CD BROADCAST 003

Jack Hylton:
Born: 2 July, 1892, Great Lever, Lancashire
Died: 29 January, 1965, London

Jack Hylton was a pioneer of British Dance Bands and lead what many regard as the premier European show band of the 1920's and 1930's. He appeared all over continental Europe while recording prolifically. In 1929 alone, Jack Hylton and his Orchestra sold more than three million records and gave 700 performances. If you would like to know why, just listen to their great 1928 recording of a tune called "I Kiss Your Hand Madame", composed by Samuel M. Lewis, Fritz Rotter, Ralph Erwin Vogl, aka: Harry Wright, and Joe Young tune dates back to ca. 1912, and this version was originally released in Europe on the HMV label in 1928, as "Fantasie Über: Ich Küsser Ihre Hand, Madame". The vocal is by Sam Browne. Listening to this rendition shows just how advanced the Hylton band was for that time. Out of the Jack Hylton Band came such future bandleaders as Billy Ternent, Paul Fenoulhet, Chappie D'Amato, Jerry Hoey, Peter Yorke and Jack Jackson. His musicians were paid well in return for high standards.

Jack Hylton was hardly an imposing figure at five-foot-three, but he was tough, shrewd and a giant in the British entertainment scene for forty years. Jack was famous both for presenting symphonic concert arrangements (many of which were penned by his right-hand man and deputy conductor, Billy Ternent) and for his impressive stage effects. The band was strong vocally and included over the years such singers as the ever reliable Sam Browne, Pat O'Malley (who later emigrated to the States), Alice Mann, Denny Dennis, Dolly Elsie (Jack's sister), June Malo, Bruce Trent, and Americans Dick Murphy as well as the vocal group that Jack discovered and brought to Europe - The Swingtette.

Jack Hylton's early career was spent playing piano with concert parties; performing as "The Singing Mill Boy", and working in a double act with Tommy Handley. He joined the band at the Queen's Hall, London and the Queen's Dance Orchestra started recording for HMV on 28 May 1921. Jack was the only member of the band who could read music and his name soon appeared on the label as director of the Orchestra. His 1922 band had Bernard Tipping, trombone; Basil Wiltshire drums; Bert Heath Trumpert; unknown tenor sax; Jack Raine, trumpet Chappie d'Amato, sax; Dick de Pauw, violin and Bert Bassett on banjo.

Using Paul Whiteman's records as a model, he gradually moulded the Orchestra into an impressive musical unit. He concentrated his efforts on touring while occasionally appearing in several West End shows. By 1926, Jack Hylton and his Orchestra were well established and made their very first broadcast. They were never regular broadcasters on the BBC so their appearances on the air were greeted as occasions not-to-be-missed. Hylton's was the first British Band to broadcast to the United States. In the later 1930's they did appear on commercial radio in the Rinso Radio Revue on recorded half-hour programmes. Hylton himself had the foresight to have his broadcasts recorded and stored in his archives.

Between 1927 and 1938 the band made 16 European tours and was extremely popular on continental Europe. In 1932, Jack Hylton was awarded the French Legion of Honour for his services to music. The Band recorded in Paris and in Berlin on HMV records. (A complete half-hour live BBC relay from the Scala Theatre, Berlin (15 February, 1938) was re-issued on LP (Reid RD 7) in 1989. The reverse side of the LP features part of a broadcast first heard on 8 October, 1937.) After being instrumental in arranging visits to Britain by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and others, Jack set his sights on taking his Band to the USA and in 1935 he secured a contract for 13 hour broadcasts in the States for the Standard Oil Company. The whole band set sail on October 16th and broadcast in mid ocean. Due to the American Musicians Federation ban on visiting foreign musicians, only Hylton, Ternent and his singers Pat O'Malley, Peggy Dell and six other performers were granted permission to work. An American band was formed under Hylton's direction to play and broadcast from the Drake Hotel in Chicago. The American band recorded four sides. The British Band continued under the direction of Sonny Farrar until Hylton's return in 1936. In 1939, Coleman Hawkins toured with the Orchestra and recorded DARKTOWN STRUTTERS BALL and MY MELANCHOLY BABY with them (HMV BD 5550).

The Orchestra made an enormous number of records: on HMV from 1921 until 1931 when he shocked the musical world by transferring to the relatively new Decca label, becoming a Director of the Decca company. He appeared on Decca for two years and then made no records at all in 1934. In 1935 he went back to HMV where he remained as their No.1 band until he disbanded in 1940, but there was another commercial recording gap between May 1937 and September 1938. It is difficult to pick out particular records of note from such a rich library, but a good idea of the band playing hot is BUTTON UP YOUR OVERCOAT (HMV B.5703), a concert arrangement of HANDSOME GIGOLO (also known as JUST A GIGOLO) (HMV.C.1970/ Victor 36031) and the splendour of DID I REMEMBER? (HMV BD 5103), when the orchestra included six violins and a harp, and THERE'S A SMALL HOTEL (HMV BD 5164). In 1935, the Hylton Orchestra appeared in the film "She Shall Have Music" and four years later they appeared in "Band Wagon", a movie offshoot of a popular BBC variety show.

In the mid-1930's, Jack formed a band for his first wife, Ennis Parkes, which toured as Mrs Jack Hylton and her Band which toured with a fair amount of success.

In 1940, Jack Hylton decided to disband as the armed forces began to claim his musicians and he concentrated on his managerial business activities. His farewell concert was at the Paris Opera House. In the post war years, Hylton was a highly successful impresario presenting such shows as The Crazy Gang, Kiss Me Kate, Kismet and Camelot to London audiences. There were two occasions when Jack conducted again. On 12 October 1943, he conducted the Glenn Miller Orchestra in the 1936 concert arrangement of SHE SHALL HAVE MUSIC during a broadcast. Then at the Royal Command Performance of 1950 he conducted a reunion Hylton Orchestra with vocalists Sam Browne and Bruce Trent.

Hylton's Hyltonians (Jack Hylton's Kit-Cat Club Band)
A Jack Hylton sponsored band that was led by Al Starita. This band recorded 51 titles between 1925 and 1926. Thren it recorded another 41 titles in May 1927 under name of Hylton's Hyltonians.

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