Nat Gonella
Encyclopedia
Nathaniel Charles Gonella (7 March 1908–6 August 1998) was an English
jazz
trumpeter, bandleader
, vocalist and mellophonist
born in London
, perhaps most notable for his work with the big band
he founded, The Georgians
.
His vocal style was reminiscent of Louis Armstrong
, though the voice was often eclipsed by his achievements as a band leader and trumpeter. Gonella has been a major influence on other British jazz trumpeters, including Humphrey Lyttelton
and Digby Fairweather
.
Gonella was born in a deprived area of east London, and took up cornet while attending an institution for underprivileged children, St Mary's Guardian School in Islington
.
His first professional job arrived when, after a short spell as a furrier's apprentice, he joined Archie Pitt's Busby Boy's Band in 1924, a small junior pit orchestra and touring review band. He remained with the band until 1928, and it was during this period that he became acquainted with the early recordings of Louis Armstrong, and the New Orleans jazz
style in general. He transcribed Armstrong's solos and learned them by heart.
He worked with Bob Bryden's Louisville Band for a time in 1928-9, and with pianist Archie Alexander
in Brighton
, then joined the Billy Cotton
band at the end of 1929, a move which provided him with a more prominent platform, both on the concert stage and also on radio, and allowed him to record his first jazz solos and vocal features.
He played briefly with Roy Fox
in 1931, and then joined Lew Stone
the following year, where he firmly established his reputation.
He managed to meet his idol when Armstrong visited London in 1932, by begging the staff at Boosey and Hawkes's music shop to allow him to return Armstrong's trumpet, left at the shop for cleaning, to his hotel room. The American was apparently initially amused to find such an ardent devotee, but appreciated his willingness to help, and the two men became good friends.
Gonella's standing grew even more quickly after the formation of his own band, The Georgians
, in 1935. They took their name from Gonella's highly-popular version of "Georgia On My Mind
", which he recorded for Lew Stone
in 1932, and began as a featured band within Stone's shows, before setting up as an independent unit.
Gonella formed his own big band, and quickly became a headline artist on the still-thriving variety
circuit, and they continued to top bills around the country until the outbreak of the war.
He joined the army in 1941, and was recruited into the Stars in Battledress
campaign, touring allied camps in Europe and North Africa. Whilst in Europe and North Africa Gonella served as the personal servant or "batman" to Major Alexander Karet and once the war had ended was offered the position as personal Butler to the Major, but he politely refused in order to pursue his music career.
He reformed his band after the war, but the economic and musical climate was changing rapidly at that time. He flirted briefly with bebop
, acknowledged that it was not for him, and returned to the variety stage during the 1950s, touring with the likes of the comedian Max Miller.
The revival in traditional jazz in the late Fifties allowed him to reform his Georgians in 1960, and he was featured on the television show This Is Your Life
the following year. Which yielded an album for him, The Nat Gonella Story, modelled on Armstrong's A Musical Autobiography.
All of this attention re-established Gonella, at least until the advent of The Beatles
brought the trad jazz boom to a halt.
He moved to Lancashire
in 1962, and toured regularly on the Northern club circuit until his alleged retirement on the occasion of his 65th birthday, on 7 March 1973.
That retirement did not last long. Drummer Ted Easton persuaded him to come to play to his (Easton's) club in Holland during the mid-1970s, and a new recording of a song he had first cut with Roy Fox
in 1931, "Oh, Monah", became a big hit in Holland.
It was to be his final flourish on trumpet, but he continued to sing after moving to Gosport
, Hampshire
, in 1977 - where a square was re-named in his honour in 1994, and was always happy to stand up and do so in a local pubs or at the Gosport Jazz Club.
Digby Fairweather
's New Georgians paid tribute to Gonella's musical heritage in 1984, and Fairweather and fellow trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton
co-hosted a television tribute, Fifty Years of Nat Gonella, the following year, in which Gonella himself was an enthusiastic participant.
He continued to sing occasionally with various bands, and made the headlines again in 1997 when a sampled excerpt of his trumpet playing from a recording he made in 1932 was used in White Town
's number one pop hit, "Your Woman
".
