Ray Ellington

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Ray Ellington (born March 17, 1916 in London as Harry Pitts Brown ; † February 27, 1985 there) was a British jazz and entertainment musician ( drums , vocals , composition).

Career

Ellington, whose father was the African American comedian Harry Pitts Brown (≈1877–1920), already appeared as a schoolboy with comical musical numbers. At the age of 14, he left school to become a carpenter before turning to drums. As a professional musician, he worked in various nightclubs in London, then in the Park Lane Hotel . In 1934 he became a member of John Hendricks' Hot Chocolates . In the following years he worked with Rudolph Dunbar (1936), Gerry Moore (1936) and Harry Roy (1937-1940), with whom he also went on tour of South America. From 1940 to 1946 he did his military service in the British Air Force as an instructor, but also played in various military bands, such as the RAF Blue Eagles (1945). After his release, he worked again with Harry Roy, but also with Stéphane Grappelli and Tito Burns before he took over the trio of Lauderic Caton (with Dick Katz and Coleridge Goode ) in 1947 , with whom he toured extensively and with whom he went on tour several times in the 1950s & Blues oriented records with partly comedic features. From 1951 he began to work with this quartet for the radio, especially in the Goon Show of the BBC . Ellington's version of The Madison reached number 36 on the UK Singles Chart in November 1962 . The band existed with changed staff (e.g. Johnny Fourie , John McLaughlin ) until the 1980s and was occasionally expanded into a big band.

He was in the Golders Green Crematorium in London cremated , where his ashes is located. The singer Lance Ellington is his son.

Discographic notes

  • Let the Good Times Roll (Castle 2006, rec. 1949–1955)

Lexical entries

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b David Roberts British Hit Singles & Albums Guinness World Records Limited, London 2006, p. 182
  2. ↑ Entry (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)
  3. ^ Goon Show Preservation Society
  4. ↑ Interview Rolling Stone (2008)
  5. ↑ Let the Good Times Rool at Allmusic (English)
personal data
SURNAME Ellington, Ray
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brown, Harry Pitts (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British jazz and entertainment musician (drums, vocals, composition)
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH February 27, 1985
Place of death London