Duncan Lamont was for many years the saxophonist of choice for Marlene Dietrich, George Formby and especially Frank Sinatra. “I worked for Frank for about 20 years when he used to come over,” said the former shipyard worker from Greenock. “It was always the same people he used.”

It was a wonderful experience. “I never got caught up in the adulation trap, but I admired him professionally as a consummate singer who was happy to sing with a big band,” Lamont told London Jazz News. “I’m sure he preferred that to anything else in the world — after all, he rediscovered the American Songbook and even influenced American politics with his support for JFK.”

Lamont went on to work with some of the biggest