Ambrose & His Orchestra...Dance On

 Off we go across the channel this time visiting "Bob" for some musical "Goodies"...so get your dancing shoes on and have a "Twirl".....I Guess that this is not "Ambrose" recordings from the 30's & 40's !!!

       6. If I Had You

Ambose & His Orchestra...Hors D'oeuvres

Some Big Band Jazz Swing from the 30's / 40's

AllMusic Review by arwulf arwulf  

Bert Ambrose led one of the finest British dance bands of the 1920s and ‘30s. CD reissues of his extensive discography began to appear in the late '90s, and the Dutton Laboratories have done more to preserve his legacy than any other label. While most Ambrose collections are packed with period pop vocals, Hors d'Oeuvres is an almost entirely instrumental album. This is a very important development! The time line extends from January 1935 through the period immediately following the Second World War. The only vocal tracks are W.C. Handy's "Memphis Blues," with lyrics dutifully enunciated by the Rhythm Sisters, and "Swing Low, Sweet Clarinet," in which Reginald Kell's woodwind artistry is pitted against a carefully controlled choir. Ambrose's orchestra was a fabulous dance band with strong jazz overtones. Worthy examples of wordless delights are "Caravan," "Deep Henderson," "Message from Mars," "Copenhagen," and "Embassy Stomp," which was named after London's original Embassy Club in Bond Street. The swing element is strongly presented in this set, thanks largely to solid arrangements and skilled instrumentalists like reedman Danny Polo, trombonist Ted Heath, and trumpeter Kenny Baker, who pops up on "Dardanella" and "Rose of Washington Square." Shortly after these two sides were cut in 1945, Baker would become one of the great featured soloists with Ted Heath & His Music. The clarinetist on "Dance of the Potted Puppet" has been identified as Carl Barriteau, whereas Jack Simpson plays xylophone on the title track and "Wood and Ivory." This is an outstanding Ambrose collection, and with all due respect to everyone who ever sang with the band, one can only hope for further collections focusing upon its instrumental output.

          19. Hors D'oeuvres

Ambrose & His Orchestra

A flip back to the thirties now...all tracks were recorded between 1933-1939.

Ambrose was born in Warsaw in 1896, when it was part of the Russian Empire. After a time the family moved to London. They were Jewish, his father being registered as a "Dealer in rags" in the 1911 UK census, where Ambrose was named as "Barnett' (a "Violin musician student"). He began playing the violin while young, and travelled to New York with his aunt. He began playing professionally, first for Emil Coleman at New York's Reisenweber's restaurant, then in the Palais Royal's big band. After making a success of a stint as bandleader, at the age of 20 he was asked to put together and lead his own fifteen-piece band. After a dispute with his employer, he moved his band to another venue, where they enjoyed considerable popularity.In 1922, Ambrose returned to London, where he was engaged by the Embassy Club to form a seven-piece band. He stayed at the Embassy for two years, before walking out on his employer to take up a much more lucrative job in New York. After a year there, besieged by continual pleas to return from his ex-employer in London, in 1925 he was finally persuaded to go back by a cable from the Prince of Wales: "The Embassy needs you. Come back—Edward".

This time Ambrose stayed at the Embassy Club until 1927. The club had a policy of not allowing radio broadcasts from its premises, however, and this was a major drawback for an ambitious bandleader, largely because the fame gained by radio work helped a band to gain recording contracts (Ambrose's band had been recorded by Columbia Records in 1923, but nothing had come of this). He therefore accepted an offer by the May Fair Hotel, with a contract that included broadcasting.Ambrose stayed at the May Fair for six years, during which time the band made recordings for Brunswick Records, HMV and Decca. He teamed up with Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, along with an American harmony song trio, the Hamilton Sisters and Fordyce (aka Three X Sisters), to record songs including "My Heart Stood Still" among others. This period also saw the musical development of the band, partly as a result of Ambrose's hiring of first-class musicians, including Sylvester Ahola, Ted Heath, Joe Crossman, Joe Jeannette, Bert Read, Joe Brannelly, Dick Escott and trumpeter Max Goldberg.It was during the recording of a television programme (at the Yorkshire Television studios) that Ambrose collapsed, dying later the same night in Leeds General Infirmary. His music was kept alive after his death by, among others, Radio 2 broadcasters Alan Dell and Malcolm Laycock, the latter continuing to play his records into the 21st century. His records, especially from his many 78-rpm records and Radio Luxemburg recording , still regularly feature on Australian radio 8CCC-FM's long-running nostalgia programme "Get Out Those Old Records", hosted by Rufl.

Specialist dance band radio stations, such as Radio Dismuke and Swing Street Radio, continue to play his records. Ambrose also features regularly on the Manx Radio programme Sweet & Swing, presented by Howard Caine.......(Info Edited From Wikipedia)

    3. Streamline Strut