Nat Gonella died at his home in Gosport on August 6, 1998, aged 90.
Gonella was a down-to-earth and unassuming character, and remained so throughout his life. On BBC Radio 4, Barry Humphries
said that "Oh Mona" was one of two tracks that had most appealed to him in his life. Humphrey Lyttelton is among those who have testified to the fact that fame and success sat easily on his shoulders, and reports that he would show genuinely astonishment when Lyttelton would confess, as well as other prominent musicians, to Gonella having been his first jazz hero.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
trumpeter, bandleader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
, vocalist and mellophonist
Mellophone
The mellophone is a brass instrument that is typically used in place of the horn in marching bands or drum and bugle corps....
born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, perhaps most notable for his work with the big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
he founded, The Georgians
The Georgians
The Georgians was a prominent United States jazz & dance band of the early 1920s that recorded on Columbia Records.The Georgians were the solo band Nat Gonella founded on his departure from Lew Stone and his Orchestra in 1934...
.
His vocal style was reminiscent of Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, though the voice was often eclipsed by his achievements as a band leader and trumpeter. Gonella has been a major influence on other British jazz trumpeters, including Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton , also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio comedy programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue...
and Digby Fairweather
Digby Fairweather
Digby Fairweather is a British jazz cornettist and broadcaster.-Biography:Fairweather has been a professional jazz musician since 1 January 1977, but worked for seven years previously with several local jazz bands in the Essex area and recorded his first album in 1975...
.
Gonella was born in a deprived area of east London, and took up cornet while attending an institution for underprivileged children, St Mary's Guardian School in Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
.
His first professional job arrived when, after a short spell as a furrier's apprentice, he joined Archie Pitt's Busby Boy's Band in 1924, a small junior pit orchestra and touring review band. He remained with the band until 1928, and it was during this period that he became acquainted with the early recordings of Louis Armstrong, and the New Orleans jazz
New Orleans Jazz
New Orleans Jazz may refer to:*Dixieland, a style of jazz music*New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park*Utah Jazz, a professional National Basketball Association franchise that was previously based in New Orleans and known as the New Orleans Jazz, in recognition of the jazz music of New Orleans*A...
style in general. He transcribed Armstrong's solos and learned them by heart.
He worked with Bob Bryden's Louisville Band for a time in 1928-9, and with pianist Archie Alexander
Archie Alexander
Archie Alphonso Alexander was an African-American mathematician and engineer and an early African-American graduate of the University of Iowa. He was also a governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands....
in Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, then joined the Billy Cotton
Billy Cotton
William Edward Cotton , better known as Billy Cotton, was a British band leader and entertainer, one of the few whose orchestras survived the dance band era. Today, he is mainly remembered as a 1950s and 1960s radio and television personality, although his musical talent emerged as early as the 1920s...
band at the end of 1929, a move which provided him with a more prominent platform, both on the concert stage and also on radio, and allowed him to record his first jazz solos and vocal features.
He played briefly with Roy Fox
Roy Fox
Roy Fox was an American dance bandleader whose period of greatest popularity came during his years performing in England.Roy Fox was raised in Hollywood, California...
in 1931, and then joined Lew Stone
Lew Stone
Lew Stone was a British dance band leader and arranger. He was well known in Britain during the 1930s.Stone learned music at an early age and became an accomplished pianist. In the 1920s, he worked with many important dance bands...
the following year, where he firmly established his reputation.
He managed to meet his idol when Armstrong visited London in 1932, by begging the staff at Boosey and Hawkes's music shop to allow him to return Armstrong's trumpet, left at the shop for cleaning, to his hotel room. The American was apparently initially amused to find such an ardent devotee, but appreciated his willingness to help, and the two men became good friends.
Gonella's standing grew even more quickly after the formation of his own band, The Georgians
The Georgians
The Georgians was a prominent United States jazz & dance band of the early 1920s that recorded on Columbia Records.The Georgians were the solo band Nat Gonella founded on his departure from Lew Stone and his Orchestra in 1934...
