Ted Heath (bandleader) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Ted Heath, musician and big band leader, led Britain's greatest post-war big band recording more than 100 albums and selling over 20 million records. Considered the most famous and successful band in Britain it remained active for 55 years until 2000.

Musical beginnings

After playing tenor horn at the age of six, encouraged by his father, the leader of the Wandsworth Town Brass Band, Heath later switched to trombone.

Earning a living for his family in the post-war years he, and his brother Harold with three other musicians, formed a band that played to commuters outside London Bridge Station before winding their way along the streets in London to a location outside the Queen’s Hall Gardens venue. It was here that Heath’s professional career began as he was spotted on the street and asked to play with the Jack Hylton

Jack Hylton

Jack Hylton was a British band leader and impresario.He was born John Greenhalgh Hilton in the Great Lever area of Bolton, Lancashire, the son of George Hilton, a cotton yarn twister. His father was an amateur singer at the local Labour Club and Jack learned piano to accompany him on the stage...

Band who had a residence there. He did not last long, not having the experience required, but it gave him the ambition to pursue a career as a professional musician.

1920s

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...

[1924-1925]; Jack Hylton

Jack Hylton

[1925-1927]; Ambrose

Ambrose

Aurelius Ambrosius, better known in English as Saint Ambrose , was a bishop of Milan who became one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the 4th century. He was one of the four original doctors of the Church.-Political career:Ambrose was born into a Roman Christian family between about...

[1928-1936]

His first real band gig was with an American band on tour in Europe – the Southern Syncopation Orchestra – which had an engagement in Vienna, Austria and needed a trombone player. The drummer for this band, Benny Payton, taught Heath all about Jazz and Swing. Heath had to pay his own way back from Austria when the band ran out of money.

He next played with the Metro-Gnomes, a small band fronted by Ennis Parkes, who later married Jack Hylton. In late 1920, Heath again joined Hylton's theatre band.

From 1925 to 1926 Heath played in the Kit Cat Club band led by American Al Starita. There he heard Bunny Berrigan, Tommy Dorsey

Tommy Dorsey

Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...

and Jimmy Dorsey

Jimmy Dorsey

James "Jimmy" Dorsey was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader. He was known as "JD"...

and Paul Whiteman

Paul Whiteman

Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...

when they toured Europe.

1930s

Ambrose

[1928-1936]; Sydney Lipton [1936-1939]; Geraldo [1939-1944]

In 1928, he joined Bert Ambrose's orchestra at the Mayfair Hotel in London and played there until 1935 when he moved on to Sydney Lipton's orchestra at the Grosvenor House. Ambrose, a strict disciplinarian, taught Heath how to be a bandleader. It was during this time that Heath became the most prominent trombone player in England, renowned for his perfect tone. He played on numerous recordings.

In September, 1939 the war caused the immediate disbandment of the Sydney Lipton Band, which was on tour in Scotland at the time. Heath, his wife Moira and children went back to London. In late 1939, Heath joined Maurice Winnick's Dorchester Hotel band.

During the late 30s and early 40s, Heath also played as a sideman on several Benny Carter

Benny Carter

Bennett Lester Carter was an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. He was a major figure in jazz from the 1930s to the 1990s, and was recognized as such by other jazz musicians who called him King...

albums.

1940s

Geraldo [1939-1944]

In 1940, Heath joined Geraldo's orchestra and played numerous concerts and broadcasts during the war traveling to the Middle East to play to the Allied Forces based there. He often became one of the "boys" in Geraldo's vocal group, 'Three Boys and a Girl'.

In 1941, Geraldo asked his band members to submit a favorite tune to include in their broadcasts. Heath had composed a song "That Lovely Weekend", after his wife had written him a poem on a rare weekend together amongst his war travels, and he set this to music. Heath suggested "That Lovely Weekend" to Geraldo and it was orchestrated, with Dorothy Carless on vocal, and was an immediate wartime hit. The royalties from this song and another composition "Gonna Love That Guy" allowed Heath to form his own band.

