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Jim Foulkes’s formal musical training was on the French Horn, and, in various youth orchestras, he took part in performances made memorable by his cracked notes. But the guitar, less dependent on embouchure, soon became the focus of his efforts. First, in the world of folk singing, then electric guitar in jazz groups, and eventually the classical guitar, when the Classical Guitar Centre opened in London. With his first teacher, Len Williams (father of John), he enjoyed a stimulating relationship for a whole twenty minutes, before being passed on to an American back-packer who’d dropped in for a coffee. He paid his way through college with his ‘talent’ as a folk singer/all-purpose minstrel in the smart eateries of Cambridge, where customers were happy to pay £1 to hear him sing, quickly followed by another £1 to make him stop. As a jazz guitarist, his ‘brilliant improvisations’ (Melody Maker) were an inspired method of concealing wrong notes.

During his Paris years, he fell in a group of Spaniards, who taught him the techniques and repertoire of flamenco. After studying in Seville, he returned to the UK having learnt to sprinkle his arguments with the carping criticisms of classical guitarists with such terms as falsetas, toques, compás, duende – or, if all else failed, he’d lapse into rapid Andalucian. The result of his efforts he considered to be an enrichment of his interpretations, though a reviewer pointed out that he made Bach sound like a bulerias – and vice versa.

His later enthusiasm for Early Music led to his discovering that the tenor viol is merely an upside-down guitar played with a bow, so he signed up to study with Michel Igisch and was frequently heard in local consorts, where the preliminary tuning-up lasts longer than the performance. Throughout his instrumental career, his teachers were unanimous in praising his incorrigible optimism and his pointless dedication.

But this omits his active singing life. Choirs in Sussex, Cambridge, Oxford, Milan and Paris greatly benefited from his ability to sing difficult lines, occasionally with the right words and often at the right pitch. He joined the Chorale St Michel as a tenor in 1987, until, in an epic bout of laryngitis in 1995, his voice completely disappeared; he later resurfaced as a bass. He then posed as a baritone, in which capacity he sang Early Music with The Art of Music, where the rich fabric of late-medieval polyphony was further improved by his scattering of wrong notes.

He was grateful for the chance to sing with Intermedii, replacing founder-member Walter Perkins, though he nearly failed the rigorous selection procedure because he lacked a moustache.

Such was Jim's dry and often self-deprecating wit, which we will never forget.

For more about Jim, see Jim's memorial page

We are privileged to welcome Miguel Turrión as Jim's successor.

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