Alex Hyde (February 17, 1898 – July 7, 1956) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

bandleader and violinist.

Biography

Hyde was born in

Hamburg, Germany (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

on February 17, 1898. His family emigrated to the U.S. In April 1898. He was tutored by a professional violinist. He founded his own dance band, the Romance of Rhythm Orchestra, and played with them locally in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

(1919–22) and throughout

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

(1922–23). After World War I, Hyde visited Germany and entertained U.S. military personnel in the then-occupied

Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

. The Romance of Rhythm Orchestra first recorded in 1923, and when touring

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in 1924, they released material on

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 ...

. Among Hyde's soloists for these recordings are

Howard McFarlane Howard Osmond McFarlane (November 13, 1894, London – March 6, 1983, London) was an English jazz trumpeter. McFarlane played in film palaces from 1919 into the early 1920s. He played in Alex Hyde's band after this, recording with them in Ger ...

, pianist Walker O'Neill, and saxophonist Eddie Grosso. He recorded as a leader with a different band in 1924-25, also in Germany; Gene Sedric plays on some of these recordings. Hyde met Michael Danzi in New York and Danzi joined Hyde's newly-formed Alex Hyde Orchestra. Upon his return to the U.S., he ran his own talent agency, composed music for

military band A military band is a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind and percussion instruments. The conductor of a band commonly bears the tit ...

s in the

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

, and did work in the studios in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

. He also co-managed an insurance company with his brothers. One of his brothers was talent agent

Johnny Hyde Johnny Hyde (23 April 1895 – 18 December 1950) was an American talent agent who developed the career of Marilyn Monroe. Early life Hyde was born to a Jewish family as Iván Haidabura in Russia and moved to the United States in April 1898 ...

. Hyde died on July 7, 1956 in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

Biography

References

Further reading