Ken Mackintosh

Big band leader from the pre-Beatles days of British pop
When ballroom dancing was all the rage in pre-Beatles Britain, every town and village boasted a dance hall. Big cities had many more. Demand was seemingly insatiable, and travelling bands worked hard to keep the public happy. Bandleaders such as Ken Mackintosh, who has died aged 86, were celebrity figures, their every move watched and reported.

In 1948, Mackintosh's first chance to front his own orchestra came with a residency at the Astoria Ballroom, Nottingham - and he seized the opportunity to emulate American big band stars like Les Brown and Stan Kenton by enlisting lead trumpeter Bobby Pratt and a number of London colleagues, among them drummer Bobby Kevin and bassist Jack Seymour. Packed houses and radio broadcasts helped put both band and ballroom firmly on the map, and Mackintosh was on the way.

In 1950, he moved to the Wimbledon Palais, south London, and again found success, featuring regularly on the BBC Light Programme and making bestselling recordings for HMV, notably in 1953 with The Creep, his own composition that tied in with a new dance craze. His band backed such popular singers as Alma Cogan, Max Bygraves and Frankie Vaughan on record, featured in the 1955 film An Alligator Named Daisy, and later appeared on TV's Come Dancing.

After a lengthy stay in Wimbledon, the Ken Mackintosh Orchestra toured for many years, often with Shirley Bassey, Guy Mitchell or Johnny Ray. Then in 1963 came a residency at Mecca's refurbished Empire Ballroom, Leicester Square. Seven years on, Mackintosh moved to the Hammersmith Palais, again staying for seven years, followed by two more at the Royal, Tottenham. "The band was never a week out of work in 40 years," recalled his son Andy.

Born in Liversedge, in the West Riding, an amateur musician's son, Mackintosh developed an interest in the saxophone at 14 at a local dance. He put the two shillings (10p) a week he made scoring for the local cricket team towards buying a Paul Cavour alto saxophone, and was soon able to outperform his music teacher. He played with local groups as a teenager, then worked with a professional band in Bradford, while pursuing his day job as an engineer.

During the second world war, he served as an engineer in the Royal Army Service Corps, and formed a dance combo while training in Derbyshire. In France in 1940, his unit was cut off by the German advance but, hanging on to his alto, Mackintosh walked the 10 miles to Cherbourg and was taken to Southampton on a relief ship. His rescue made the national press.

Towards the end of the war, he worked with Johnny Claes and his Clae Pigeons, and later played lead alto with George Elrick. This was the role in which Mackintosh, an outstanding instrumentalist who loved the playing of Benny Cater, excelled. When Elrick disbanded in 1944, Mackintosh joined Oscar Rabin's Orchestra, one of Britain's best touring bands. In Paris with Rabin for the services entertainment organisation Ensa, he met members of Glenn Miller's US army orchestra.

In 1947, he transferred to Frank Weir's All-Stars at the Lansdowne restaurant, Berkeley Square, playing in a band that featured two outstanding jazz pianists, Ralph Sharon and George Shearing, alongside saxophonist Aubrey Franks, Kevin and Seymour.

Mackintosh celebrated his 50th year as a bandleader in 1998. An ardent radio ham (he learned Morse code and passed the exam aged 82), he is survived by his companion Eva, his daughter Jill and Andy, also a saxophonist and session musician. His wife died in 1986.

· Kenneth 'Ken' Victor Mackintosh, saxophonist and bandleader, born August 4 1919; died November 22 2005

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