Born as Bernard Stanley Bilk, known more familiarly as Mr. Acker Bilk, has been one of the world's greatest clarinetists since the late 1950s. His trademark goatee, bowler hat, and striped waistcoat are almost as recognisable as his breathy, vibrato-rich, lower-register clarinet style.

Mr. Acker Bilk was part of the boom in traditional jazz that swept the United Kingdom in the late 1950s and 1960s. He first joined Ken Colyer's band in 1954, and then after he formed his own ensemble in 1956. Four years later, his single "Summer Set" (a pun on his home county) hit the British charts and it began a run of eleven top 50 hit singles.

He became 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 England 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 – making him the first British musician ever to put a song in the number one position on the U.S. charts kept by Billboard.

Mr. Acker Bilk has been described as "Great Master of the Clarinet" 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.