Hyperion Records

Robert Docker (1918–1992) was born in Paddington, London, and studied piano, viola and composition at the Royal Academy of Music between 1937 and 1941. After army service he took up freelance activities, becoming valued as a highly reliable pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. He was a particularly brilliant improviser at the piano. He broadcast a great deal, forming a two-piano duo with Edward Rubach for twelve years and becoming a familiar contributor to light music broadcasts right up to his death. Perhaps his most successful short piece was the sparkling Tabarinage (‘Buffoonery’), a sort of eccentric British view of the French can-can.

from notes by Andrew Lamb © 1997