Billy Bishop (musician)

Billy Bishop (actually William J. Bissett ; born August 24, 1906 in Canada ; † July 7, 1995 in Poway , California ) was a Canadian-born American pianist and big band leader in the field of swing and popular music .

Life

Billy Bissett worked in various orchestras; from 1926 to 1930 he was co-leader of the Bissett-McLean Orchestra . In 1931 he founded his own swing orchestra in Toronto , which had its first engagement in the Silver Slipper . For the next five years he played with his band in the hotels and resorts of Montréal , Quebec and Toronto; his appearances were regularly broadcast on Canadian radio and NBC . In early 1936 he made a guest appearance at the International Sporting Club of Monte Carlo . Engagements in London followed ; During this time, numerous recordings for the Gramophone Company and Victor Records were made under the band name Billy Bishop and His Mayfair Music ; Bissett was also a guest with his orchestra on two radio shows, The Rinso Radio Revue and Waltz Time . With the beginning of the Second World War he had to return to North America; when he moved to the United States, he took the stage name Billy Bishop .

In January 1940 he organized a band in California; after a few appearances on the west coast, he set up his headquarters in Chicago . From there he toured successfully through the American Midwest until 1958 , with appearances in the Aragon and Trianon Ballrooms as well as in the Blackhawk Restaurant . Eventually he gave up the leadership of the band in 1953 and was henceforth working as a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch in Beverly Hills . In 1969 he retired from business life and moved with his wife Alice Mann, who had been his band singer, to Poway, California, where he worked as a songwriter and pianist for church music. His most famous composition in his time as a band leader was "Hoping".

literature

• Leo Walker: The Big Band Almanac . Ward Ritchie Press, Pasadena. 1978.