Ted Heath and his music: band formation and career

Heath was inspired by Glenn Miller

Glenn Miller

Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...

and his Army Air Force Band and spoke with Miller at length about forming his own band when Miller toured England with the USAF Orchestra. Heath admired the immaculate precision of the Miller ensemble and felt confident that he could emulate Miller’s success with his own orchestra.

In 1944, Heath talked Douglas Lawrence, the Dance Music Organizer for the BBC's Variety Department, into supporting a new band with a broadcasting contract. Lawrence was skeptical as Heath wanted a much larger and more jazz orientated band than anyone had seen in Britain before. This band followed the American model, and featured 5 Saxes, 4 Trombones, 4 Trumpets, Piano, Guitar, Bass and Drums. The new Ted Heath Band, originally organized as a British "All Star Band" playing only radio dates, was first heard on a BBC broadcast in 1944.

In 1945, the BBC decreed that only permanent, touring bands could appear on radio. So Ted Heath and his Music was officially formed on D-Day, 1945.

In late 1945, American bandleader Toots (Tutti) Camarata came to UK as musical director for the film London Town. This film was to be Britain's first attempt to emulate the Movie-musicals of studios such as MGM, and Camarata commissioned Heath to provide his band as the nucleus for the film's orchestra.

Heath arranged a stint at the Winter Gardens at Blackpool in 1946, a Scandinavian tour, a fortnight at the London Casino with Lena Horne

Lena Horne

Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...

, and backed Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

at the London Palladium.

Huge popularity quickly followed and Heath's Band and his musicians were regular Poll Winners in the Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...

and the NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

(New Musical Express) – Britain’s leading music newspapers. Subsequently Heath was asked to perform at two Royal Command Performances in front of King George VI in 1948, and 1949.

In 1947 Heath persuaded impresario Val Parnell

Val Parnell

Valentine Charles Parnell , known as Val Parnell, was a British television producer and theatrical impresario.-Life and career:...

, uncle of the band's star drummer Jack Parnell

Jack Parnell

John Russell Parnell was an English bandleader and musician.-Biography:Parnell was born into a theatrical family in London....

, to allow him to hire the London Palladium for alternating Sundays for his Sunday Night Swing Sessions. The band caused a sensation and eventually played 110 Sunday concerts, ending in August 1955, consolidating the band's popular appeal from the late 40's. These concerts allowed the band to play far more out and out jazz than it could otherwise do in ballrooms. In addition to the Palladium Sunday night concerts the band appeared regularly at The Hammersmith Palais and toured the UK on a weekly basis.

1950s and US tour

In April 1956 Heath arranged his first American tour. This was a ground breaking reciprocal agreement between Heath and Stan Kenton

Stan Kenton

Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....

, who would tour Britain at the same time as Heath toured the US. The tour was a major negotiated agreement with 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...

and the American Federation of Musicians, which broke a 20 year union deadlock. Heath contracted to play a tour that included Nat King Cole

Nat King Cole

Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...

, June Christy and the Four Freshmen that consisted of 43 concerts in 30 cities (primarily the southern states) in 31 days (7,000 miles) climaxing in a Carnegie Hall concert on May 1, 1956. At this performance, the band's instrument truck was delayed by bad weather. The instruments finally arrived just minutes before the curtain rose. The band had no time to warm up or rehearse. There were so many encore calls at the Carnegie Hall performance that Nat King Cole (who was backstage, but not on the bill) had to come out on stage and ask people to leave.

During the tour, Nat King Cole was attacked on stage in Birmingham, Alabama by a group of white segregationists. Heath was so appalled he nearly canceled the remainder of the tour but was persuaded by Cole to continue. They remained firm friends until Cole's death and collaborated musically on many occasions.

Heath successfully toured the US many and also toured Australia and Europe on several occasions.

