reedsmen, John Crocker and Ian Wheeler. He made a CD with another legend of British Jazz Wally Fawkes for the Lake Records label in 2002. He has appeared on two recent albums by Van Morrison, Down the Road and What's Wrong With This Picture?.
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