Charlie Kunz

Charles "Charlie" Kunz (born August 18, 1896 in Allentown , Pennsylvania , † March 16, 1958 in Middleton-on-Sea , West Sussex , England ) was a British pianist and bandleader of swing and dance music.

Life

Charlie Kunz was the son of a baker who played French horn . He made his first appearances at the age of seven. During the First World War he ran a band while working in an ammunition factory. In 1922 he came to England as a pianist in a dance band that was directed by the drummer Ed Krick and had an engagement at the London Trocadero . When the band returned to Pennsylvania, Kunz stayed in London.

At the end of the 1920s and 1930s, Kunz had a well-known orchestra; In 1928 and early 1929 he played a record for Columbia Records as Charlie Kunz & His Chez Henri Club Band . Dame Vera Lynn , Dorothy Squires and crooner George Barclay sang in his orchestra .

He made his debut as a soloist in 1934 with the Holborn Empire ; in that year he also began to record a number of shellac records, which appeared under the name of Odeon and Decca Records "Charlie Kunz Medleys". After the Second World War, Kunz, who was a heavy smoker, had serious health problems and had to undergo lung surgery. He also suffered from tuberculosis, rheumatic complaints in the fingers and asthma . In his later years he appeared as a soloist in music halls and on the BBC radio station . Charlie Kunz's piano style of interpreting popular melodies is what he himself described as melody and rhythm with expression .

Kunz was married three times, to Amanda Dysher, with whom he had a son, to Eva Dorothy Lloyd, with whom he had two sons, and from 1942 until his death to Pat Sparkes.

Discographic notes

• Medleys: Hits and Favorites by Charlie Kunz (Rex, compilation)
• Love Is a Dancing Thing (Golden Stars, compilation)
• Clap Hands, Here Comes Charley (ASV)
• The Feller That Played The Pianner (Red Sails)
• Serenade In The Night For Me and My Gal

Web links / sources

• Charlie Kunz
• biography
• Biography at Allmusic