The 1950s was the most popular period for Ted Heath and His Music during which a substantial repertoire of recordings were made. In 1958 nine albums were recorded. He became a household name throughout the UK, Europe, Australasia and the US. He won the New Musical Express Poll for Best Band/Orchestra in 1952,1953,1954,1955,1956,1957,1958,1959,1960,1961. Heath was asked to perform at two further Royal Command Performances—1951 for King George VI and 1954 for Queen Elizabeth II.

Professional relationships

In addition to Cole, Heath established close personal and professional relationships with Woody Herman

Woody Herman

Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...

, Count Basie

Count Basie

William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...

, Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...

, Johnny Mathis

Johnny Mathis

John Royce "Johnny" Mathis is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts...

and Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....

. He worked with Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...

, Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

Lena Horne

; June Christy

June Christy

June Christy , born Shirley Luster, was an American singer, known for her work in the cool jazz genre and for her silky smooth vocals. Her success as a singer began with The Stan Kenton Orchestra. She pursued a solo career from 1954 and is best known for her debut album Something Cool...

; Mel Torme

Mel Tormé

Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...

; The Four Freshmen

The Four Freshmen

The Four Freshmen is a multiple Grammy-nominated American male vocal band quartet that blends open-harmony jazz arrangements with the big band vocal group sounds of The Modernaires , The Pied Pipers , and The Mel-Tones , founded in the barbershop tradition...

and others. His band members included Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott was an English jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner.-Life and career:Ronnie Scott was born in Aldgate, east London, into a family of Russian Jewish descent on his father's side, and Portuguese antecedents on his mother's. Scott began playing in small jazz clubs at the age of...

, an early member of the band before going on to open his legendary London jazz club, the pianist Stan Tracey

Stan Tracey

Stanley William Tracey CBE is a British jazz pianist and composer, most influenced by Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk.-Early career:...

, trumpeters Kenny Baker

Kenny Baker

Kenneth George "Kenny" Baker is a British actor and musician, best known as the man inside R2-D2 in the popular Star Wars film series.- Career :...

, Duncan Campbell

Duncan Campbell (musician)

Duncan Campbell is a world renowned trumpet player, famously playing with Ted Heath and his Orchestra, Ronnie Scott, Syd Lawrence and the BBC Big Band. He is married to June Pressley, Elvis Presley's cousin and regular of the Ivy Benson Band.- Early life :Duncan Campbell was born May 1926 in...

, sax players Don Rendell

Don Rendell

Donald Percy 'Don' Rendell is an English jazz musician and arranger, specialising on tenor saxophone, but also playing soprano saxophone, flute, and clarinet....

and Tommy Whittle

Tommy Whittle

Tommy Whittle is a British jazz saxophonist.Whittle was born in Grangemouth, Scotland and started playing clarinet at age 12 before taking up the tenor saxophone at 13. He moved to Chatham, Kent at 16 and in 1943 started playing in the dance hall band of Claude Giddins in nearby Gillingham...

, trombonists Don Lusher

Don Lusher

Don Lusher OBE was a jazz and big band trombonist best known for his association with the Ted Heath Big Band...

and Wally Smith, drummers Jack Parnell

Jack Parnell

John Russell Parnell was an English bandleader and musician.-Biography:Parnell was born into a theatrical family in London....

and Ronnie Verrell

Ronnie Verrell

Ronald 'Ronnie' Thomas Verrell was an English jazz drummer. He played in two of the United Kingdom's "most famous" big bands, The Ted Heath Orchestra and The Syd Lawrence Orchestra. Verrell also worked extensively in television, including as a drummer in Jack Parnell's ATV Orchestra and Sunday...

and double bass Johnny Hawksworth

Johnny Hawksworth

Johnny Hawksworth is a British musician and composer who has lived and worked in Australia since 1984.Hawksworth initially trained as a pianist, but also played double bass for Britain's leading big band the Ted Heath Orchestra during the early 1950s and through the 1960s...

