Ted Heath (bandleader)

George Edward Heath (30 March 1902 – 18 November 1969) was a British musician and big band leader.

Heath led what is widely considered Britain's greatest post-war big band, recording more than 100 albums, which sold over 20 million copies.

Both often played together on numerous dance band recording of the 1920s and 1930s.

Earning a living for his family in the post-war years he, and his brother Harold with three other musicians, formed a band that played to commuters outside London Bridge Station before winding their way along the streets in London to a location outside the Queen's Hall Gardens venue.

It was here that Heath's professional career began as he was spotted on the street and asked to play with the Jack Hylton Band who had a residence there.

He did not last long, not having the experience required, but it gave him the ambition to pursue a career as a professional musician.

His first real band gig was with an American band on tour in Europe – the Southern Syncopated Orchestra – which had an engagement in Vienna, Austria and needed a trombone player.

The drummer for this band, Benny Payton, taught Heath all about jazz and swing.

Heath had to pay his own way back from Austria when the band ran out of money.

Heath heard Bunny Berigan, Tommy Dorsey and Jimmy Dorsey and Paul Whiteman when they toured Europe.

He next played with the Metro-Gnomes, a small band fronted by Hylton's then-wife Ennis Parkes.

In the late 1920s, Heath again joined Hylton's larger stage band (also being present on a number of 12-inch "concert" recordings), staying until 1930.

Around this time, he also began to play for a number of other dance orchestras.

In 1928, he joined Bert Ambrose's orchestra at The May Fair Hotel in London and played there until 1935, when he moved on to Sydney Lipton's orchestra at the Grosvenor House Hotel.

Ambrose, a strict disciplinarian, taught Heath how to be a bandleader.

It was during this time that Heath became the most prominent trombone player in Britain, renowned for his perfect tone.

During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Heath also played as a sideman on several Benny Carter sessions.

He kept playing on numerous recordings as a studio musician, although he concentrated his efforts on the Ambrose band after 1932.

In September 1939 the outbreak of the Second World War caused the immediate disbandment of the Sydney Lipton Band, which was on tour in Scotland at the time.

Heath, his wife Moira and children went back to London.

In late 1939, Heath joined Maurice Winnick's The Dorchester hotel band.

In 1940, Heath joined Geraldo's orchestra, and played numerous concerts and broadcasts during the war travelling to the Middle East to play to the Allied Forces-based there.

He often became one of the "boys" in Geraldo's vocal group, 'Three Boys and a Girl'.

In 1941, Geraldo asked his band members to submit a favourite tune to include in their broadcasts.

Heath had composed a song "That Lovely Weekend", after his wife had written him a poem on a rare weekend together amongst his war travels, and he set this to music.

Heath suggested "That Lovely Weekend" to Geraldo and it was orchestrated, with Dorothy Carless on vocal, and was an immediate wartime hit.

The royalties from this song and another composition "Gonna Love That Guy" allowed Heath to form his own band.

Heath was inspired by Glenn Miller and his Army Air Force Band, and spoke with Miller at length about forming his own band when Miller toured Britain with the United States Army Air Force Orchestra.

Heath admired the immaculate precision of the Miller ensemble, and felt confident that he could emulate Miller's great success with his own orchestra.

In 1944, Heath talked Douglas Lawrence, the Dance Music Organiser for the BBC's Variety Department, into supporting a new band with a broadcasting contract.

Lawrence was sceptical as Heath wanted a much larger and more jazz orientated band than anyone had seen in Britain before.

This band followed the American model, and featured five saxophones, four trombones, four trumpets, piano, guitar, double bass and drums.

The new Ted Heath Band, originally organised as a British "All Star Band" playing only radio dates, was first heard on a BBC broadcast in 1944.

So Ted Heath and his Music was officially formed on D-Day, 1944.

In 1945, the BBC decreed that only permanent, touring bands could appear on radio.

In late 1945, American bandleader Toots (Tutti) Camarata came to UK as musical director for the film London Town (1946) starring comedian Sid Field.

This film was intended to be Britain's first attempt to emulate the American film musicals of studios such as MGM and Camarata commissioned Heath to provide his band as the nucleus for the film's orchestra.

The film was not a success.

The most successful band in Britain during the 1950s, it remained in existence as a ghost band long after Heath died, surviving in such a form until 2000.

After playing tenor horn at the age of six, encouraged by his father Bert, a trumpeter and the leader of the Wandsworth Town Brass Band, Heath later switched to trombone.