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29th June 2024
First Picture: Ted Heath
Third Picture; Album Cover
Fourth Picture Movie Album Cover
Band Leader Ted Heath
George Edward (Ted) Heath was a British musician and big band leader.
He led what is widely considered Britain's greatest post-war big band, recording more than 100 albums, which sold over 20 million copies. The most successful band in Britain during the 1950s, it remained in existence long after Ted Heath died, surviving in such until 2000.
After playing tenor horn at the age of six, encouraged by his father Bert, a trumpeter and the leader of the Wandsworth Town Brass Band, Ted Heath later switched to trombone. Both often played together on numerous dance band recording of the 1920s and 1930s
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 and outside the Queen's Hall Gardens venue. It was here that his professional career began as he was spotted on the street and asked to play with the Jack Hylton 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.
His first real band gig was with an American band on tour in Europe – the Southern Syncopated Orchestra – which had an engagement in Vienna, Austria and needed a trombone player. The drummer for this band, Benny Payton, taught Ted all about jazz and swing. He had to pay his own way back from Austria when the band ran out of money.
In 1928, he joined Bert Ambrose's orchestra at The May Fair Hotel in London and played there until 1935, when he moved on to Sydney Lipton's orchestra at the Grosvenor House Hotel. Ambrose, a strict disciplinarian, taught Ted Heath how to be a bandleader. It was during this time that he became the most prominent trombone player in Britain, renowned for his perfect tone. He kept playing on numerous recordings as a studio musician, although he concentrated his efforts on the Ambrose band after 1932.
In September 1939 the outbreak of the Second World War caused the immediate disbandment of the Sydney Lipton Band, which was on tour in Scotland at the time. Ted his wife Moira and children went back to London. In late 1939, Ted Heath joined Maurice Winnick's The Dorchester hotel band. During the late 1930s and early 1940s, he also played as a sideman on several Benny Carter sessions.
In 1940, he joined Geraldo's orchestra, and played numerous concerts and broadcasts during the war travelling 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 favourite tune to include in their broadcasts. Ted 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. He suggested "That Lovely Weekend" to Geraldo and it was orchestrated, and was an immediate wartime hit. The royalties from this song and another composition "Gonna Love That Guy" allowed him to form his own band.
He was inspired by Glenn Miller and his Army Air Force Band, and spoke with Glenn Miller at length about forming his own band when Glenn Miller toured Britain with the United States Army Air Force Orchestra. Heath admired the immaculate precision of the Miller ensemble, and felt confident that he could emulate Miller's great success with his own orchestra.
In 1944, Ted Heath talked Douglas Lawrence, the Dance Music Organiser for the BBC's Variety Department, into supporting a new band with a broadcasting contract. This band followed the American model, and featured five saxophones, four trombones, four trumpets, piano, guitar, double bass and drums. The new Ted Heath Band, originally organised 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;
he arranged a stint at the Winter Gardens at Blackpool in 1946, a Scandinavian tour, a fortnight at the London Casino with Lena Horne, and backed Ella Fitzgerald at the London Palladium.
Huge popularity quickly followed and he was a regular Poll Winner in the Melody Maker and the NME (New Musical Express) – Britain's leading music newspapers. Subsequently, he was asked to perform at two Royal Command Performances in front of King George VI in 1948 and 1949.
In 1947, Ted persuaded impresario Val Parnell, uncle of the band's star drummer Jack Parnell, 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. These concerts allowed the band to play much more in a jazz idiom. In addition to the Palladium Sunday night concerts the band appeared regularly at the Hammersmith Palais and toured the UK on a weekly basis In. April 1956, he arranged his first American tour. This was a reciprocal agreement between him and Stan Kenton.
During the tour, Nat King Cole was attacked on stage in Birmingham, Alabama by a group of white segregationists. Ted Heath was so appalled he nearly cancelled the remainder of the tour but was persuaded by Cole to continue. They remained firm friends until Cole died in 1965 and collaborated musically on many occasions. Heath later successfully toured the US again and also toured Australia and Europe.
The 1950s was the most popular period for Ted Heath and His Music. 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 each year from 1952 to 1961. He performed at a third Royal Command Performance for King George VI in 1951, and for Elizabeth II in 1954[
He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1959;
He 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 and became 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. There were four children from this marriage, Martin, Valerie, Nicholas and Timothy, Two of sons, Nick Heath and Tim Heath, continued the musical and entertainment tradition in the family by becoming successful artiste managers, record company and music publishing company,
Ted died in 1969 at the age of 67 but the band re-formed after a Thames Television tribute broadcast in 1976 and went on performing concerts. The band compared favourably with the best of America's big bands, and is generally accepted as the best swing band that Britain ever produced.
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