. The addition of singers Dickie Valentine

Dickie Valentine

Dickie Valentine was an English pop singer in the 1950s.-Early life:Valentine was born Richard Maxwell , though Valentine was known as Richard Bryce as his mother later married Bryce and gave her young son the same name. He was born in Marylebone, London...

, Lita Roza

Lita Roza

Lita Roza was a British singer. Her 1953 number one hit record " That Doggie in the Window?" afforded Roza the privilege of being the first British female singer to top the UK Singles Chart, and the first Liverpudlian to do so.-Biography:Born Lilian Patricia Lita Roza in Liverpool, Lancashire,...

and Dennis Lotis in the 50s gave the band more teenage appeal. He commissioned scores from all the top arrangers of the era with more than 800 original arrangements as part of the band’s library. Arrangers included Tadd Dameron

Tadd Dameron

Tadley Ewing Peake "Tadd" Dameron was an American jazz composer, arranger and pianist. Saxophonist Dexter Gordon called Dameron the "romanticist" of the bop movement, while reviewer Scott Yanow writes that Dameron was the "definitive arranger/composer of the bop era".-Biography:Born in Cleveland,...

, George Shearing

George Shearing

Sir George Shearing, OBE was an Anglo-American jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles, he had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s...

, Reg Owen, John Keating

John Keating (musician)

John Keating is a Scottish musician, songwriter and arranger.After studying piano and trombone, he taught himself how to arrange and compose in his teens. He went to work with British big band leader Ted Heath in 1952 as a trombone player, but within two years Heath asked him to become his...

; Kenny Graham; Ken Moule; Bob Farnon; Woolf Phillips; Bill Russo; Johnny Douglas; Ron Goodwin; Ralph Dollimore.

Films

Heath and his band appeared in several more films after London Town including Dance Hall [1950]; It’s a Wonderful World [1956] and Jazz Beat [1960]. His theme "Listen to My Music" introduced many specialties including ‘Opus One’; ‘The Champ’; ‘Lullaby of Birdland’; ‘Dragnet’; ‘Skin Deep’; ‘Hot Toddy’ and ‘Swingin’ Shepherd Blues’ and the band achieved considerable chart success in the UK and the US.

Big Band comparisons

The band compared favorably with the best of America’s big bands as confirmed by Count Basie

Count Basie

William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...

in his testimonial to Heath on Heath’s 21st Anniversary album, and is generally accepted as the best swing band that Britain ever produced.

1960s

Heath was an early pioneer of Decca’s Phase 4 Stereo recordings in the early 60s. He continued to commission a huge number of original scores and arrangements and some of his biggest US chart successes came during this time. He performed continuously and successfully until his health faltered in 1964 suffering a cerebral thrombosis on his 62nd birthday and collapsing on stage in Cardiff. Thereafter the band toured less, but continued to record several albums.

Death and continuance of band 1970s, 1980s, 1990s

He died in 1969 at the age of 67, but the band re-formed after a UK Thames Television tribute broadcast in the early 70s with the approval of the Heath family, and went on performing concerts with great success. Initially some early 1970s recordings were recorded under the musical direction of Roland Shaw

Roland Shaw

Roland Shaw was a soldier in the 2/4th Bn King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He fought at Vaulx-Vraucourt and may have served under Richard Annesley West.On 2 September 1918 Shaw distinguished himself in combat...

Ralph Dollimore and Stan Reynolds, but thereafter all recordings were supervised by trombonist Don Lusher

Don Lusher

Don Lusher OBE was a jazz and big band trombonist best known for his association with the Ted Heath Big Band...

, who led the band for 25 years until 2000, with mostly original Heath alumni. The final concert in December 2000, was a sell out at London’s Festival Hall, attended by most Heath personnel past and present and the Heath family. The band at that performance was made up almost entirely of players who had played under Ted Heath's leadership. Numerous radio and television tributes have been broadcast over the years.

