Various Artists - British Dance Bands, Vol. 3 [CD]

BRITISH DANCE BANDS Vol.3Original Recordings 1928-1949Part Three of our A-to-Z survey of British Dance Bands commences with recordings by two contrasting small groups. Fred Hartley’s Quintet was really more a light music ensemble than a dance band per se, but was enormously popular in the 1930s and its playing of a selection of songs by Jerome Kern (1885-1945) more than justifies its inclusion. Born in Dundee, Fred Hartley (1905-1980) made his first broadcast as a pianist in 1924. In 1931 he formed the quintet which made many broadcasts and recordings and backed many of the stars who recorded on Decca. The leader of the quintet at this time was famous violinist Reginald Leopold (b.1908) and where a reed is heard it was usually the legendary E. O. Pogson (1904-1980). Fred was notorious for being a very stern taskmaster in the studios, but his methods certainly got results as the perfection of ensemble on all of his recordings indicates. During World War II he became head of light music at the BBC and insisted that every person broadcasting in that idiom audition for him, which caused some resentment, especially from those who had been on the air for a large number of years. He emigrated to Australia in the 1950s.Coincidentally, Arthur Young (1904-1965), who here leads Hatchett’s Swingtette, also departed these shores for the Antipodes in 1950, more precisely to Hobart, Tasmania, where he ran his own bar! Hatchett’s was the London restaurant where the group resided and the inclusion of Stephane Grappelli (1908-1997) underlines their jazz orientation. Young was undoubtedly one of the finest jazz pianists in the country at that time and is also heard here on the Novachord, an electric keyboard then much in vogue. The vocal is by Beryl Davis (b.1923), daughter of Oscar Rabin’s co-leader Harry Davis, who herself emigrated to the USA in 1947 where she enjoyed a no less successful career.A bandleader who scored a tremendous hit in the USA and the most popular British leader after World War 2 was Ted Heath (1900-1969) who, after decades as a sideman formed his own band in 1945. They are heard here in Tequila, which became a regular feature in the 1950s for Duncan Campbell, though the vocal on this original recording is by drummer Jack Parnell (b.1923), the one original member of the band who remained with it until the final concert given in 2000 to a packed Royal Festival Hall, a measure of the loyalty that the Heath band inspired. During his years as a sideman, which included lengthy stints with Ambrose, Sydney Lipton and Geraldo, Ted Heath played in many session bands including those made under various names for the Vocalion Company by pianist Harry Bidgood (1897-1957) who here offers us a very popular number from 1932, Balloons. Working for Vocalion’s rival Edison Bell was Harry Hudson (1898-1969) whose records were released under more than twenty pseudonyms, albeit here he is credited as direc-tor and vocalist under his own na