Tito Burns

Tito Burns

Tito Burns (* 7. February 1921 in London as Nathan Bernstein ; † 23. August 2010 ) was a British jazz - accordionist , band leader and promoter.

Live and act

Nathan "Tito" Bernstein grew up in North London and began performing semi-professionally as an accordionist in the 1930s . His first gig was with a Hawaiian music band; then he worked with the Cuban band leader Don Marino Barreto, the tango pianist Lou Preager and the Trinidadian clarinetist Carl Barriteau. In 1941 he led his own band under the pseudonym Tito Burns in the Panama Club in London , before doing his military service with the RAF in the Far East during the Second World War, where he played in a regiment sextet. After being injured in the war, he became a radio host for the allied broadcaster SEAC in Ceylon . After his discharge from the army in 1946, he played for Rumba King Clarrie Wears ; from 1947 he became active again as a band leader, when he oriented himself on the model of the American "Bop for the People" concept by Charlie Ventura , which combined swing with elements of bebop . Burns developed his own bop playing styles for the accordion. In January 1947 he founded the Tito Burns Sextet , which included young London musicians such as guitarist Pete Chilver , vibraphonist Tommy Pollard, drummers Tony Crombie and Ray Ellington , and later also saxophonists Ronnie Scott and John Dankworth . The Burns sextet also included Pete King , Coleridge Goode, and Cab Kaye . The band's repertoire included contemporary jazz standards such as Dizzy Gillespie's A Night in Tunisia . At the invitation of the BBC producer Charles Chilton Burns got the radio show Accordion Club , in 1948 the first radio recordings of the British bebop were made, and from 1949 recordings for Decca , later for Esquire Records ( bebop Spoken Here ).

Burns married the jazz singer Terry Devon during this time , with whom he also worked. In order to be able to tour successfully with the band, he added pop material to the repertoire and expanded the ensemble to the New Big Orchestra . In 1955 he gave up the big band and took part in the recordings of the Melody Maker All Stars before he became the manager of Cliff Richard in 1959 . He later also worked for the vocal formation The Springfields , which also included Dusty Springfield , The Zombies and for Cat Stevens . He has also worked as a promoter for bands and musicians such as the Rolling Stones , Roy Orbison and the Moody Blues . In the late 1960s Burns was a program director for London Weekend Television . He also worked as a promoter for jazz musicians, for example for Maynard Ferguson or a concert by Woody Allen . In 1970 he organized Simon and Garfunkel's performance at the Royal Albert Hall , as well as Bob Dylan's first European tour, which was documented in DA Pennebaker's film Dont Look Back .

In 1971 he became a partner in the music production company and artist agency Scotia-Tito Burns . In 1977 he was one of the founders of the BRIT Awards . Burns remained active in the music business until the 1980s, most recently as manager of Victor Borge and as producer of jingles for Heineken . He died of prostate cancer in August 2010 .

Web links

• Portrait and discography at Vzone.virgin.net

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Obituary 2010 in The Guardian