Personal life

Heath was married twice. Firstly in 1924 to Audrey Keymer who died in 1932. There were two sons from the marriage, Raymond and Robert. His second marriage was to Moira Tracey – a ballet dancer who appeared in one of the first television transmissions by John Logie Baird

John Logie Baird

John Logie Baird FRSE was a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system, and also the world's first fully electronic colour television tube...

on the BBC, and went on to be a prolific lyricist and songwriter. She received a special award for services to television, the 'Freedom of the City of London' in recognition of her services to songwriting and a British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors 'Gold Badge Award'. She died on 24 January 2000 in Weybridge, Surrey, England. There were four children from this marriage, Martin, Valerie, Nicholas and Timothy.

Two of Heath’s sons, Nick Heath

Nick Heath

Nick Heath is an English music, television and film producer, publisher, designer and founder of Birdland Film, Nick Heath Design Group and Heath Media....

and Tim Heath, continued the musical and entertainment tradition in the family by becoming successful artiste managers, record company and music publishing company owners, and Nick Heath

Nick Heath

Nick Heath is an English music, television and film producer, publisher, designer and founder of Birdland Film, Nick Heath Design Group and Heath Media....

continues his entertainment business career as a film producer. James Heath (Heath’s grandson - Nick Heath's son) is a film and music video director.

Quotes

Compiled from Ted Heath 21st Anniversary Album
Interviews by Alan Dell

Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...

:

“You’ve got a band... Ted Heath... He scares me to death... When they sent those first Heath records over to the States they really knocked everybody out... For me I think Ted is the best precision band and so very entertaining…I mean so far as I’m concerned I think Ted is the most”

Stan Kenton
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....

:

“Your music has become such an institution it seems that we have always had it... I do know that without you, big band music and jazz would not be as it is today... Your taste and integrity in guiding your arrangers, composers and musicians has always been of the highest order... You’ve done more than your share in exposing the best grade of music to those hungry for it all over the world...”

Woody Herman
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...

:

“I saw the band and was incredibly impressed……one of the cleanest and swingiest of the big bands of the era... Always rated at the top of the list... You would hear more Ted Heath records than ours, Basie or Ellington...”

Johnny Mathis
Johnny Mathis
John Royce "Johnny" Mathis is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts...

:

“He is a very kind man and genteel man... His music is quite different from the way he is as a person... His music is almost savage sometimes... His music is marvellous…”

Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...

:

“He’s a great man...”

Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....

:

“I’m very honored to work with him... Ted Heath has always upheld that good music wins out...”

Personnel 1945–1967

Trumpets:

Bobby Pratt; Stan Reynolds; Ronnie Hughes; Kenny Baker

Kenny Baker (trumpeter)

Kenny Baker was born on 1 March 1921 in Withernsea, East Riding of Yorkshire and died 7 December 1999. He was an accomplished player of jazz trumpet, cornet and flugelhorn, and a composer.-Biography:...

; Duncan Campbell

Duncan Campbell (musician)

; Alan Franks; Stan Roderick; Ron Simmonds; Eddie Blair; Bert Ezzard; Bert Courtley; Dave Wilkins; Harry Letham; Leslie Hutchinson; Max Goldberg; Arthur Mouncey; Cliff Haines; Harry Hall; Maurice 'Mo' Miller; Albert Hall; Tony Fisher

Trombones:

Don Lusher

Don Lusher

Don Lusher OBE was a jazz and big band trombonist best known for his association with the Ted Heath Big Band...

; Wally Smith; Chris Smith; Jimmy Coombes; Ric Kennedy; John Keating

John Keating (musician)

; Keith Christie

Keith Christie

Keith Ronald Christie was an English jazz trombonist. He was the brother of Ian Christie....

