Ray Ventura

French bandleader Ray Ventura has rightly been compared with England's Jack Hylton; during the 1920s and '30s both men succeeded in popularizing jazz and U.S. dance music in their respective countries by purveying accessible foxtrots sprinkled with real jazz solos and peppered with pop and novelty vocals. The younger Ventura was born in Paris on April 16, 1908. Beginning in 1924 he played piano in a group called the Collegiate Five; in 1928 this band began recording for Columbia as the Collegians, and the following year they began operating as Ray Ventura's Collegians, steadily cutting records for a succession of labels as their popularity crested throughout the 1930s. The orchestra's star soloists were trumpeter Philippe Brun, trombonist Guy Paquinet, and saxophonist/clarinetist Alix Combelle. Other key players were Belgian trumpeter Gus Deloof, U.S. multi-instrumentalist Spencer Clark and Django Reinhardt's brilliant string bassist Louis Vola. After Nazi Germany invaded France in 1940, Ventura (who was endangered because of his Jewish ancestry) dissolved his orchestra and relocated to Lyon, where he sent out a call for his Collegians to reassemble for a tour of Southern France. The new band, now fortified with trumpeter Pierre Allier, trombonist Eugene d'Hellemes and saxophonist Andre Ekyan, gave a farewell performance in Cahors then squeezed across the Spanish border and into Madrid. Arrangements were made for the entire orchestra to head for Cadiz and board an ocean liner bound for Rio de Janeiro, where they disembarked on December 24 1941.