He turned professional in 1953, playing with the Sid Phillips and Eric Delaney bands, before forming his own group, Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen, in 1958.
There was even a session made under the leadership of Julius Watkins, one of the few jazzmen to try and make a go of the French horn as a bebop instrument.
While their accessible sound was not to the taste of some trad jazz purists, they were now pop stars as well as jazzmen, and more top 10 hits followed with March of the Siamese Children and The Green Leaves of Summer.