; Johnny Edwards; Lad Busby; Jackie Armstrong; Harry Roche; Joe Cordell; Woolf Phillips; Les Carew; Jack Bentley; Maurice Pratt; Bill Geldard; Ken Goldie; Ted Barker

Alto Saxophone:

Les Gilbert; Tommy Whittle

Tommy Whittle

; Dave Shand; Roy Willox [also Flute & Clarinet]; Ronnie Chamberlain [also Soprano Saxophone]; Cliff Townsend; Reg Owen

Reg Owen

Reg Owen was an English conductor and arranger.Owen was born George Owen Smith in Hackney, London, and began playing the saxophone at the age of 15. He played in local groups such as Teddy Joyce's Juveniles and the Royal Kiltie Juniors, before founding his own ensemble whilst still in his teens...

; Dave Hawkins; Don Savage; Denis Walton; Ray Swinfield

Tenor Saxophone:

Henry McKenzie [also Clarinet],; Danny Moss

Danny Moss

Dennis "Danny" Moss MBE was a British jazz tenor saxophonist. He was known for playing with most of the high profile figures of British jazz, including Vic Lewis, Ted Heath, Johnny Dankworth, Alex Welsh, and Humphrey Lyttelton....

; Reg Owen; Red Price; Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott

; Bob Burns; Johnny Gray; Don Rendell

Don Rendell

Donald Percy 'Don' Rendell is an English jazz musician and arranger, specialising on tenor saxophone, but also playing soprano saxophone, flute, and clarinet....

; Norman Impey; Frank Reidy; Aubrey Frank Bob Efford

Baritone Saxophone:

George Hunter; Ken Kiddier; Freddy Gardiner; Bob Burns

Piano:

Frank Horrox; Stan Tracey

Stan Tracey

Stanley William Tracey CBE is a British jazz pianist and composer, most influenced by Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk.-Early career:...

[also Vibes]; Norman Stenfalt; Ralph Sharon; Derek Warne [also Vibes]; David Simpson; Ralph Dollimore; Alan Branscombe

Alan Branscombe

Alan Branscombe was an English jazz pianist, vibraphonist, and alto saxophonist.Branscombe's father and grandfather were also professional musicians. He played drums with Victor Feldman in a talent show as a child. He began on alto sax at age six, and played in the army with Jeff Clyne in 1954-56...

[also Vibes]

Bass:

Johnny Hawksworth

Johnny Hawksworth

; Charlie Short; Sammy Stokes; Jack Fallon

Jack Fallon

Jack Fallon was a British jazz bassist born in Canada.Fallon played violin before making double-bass his primary instrument at age 20. During World War II he played in a dance band in the Royal Canadian Air Force, and settled in Britain after his discharge...

,; Jack Seymour; Lennie Bush

Lennie Bush

Leonard Walter "Lennie" Bush was an English jazz double-bassist.Bush contracted polio as a child and as a result possessed a limp for the rest of his life...

Drums:

Jack Parnell

Jack Parnell

John Russell Parnell was an English bandleader and musician.-Biography:Parnell was born into a theatrical family in London....

; Basil Kirchin

Basil Kirchin

Basil Kirchin was a British drummer and composer. His career stretched from playing drums in his father's big band at the age of 13, through scoring films, to experimenting with the manipulation of recorded sounds which has seen him cited as "the father of ambient music."-Emergence:Basil...

; Ronnie Verrell

Ronnie Verrell

; Bobby Orr

Bobby Orr (drummer)

Bobby Orr is a jazz drummer and session musician.In the 1950s and 1960s, he was a fixture on the London jazz scene, principally as a founder member of Joe Harriott's quintet...

; Kenny Clare

Kenny Clare

Kenneth 'Kenny' Clare was an English jazz drummer. He should not be confused with Kenny Clarke, whose band he played in....

Vocalists:

Paul Carpenter

Paul Carpenter (actor)

Paul Carpenter was an Canadian actor and singer.He sang with Ted Heath and His Music in the 1940s.-Selected filmography :* Landfall * Albert R.N. * The House Across the Lake...

