Humphrey Lyttelton

The musician, who died at the age of 86, last played at the festival two years ago and the organisers had been very much hoping that he would play in the town again this summer.

Festival chairman Brian Ashley said: "The Marlborough jazz festival was a great favourite of Humphrey Lyttelton.

"He came here many times and was extremely popular with the audiences and with other musicians.

"He was a brilliant musician, very witty, erudite, but so modest as well. We will miss him enormously."

Known as "Humph", the jazz band leader, trumpet player and master of innuendo died following surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm after being admitted to Barnet General Hospital in north London on April 16.

Lyttelton had hosted I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, the "self-styled antidote to panel games" from 1972, but was perhaps best known over his lifetime as a musician.

Jenny Abramsky, Director of Audio and Music at the corporation, said: "Humphrey Lyttelton championed British jazz with his weekly programme on Radio 2 introducing millions of listeners to the glories of the British jazz scene.

"At the same time his deadpan stewardship of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, the unique ringmaster of an anarchic world, ensured the programme became the jewel of radio comedy.

"Humph was warm, erudite, funny and scurrilous. His audience loved him. He was an irreplaceable voice on British radio."

Lyttelton was born on May 23, 1921 at Eton College, where his father was a housemaster.

It was while at Eton that he developed a love for jazz and, in 1936, having taught himself the trumpet, formed his first quartet with schoolmates including journalist Ludovic Kennedy.

After leaving school he served with the Grenadier Guards during the war before going to Camberwell Art College in central London.

It was from here that the extent of Lyttelton's versatility started to become clear.

In 1949 he joined the Daily Mail as a cartoonist, working, among other projects, on the popular Flook strip, and stayed there until 1956.

He was also emerging as a key figure in the British revival of traditional jazz forms.

In 1956, he became the first British jazz artist to enter the top 20 with Bad Penny Blues.

That same year his Lyttelton Band supported jazz legend Louis Armstrong in London, while 45 years after that he worked with the rock group Radiohead, and the following year advised Jamie Cullum on his album.

He began his four-decade stint hosting Radio 2's The Best Of Jazz in 1967, beginning I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue five years later.

As chairman, he became legendary for his ability to deliver the smuttiest of innuendoes with apparent innocence.

Lyttelton announced in March that he was to stop presenting BBC Radio 2's Best of Jazz after 40 years.

Jon Naismith, the producer of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, last week announced the cancellation of the upcoming series because of Lyttelton's hospitalisation.

Father-of-four Lyttelton, who was long-standing president of the Society For Italic Handwriting, married twice, first in 1948 and then again following a divorce in 1952.