Joe Loss
Joe Loss | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Joshua Alexander Loss |
| Born | 22 June 1909 Spitalfields,London, England |
| Died | 6 June 1990(aged 80) London, England |
| Genres | Swing music,big band |
| Occupations |
|
| Instrument | Violin |
| Years active | 1919–1990 |
| Labels | Columbia Records,His Master's Voice,Regal Zonophone |
Joshua Alexander"Joe"LossLVOOBE(22 June 1909 – 6 June 1990) was aBritish dance bandleader and musician who founded his owneponymousorchestra.
Life
[edit]Loss was born inSpitalfields,London, the youngest of four children. His parents, Israel and Ada Loss, wereRussian Jewsand first cousins. His father was a cabinet-maker who had an office furnishing business. Loss attended theJews' Free School,Trinity College of Musicand theLondon College of Music(now part of theUniversity of West London). He started violin lessons at the age of seven and later played violin at theTower Ballroom,Blackpooland also withOscar Rabin.
Loss started band leading in the early 1930s, working at the Astoria Ballroom and soon breaking into variety at theKit-Cat Club.In 1934, he topped the bill at theHolborn Empirebut in the same year moved back to the Astoria Ballroom where he led a twelve piece band. In 1935,Vera Lynnappeared with the Joe Loss Orchestra in her first radio broadcast.[1]With broadcasting, recording and annual tours in addition to the resident work the band became highly popular over the next few years.[2]In the 1950s and early 60s, Loss was resident band leader at theHammersmith Palaisand was remembered by a trainee nurse at Hammersmith Hospital as being as kind and gentlemanly when she attended him in hospital as he was in his public persona. His band's signature tune "In the Mood"would often be requested three or more times a night.[3]
He was the subject ofThis Is Your Lifeon two occasions: in May 1963 when he was surprised byEamonn Andrewsat theHammersmith Palaisin London, and again in October 1980, when Andrews surprised him at London's Portman Hotel during a star-studded party to celebrate Loss' 50 years in show business.[4][5]A favourite of theBritish royal family,Loss' orchestra performed not only atRoyal Variety Performancesbut also at Christmas parties hosted by the royal family, which earned Loss not only theOBEbut also theLVO,an honour in the personal gift of the Queen.[6]
Loss' daughterJenniferis chair of theJewish Music Institutein London and was married to the British car designerRobert Jankel.
Loss died on 6 June 1990 and is buried atBusheyJewish Cemetery in Hertfordshire.[7]
Joe Loss Orchestra
[edit]TheJoe Loss Orchestrawas one of the most successful acts of thebig bandera in the 1940s, with hits including "In the Mood". In 1961, they had a hit with "Wheels—Cha Cha", a version ofthe String-A-Longs' hit "Wheels".Other hits included David Rose's"The Stripper"in 1958," Sucu Sucu "," Must Be Madison "," The Theme from Maigret "and" March of the Mods (The Finnjenka Dance) "of 1964.
In April 1951,Elizabeth Batey,vocalist with Joe Loss, fell and broke her jaw. Joe was badly in need of a replacement and remembered hearingRose Brennanon radio during a visit to Ireland. Within days, he had located her and, before a week was out, she was in Manchester rehearsing with the band. She stayed with Loss for fifteen years, before giving up show-business in the mid-1960s. She wrote many of the songs she recorded with Joe Loss under the name Marella, and co-wrote songs with John Harris. Her co-vocalists with the orchestra from 1955 wereRoss MacManus(father ofElvis Costello)[8]and Larry Gretton.
The Joe Loss Orchestra carries on under the musical direction of Todd Miller, who was a vocalist with the band for 19 years before Loss' death. In 1989, Joe Loss became too ill to travel and in 1990 he entrusted the leadership to his longest serving band member, trombonist and player-manager of many decades, Sam Watmough, and Miller. The orchestra has been in constant operation since 1930 and in 2015 it celebrated its 85th anniversary.
Specialist dance band radio stations continue to play his records. Joe Loss also features regularly on theManx RadioprogrammeSweet & Swing,presented by Howard Caine.
References
[edit]- ^Seidenberg, Steven; Sellar, Maurice; Jones, Lou (1995).You Must Remember This.Great Britain: Boxtree Ltd. p. 132.ISBN0-7522-1065-3.
- ^McCarthy, Albert J. (1971).The dance band era: the dancing decades from ragtime to swing: 1910-1950, Part 3.Chilton Book Co.p. 147.ISBN9780801956812.Retrieved24 November2011.
- ^Franklin, Rosalind; O'Neill, Cynthia (2004).When the nightingale sang: a nurse's life in the 1950s and 1960s.Meadow Books. pp. 142–3.ISBN978-0-9515655-3-7.
- ^Forth, Peter (8 May 1963)."Assembly of stars for Loss".Western Daily Press.p. 2.Retrieved13 October2023.
- ^Grundy, Bill (16 October 1980)."Last night's view".Evening Standard.p. 23.Retrieved13 October2023.
Last night it was all about Joe Loss.
- ^"Joe Loss Quartet at Barbican".
- ^"Stars honour Joe".Daily Post.8 June 1990. p. 9.Retrieved13 October2023.
- ^Don Wicks: The Ballad Years. 1996
External links
[edit]- "Internet Archive Search: Joe Loss – archive.org (multimedia content in the public domain)".Retrieved29 April2012.
- "British Pathé Search: Joe Loss - britishpathe.com".Retrieved2 May2012.
- Bio at 45rpm.org.uk
- 1909 births
- 1990 deaths
- 20th-century British musicians
- Alumni of the University of West London
- Alumni of Trinity College of Music
- British bandleaders
- Dance band bandleaders
- British people of Russian descent
- Columbia Records artists
- English Jews
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire
- People educated at JFS (school)
- People from Spitalfields