; Beryl Davis; Dennis Lotis; Peter Lowe; Dickie Valentine

Dickie Valentine

;Lita Roza

Lita Roza

; Bobbie Britton; Toni Eden; Lydia Macdonald; Kathy Lloyd; Rosemary Squires

Tuba:

Alfie Reece

Guitar:

Ivor Mairants;
Ike Isaacs

Ike Isaacs (guitarist)

Ike Isaacs was a jazz guitarist born in Rangoon, Burma, best known for his work with Stephane Grappelli.Isaacs was an autodidact, and started playing professionally while he was a chemistry student at university...

Band Boys/Road Managers

Colin Hogg; Derek Boulton

Sources

Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, & Brian Priestley Jazz: The Rough Guide 2nd edition. ISBN 1-85828-528-3
Moira Heath, I Haven't Said Thanks: The Story of Ted and Moira Heath ISBN 978-0953472901
Colin Larkin The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music ISBN 0-85112-721-5
Music Master Albums Record Catalog ISBN 0-904520-65 X
Joseph Murrells The Book of Golden Discs ISBN 0-214 200329
The Ted Heath Music Appreciation Society of Great Britain
Tony Parker The Greatest Swing Band In The World – Ted Heath ISBN 978-0952178200
http://www.bigbandlibrary.com/tedheath.html
"Big Band Profiles: Ted Heath," Jazz Professional, jazzprofessional.com.
Leonard Feather, "Heath, Edward 'Ted,'" in The Encyclopedia of Jazz (New York City:

Horizon Press, 1955), p. 157.

"Ted Heath," The Big Bands Database Plus, nfo.net.
"Ted Heath," The Space Age Pop Music Page, spaceagepop.com.
Roger D. Kinkle, "Heath, Ted," in The Complete Encyclopedia of Popular Music and Jazz

1900-1950: Volume 2 Biographies A Through K (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington
House Publishers, 1974), pp. 1077–1078.

http://www.ukapologetics.net/tango/thenigma.htm
http://www.wsbbs.co.uk/heath.html
English Jazz Musicians ISBN 978-1157554837
William Emmett Stodwell, Mark Baldin "The Big Band Reader" p. 135
Paul Henry "Saxophone"
William F. Lee "American Big Bands" (sic) p. 285
Colin Larkin, "The Virgin Encyclopedia of Fifties Music"
Chris Woodward "The London Palladium: The Story of the Theatre and its Stars" p. 176
Ella Fitzgerald: The Chuck Webb Years and Beyond" p. 93
Scott Yarrow "Swing"
Leo Walker "The Big Band Almanac" p. 174
Roy Carr "A Century of Jazz" p. 24
Billboard magazine, May 12, 1956 - Ted Heath Carnegie Hall review
Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, Brian Priestley "The Rough Guide to Jazz"
John Robert Brown " A Concise History of Jazz" p. 90
Catherine Parsonage " The Evolution of Jazz in Britain 1880-1935" p. 196
John Shepherd "Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World"
Henry Martin, Keith Waters "Jazz: The First 100 Years
Gene Lees, Nat Hentoff "You Can't Steal a Gift: Dizzy, Clark, Milt and Nat"
Lesley Gourse "Sassy: The Life of Sarah Vaughan"
George Shearing, Alyn Shipton "Lullaby of Birdland" p. 87
Max Harrison, Charles Fox, Eric Thacker "The Essential Jazz Records - Ragtime to Swing" p. 215
Ted Heath "Listen to my Music: An Autobiography" London:Muller:1957
Peter Gammond "The Oxford Companion to Popular Music - 1991"

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Musical beginnings

1920s

1930s

1940s

Ted Heath and his music: band formation and career

1950s and US tour

Professional relationships

Films

Big Band comparisons

1960s

Death and continuance of band 1970s, 1980s, 1990s

Personal life

Quotes

Personnel 1945–1967

Archives

Soundtrack

Actor

Music department

Self

Sources