SCORES of people are expected to turn out on Thursday to pay their last respects to Lymington musician Tim Colwell.

Friends and colleagues from the jazz world are lining up to play some of his favourite numbers in a funeral service at the Hinton Park Woodland Burial Ground.

A one-time saxophonist with Kenny Ball's jazzmen, Tim, 65, was found lying critically injured outside his apartment block in Howards Mead, Pennington on 18 September.

He was taken to Southampton hospital but died shortly afterwards.

Close friend and guitarist Gary Leport, 58, played alongside Tim in the Jazz Two duo and is due to take part in the jam session at his service. "Tim was a giant of a man, a larger than life character," he said.

"It's just such a waste of someone who was so obviously talented."

For ten years until 1986, Tim had his own band Jazzfriends, which broadcast on the BBC, and he also worked as a jazz presenter on Radio Victory.

Paul Hickman, district councillor for Pennington, said: "It's a great loss to the local community.

"Tim was someone who was very concerned about what was happening around him," he said.

Gary added: "He got involved locally to try to help people - he wasn't someone to sit back and do nothing.

"He was loved by people in Lymington and many of them are going to be at his funeral on Thursday."

The guitarist is now hoping to organise a memorial concert at the Forest Arts Centre in New Milton featuring some of Tim's jazz band arrangements.

Thursday's service is due to start at the burial ground on Wyndham Road in Walkford at 11.30am and will be conducted by the Rev. Capt. Michael Joint.

Two men, Richard Harris, 20 and a 17-year-old youth, both from Lymington, have been charged with Tim's manslaughter.