Sylvester Ahola a.k.a. Hooley, was a classic jazz trumpeter and cornetist born in Gloucester

Gloucester, Massachusetts

Gloucester is a city on Cape Ann in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is part of Massachusetts' North Shore. The population was 28,789 at the 2010 U.S. Census...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

. He became most popular in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 rather than the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and first began performing with Frank Ward and His Orchestra. In 1925 he started playing with Paul Specht

Paul Specht

Paul Specht was an American dance bandleader popular in the 1920s.Born in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, Specht was a violinist, having been taught by his father Charles G. Specht, a violinist, organist, and bandleader in his own right...

 and His Orchestra, with whom he did a two month long tour of England that following year. For the next couple of years he performed with bands like The California Ramblers

The California Ramblers

The California Ramblers were a popular and prolific jazz group from the 1920s, that recorded hundreds of songs under many different record labels throughout the 1920s. Three of the members of the band, Red Nichols, Jimmy Dorsey, and Tommy Dorsey, would go on to front big bands in later decades...

 and Adrian Rollini

Adrian Rollini

Adrian Francis Rollini was a multi-instrumentalist best known for his jazz music. He played the bass saxophone, piano, xylophone, and many other instruments. Rollini is also known for introducing the goofus in jazz music...

 and his band.

In 1927 he moved to England and landed a job playing with the Savoy Orpheans

Savoy Orpheans

The Savoy Orpheans were a British dance band of the 1920s. They were resident at the Savoy Hotel, London, between 1923 and 1927.The band was formed by Debroy Somers, an ex-army bandmaster, in 1923. Both the Orpheans and the Savoy Havana Band were under the management of Wilfred de Mornys...

 and then gigged with Bert Firman

Bert Firman

Bert Firman was an English bandleader of the 1920s, 30s and 40s.He was born as Herbert Feuerman in London. His mother was of Polish stock and his father was a professional musician who had settled in Britain from Austria-Hungary in the late l880's. His three elder brothers were also musicians...

 and Bert Ambrose. The British Musicians' Union

Musicians' Union (UK)

-About the MU:The Musicians' Union is an organisation which represents over 30,000 musicians working in all sectors of the UK music business.-Campaigns:The MU stages regular campaigns in relation to relevant musical and industrial issues...

, unhappy to see a foreigner land so many jobs and attain so much success, effectively prohibited him from playing with anyone other than Bert Ambrose. This forced him to eventually leave in 1931 and return to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where he never again achieved the level of success he had enjoyed during his time in England.