Aldrich, Ronnie

Autor: Aldrich, Ronnie
Rok: 1916-1993

Biogr./Hist. údaje: Britský jazzový pianista, dirigent, hudební skladatel, člen skupiny The Squadronaires.
Zdroj: Autoritní databáze Národní knihovny ČR

Ronnie Aldrich, born Ronald Frank Aldrich (15 February 1916, Erith, Kent, England – 30 September 1993, Isle of Man) was a British easy listening and jazz pianist, arranger, conductor, and composer. The only son of a store manager, he was three years old when he started playing the piano. He was educated at The Harvey Grammar School, Folkestone, and taught violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Before World War II, Aldrich went to India to play jazz and first gained fame in the 1940s as leader of The Squadronaires, up until their disbanding in 1964.He was noteworthy for the recording development of playing two pianos in his recordings (the Decca Phase 4 Stereo series). He recorded for The Decca Record Company Ltd in the 1960s and 1970s, moving to Seaward Ltd (his own company) licensed to EMI in the 1980s. He also regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 2 with his own orchestra as well as with the BBC Radio Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra, based in BBC Glasgow. He also recorded special tracks that were released by Reader's Digest. Recently, all the Decca recordings were released in CD format by Vocalion. Many of his sessions for radio stations have been released by Apple iTunes in m4a format.He was appointed musical director at Thames Television and thus was widely known as the musical director for the television programme The Benny Hill Show.He was married twice and had a daughter from his first marriage. At the time of his death he was married to E. Mary Aldrich, his wife for more than 30 years. He died of prostate cancer at age 77 in the Isle Of Man.