William Kimber
William Kimber (8 September 1872 – 26 December 1961) was a Morris dancer and anglo-concertina player with Headington Quarry Morris Men. He was the musician when Cecil Sharp happened to see Headington Quarry dancing - because it was a hard winter, and they were out of work and needed to raise some cash - on Boxing Day 1899. Shortly afterwards Sharp arranged to meet Kimber. He wrote the tunes down and then astonished Kimber by playing them back to him on the piano. These were the first Morris tunes that Sharp noted - the first of many.
Subsequently Kimber acted as Sharp's informant on the Headington Quarry Morris tradition, and as his assistant at lectures - Sharp would lecture on them while Kimber demonstrated the dances and played the concertina.
Kimber's Anglo-concertina playing - making use of the left-hand to add simple but effective chordal and rhythmic accompaniments - showed great vitality and lightness of touch. The recordings made of Kimber, many of which are now available on CD, are among the very few recordings that exist of English traditional concertina players, and have been very influential on later exponents of the instrument, myself included.
For more see
- Michael Heaney, ‘Kimber, William (1872–1961)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37635
- Folkopedia https://folkopedia.info/wiki/William_Kimber