Reginald Foresythe

Reginald Foresythe (born May 28, 1907 in London , † December 28, 1958 there ) was a British jazz pianist , arranger , composer and band leader of swing . He worked for Earl Hines and for Paul Whiteman .

Live and act

Reginald Foresythe was born to an African lawyer and a German mother. He played the piano when he was eight and visited Paris, Australia, Hawaii and California in the second half of the 1920s, where he worked as a dance pianist and accordionist, then studied film music and played with Paul Howard 's Quality Serenaders . In 1930 he came to Chicago , where he composed the piece "Deep Forest", which became the signature tune of Earl Hines . He then played preferably in Great Britain, but visited New York in 1934/35 , where he worked with Paul Whiteman and recorded records under his own name with Benny Goodman , John Kirby , Gene Krupa and other swing musicians ("Dodging a Divorcee"). Foresythe often used clarinets and bassoon instead of brass wind instruments in his arrangements , but his music was only partially influenced by jazz. One of his most important compositions is “Serenade for a Wealthy Widow” (1933). With Andy Razaf he composed "Mississippi Basin", which Adrian Rollini recorded in June 1933. In 1936 Foresythe played with his band in the music film Big Noise . After 1945 he worked again with his own bands in London, most recently as a solo pianist in bars.

literature

Carlo Bohländer , Karl Heinz Holler, Christian Pfarr: Reclam's Jazz Guide . 4th, revised and supplemented edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-15-010355-X .
John Jörgensen, Erik Wiedemann : Jazz Lexicon . Munich, mosaic, 1967

Web links / sources

Biography of Andrej Komansky
British Vintage Music Films
Reginald Foresythe at Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

↑ 23 December to Bohländer u. a. "Reclam's Jazz Guide" 1989
↑ The information about its origin is contradictory; while Wiedemann & Jörgensen provide the above information, Carlo Bohländer names an Englishman as the father and a black woman from the Caribbean as the mother in the jazz guide . Andrej Komansky’s internet biography again lists a Nigerian father of the Yoruba tribe ; the mother is English.

personal data
SURNAME	Foresythe, Reginald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	English jazz pianist, arranger, composer and band leader
DATE OF BIRTH	May 28, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH	London
DATE OF DEATH	December 28, 1958
Place of death	London

[1] 23 December to Bohländer u. a. "Reclam's Jazz Guide" 1989

[2] The information about its origin is contradictory; while Wiedemann & Jörgensen provide the above information, Carlo Bohländer names an Englishman as the father and a black woman from the Caribbean as the mother in the jazz guide . Andrej Komansky’s internet biography again lists a Nigerian father of the Yoruba tribe ; the mother is English.