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Art Christmas
Art Christmas (December 22, 1905September 24, 1961) was a Canadian dance band and jazz musician. For many years during the exciting dance band and jazz era of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, Art Christmas was often said to be Britain's leading saxophone player and multi-instrumentalist. In the 1930s and 1940s, young musicians in their teens and early twenties would follow Art all over Britain listening to him play and trying to copy his style, especially on alto saxophone. Beginning Art's professional music career really started when he was 19 years old. He left Canada to play trumpet with the Orchestra, touring all over the United States and then on to Britain. While in Britain, he was given the opportunity to play trumpet with Paul Specht's Canadian Club Orchestra in 1926 and really never looked back. The Melody Maker Magazine detailed this orchestra's strengths by saying: "A ten-piece combination, its members, who are all Canadians, between them account for thirty-five differen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec. Kingston is also located nearby the Thousand Islands, a tourist region to the east, and the Prince Edward County tourist region to the west. Kingston is nicknamed the "Limestone City" because of the many heritage buildings constructed using local limestone. Growing European exploration in the 17th century, and the desire for the Europeans to establish a presence close to local Native occupants to control trade, led to the founding of a French trading post and military fort at a site known as "Cataraqui" (generally pronounced /kætə'ɹɑkweɪ/, "kah-tah-ROCK-way") in 1673. This outpost, called Fort Cataraqui, and later Fort Frontenac, became a focus for settlement. Since 1760, the site of Kingston, Ont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of labels in 1999. It is the oldest surviving established record company. History Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft was founded in 1898 by German-born United States citizen Emile Berliner as the German branch of his Berliner Gramophone Company. Berliner sent his nephew Joseph Sanders from America to set up operations. Based in the city of Hanover (the founder's birthplace), the company was the German affiliate of the U.S. Victor Talking Machine Company and the British Gramophone Company, and, from 1900, a fully owned subsidiary of the latter, but that ended after the outbreak of World War I in 1914 when ownership reverted to Germany. Though no longer connected to the British Gramophone Company, Deutsche Grammophon continued to use the "His M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties of England, historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its southern suburbs were transferred from Derbyshire to the city council. It is the largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The city is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines and the valleys of the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don with its four tributaries: the River Loxley, Loxley, the Porter Brook, the River Rivelin, Rivelin and the River Sheaf, Sheaf. Sixty-one per cent of Sheffield's entire area is green space and a third of the city lies within the Peak District national park. There are more than 250 parks, woodlands and gardens in the city, which is estimated to contain around 4.5 million trees. The city is south of Leeds, east of Manchester, and north ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Bygraves
Walter William Bygraves (16 October 1922 – 31 August 2012), best known by the stage name Max Bygraves (adopted in honour of Max Miller), was an English comedian, singer, actor and variety performer. He appeared on his own television shows, sometimes performing comedy sketches between songs. He made twenty ''Royal Variety Performance'' appearances and presented numerous programmes, including ''Family Fortunes'' between 1983 and 1985. His catchphrase "I wanna tell you a story" became an integral part of his act, although it had originated with comedian Mike Yarwood impersonating Bygraves. Early life Bygraves was born to Henry and Lillian ( McDonnell) Bygraves (who wed in 1919) in Rotherhithe in London, where he grew up in a two-room council flat in Park Buildings, Paradise Street with his five siblings, his parents and a grandparent. His father was a professional flyweight boxer, known as Battling Tom Smith, and a casual dockworker. Brought up Catholic, he attended St Joseph's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frankie Howerd
Francis Alick Howard (6 March 1917 – 19 April 1992), better known by his stage-name Frankie Howerd, was an English actor and comedian. Early life Howerd was born the son of soldier Francis Alfred William (1887–1934)England & Wales, Death Index: 1916–2005 and Edith Florence Howard (née Morrison, 1888–1962), at the City Hospital in York, England, in 1917 (not 1922 as he later claimed). His mother worked at the Rowntree's chocolate factory. For his first two and a half years, Howerd lived in a terraced house at 53, Hartoft Street. He described it as "a poorish area of the city near the River Ouse". He later said he had only one memory of living in York and that was of falling down the stairs, an experience which left him with a life-long dread of heights. He returned to York on many occasions for family holidays, however, and later in life spoke of his fondness for the city. His family moved to Eltham, London when he was a young child, and he was educated at Shooter' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Peers
Donald Rhys Hubert Peers (10 July 1908 – 9 August 1973) was a popular Welsh people, Welsh singer. His best remembered rendition and signature song was "In a Shady Nook by a Babbling Brook". Biography Early life Peers was born in the Welsh mining town of Ammanford, Carmarthenshire on 10 July 1908. His father was a colliery worker and a prominent member of the Plymouth Brethren who disapproved of the variety theatre, and never heard or saw his son work. Peers' family were hoping he would become a schoolteacher, but he had other ambitions and left home at the age of sixteen. Peers travelled around the country working as a house painter and, for a time in January to March 1927, went to sea as a mess steward on ships. In September 1927, he decided to enter show business and he made his debut in a concert party called "Tons of Fun" at the New Theatre in Lowestoft. He continued with the touring company in a show called "Comedy Concoctions - on Tour" for a few weeks until it disban ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Payne (bandleader)
John Wesley Vivian Payne (22 August 1899 – 4 December 1969) was a British dance music bandleader who established his reputation during the British dance band era of the 1930s. Early life and career Payne was born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England, the only son of a music publisher's warehouse manager. While serving in the Royal Flying Corps, he played the piano in amateur dance bands. After the RFC became the Royal Air Force towards the end of World War I, Payne led dance bands for the troops. Prior to joining the Royal Air Force, he was part of "The Allies" concert party. This voluntary group performed to wounded soldiers convalescing around Birmingham. He played with visiting American jazz bands at the Birmingham Palais during the early 1920s, including the Southern Rag-a-Jazz Orchestra in 1922, before moving to London in 1925. He played in a ten-piece band which became the house band at London's Hotel Cecil in 1925. This ensemble regularly performed on the BBC in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Jackson (British Radio)
Jack Jackson (20 February 1906 – 15 January 1978) was an English trumpeter and bandleader popular during the British dance band era, and who later became a highly influential radio disc jockey. The BBC's nickname "Auntie" is often credited to Jackson. Early life and career Jackson was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, the son of a brass band player and conductor, and began playing cornet at the age of 11, before playing violin and cello in dance bands. He learnt to play trumpet and worked in swing bands in circuses, revues, ballrooms and ocean liners. In 1926, Bert Ralton brought his band to England, and Jackson joined them for a three-month tour of southern Africa, starting at Cape Town in October. In January 1927, they were in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe); they played in Salisbury (Harare) then stayed on for a hunting picnic party. However, Bert Ralton was shot in the leg and died the next day. Fame Jackson joined Jack Hylton's band in 1927, staying until 1930 as the orc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sousaphone
The sousaphone ( ) is a brass instrument in the tuba family. Created around 1893 by J. W. Pepper at the direction of American bandleader John Philip Sousa (after whom the instrument was then named), it was designed to be easier to play than the concert tuba while standing or marching, as well as to carry the sound of the instrument above the heads of the band. Like the tuba, sound is produced by moving air past the lips, causing them to vibrate or "buzz" into a large cupped mouthpiece. Unlike the tuba, the instrument is bent in a circle to fit around the body of the musician; it ends in a large, flaring bell that is pointed forward, projecting the sound ahead of the player. Because of the ease of carrying and the direction of sound, it is widely employed in marching bands, as well as various other musical genres. Sousaphones were originally made of brass. Beginning in the mid-20th century, some sousaphones have also been made of lighter materials such as fiberbrass & plastic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bagpipes
Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, Northern Africa, Western Asia, around the Persian Gulf and northern parts of South Asia. The term ''bagpipe'' is equally correct in the singular or the plural, though pipers usually refer to the bagpipes as "the pipes", "a set of pipes" or "a stand of pipes". Construction A set of bagpipes minimally consists of an air supply, a bag, a chanter, and usually at least one drone. Many bagpipes have more than one drone (and, sometimes, more than one chanter) in various combinations, held in place in stocks—sockets that fasten the various pipes to the bag. Air supply The most common method of supplying air to the bag is through blowing into a blowpipe or blowstick. In some pipes the player must cover the tip of the blowpipe with their t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xylophone
The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African and Asian instruments, diatonic in many western children's instruments, or chromatic for orchestral use. The term ''xylophone'' may be used generally, to include all such instruments such as the marimba, balafon and even the semantron. However, in the orchestra, the term ''xylophone'' refers specifically to a chromatic instrument of somewhat higher pitch range and drier timbre than the marimba, and these two instruments should not be confused. A person who plays the xylophone is known as a ''xylophonist'' or simply a ''xylophone player''. The term is also popularly used to refer to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roy Fox
Roy Fox (October 25, 1901 – March 20, 1982) was an American-born British dance bandleader who was popular in Britain during the British dance band era. Early life and career Roy Fox was born in Denver, Colorado, United States. He and his musician sister Vera were raised in Hollywood, California, in a Salvation Army family. Roy began playing cornet when he was 11 years old, and by age 13 was performing in the ''Los Angeles Examiner'''s newsboys' band. Soon after he played bugle for a studio owned by Cecil B. DeMille. His first major association came at the age of 16, when he joined Abe Lyman's orchestra at the Sunset Inn in Santa Monica, where he played alongside Miff Mole, Gussie Mueller, Henry Halstead, and Gus Arnheim. He developed a soft style of playing there which earned him the nickname "The Whispering Cornetist". Fame as bandleader In 1920, he put together his own band, with whom he recorded in 1925. That same year he also scored a gig on radio broadcasting with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