, in 1935. They took their name from Gonella's highly-popular version of "Georgia On My Mind
Georgia on My Mind
"Georgia on My Mind" is a song written in 1930 by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell . It is the official state song of the U.S. state of Georgia. Gorrell wrote the lyrics for Hoagy's sister, Georgia Carmichael. However, the lyrics of the song are ambiguous enough to refer either to the state or...
", which he recorded for Lew Stone
Lew Stone
Lew Stone was a British dance band leader and arranger. He was well known in Britain during the 1930s.Stone learned music at an early age and became an accomplished pianist. In the 1920s, he worked with many important dance bands...
in 1932, and began as a featured band within Stone's shows, before setting up as an independent unit.
Gonella formed his own big band, and quickly became a headline artist on the still-thriving variety
Variety show
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
circuit, and they continued to top bills around the country until the outbreak of the war.
He joined the army in 1941, and was recruited into the Stars in Battledress
Stars in Battledress
Stars in Battledress ' was an organisation that produced entertainment during World War II for and by military personnel- History :In Britain, during the Second World War, entertainment was considered an essential to keep morale high. In 1939 ENSA was organised by Basil Dean to send groups of...
campaign, touring allied camps in Europe and North Africa. Whilst in Europe and North Africa Gonella served as the personal servant or "batman" to Major Alexander Karet and once the war had ended was offered the position as personal Butler to the Major, but he politely refused in order to pursue his music career.
He reformed his band after the war, but the economic and musical climate was changing rapidly at that time. He flirted briefly with bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
, acknowledged that it was not for him, and returned to the variety stage during the 1950s, touring with the likes of the comedian Max Miller.
The revival in traditional jazz in the late Fifties allowed him to reform his Georgians in 1960, and he was featured on the television show This Is Your Life
This Is Your Life
This Is Your Life is an American television documentary series broadcast on NBC, originally hosted by its producer, Ralph Edwards from 1952 to 1961. In the show, the host surprises a guest, and proceeds to take them through their life in front of an audience including friends and family.Edwards...
the following year. Which yielded an album for him, The Nat Gonella Story, modelled on Armstrong's A Musical Autobiography.
All of this attention re-established Gonella, at least until the advent of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
brought the trad jazz boom to a halt.
He moved to Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
in 1962, and toured regularly on the Northern club circuit until his alleged retirement on the occasion of his 65th birthday, on 7 March 1973.
That retirement did not last long. Drummer Ted Easton persuaded him to come to play to his (Easton's) club in Holland during the mid-1970s, and a new recording of a song he had first cut with Roy Fox
Roy Fox
Roy Fox was an American dance bandleader whose period of greatest popularity came during his years performing in England.Roy Fox was raised in Hollywood, California...
in 1931, "Oh, Monah", became a big hit in Holland.
It was to be his final flourish on trumpet, but he continued to sing after moving to Gosport
Gosport
Gosport is a town, district and borough situated on the south coast of England, within the county of Hampshire. It has approximately 80,000 permanent residents with a further 5,000-10,000 during the summer months...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, in 1977 - where a square was re-named in his honour in 1994, and was always happy to stand up and do so in a local pubs or at the Gosport Jazz Club.
Digby Fairweather
Digby Fairweather
Digby Fairweather is a British jazz cornettist and broadcaster.-Biography:Fairweather has been a professional jazz musician since 1 January 1977, but worked for seven years previously with several local jazz bands in the Essex area and recorded his first album in 1975...
's New Georgians paid tribute to Gonella's musical heritage in 1984, and Fairweather and fellow trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton , also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio comedy programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue...
co-hosted a television tribute, Fifty Years of Nat Gonella, the following year, in which Gonella himself was an enthusiastic participant.
He continued to sing occasionally with various bands, and made the headlines again in 1997 when a sampled excerpt of his trumpet playing from a recording he made in 1932 was used in White Town
White Town
White Town is a musical act from the United Kingdom, and is the work of one man, Jyoti Prakash Mishra.-Career:Mishra was born in Rourkela, Orissa, India on 30 July 1966 and has lived in England since the age of three...
's number one pop hit, "Your Woman
Your Woman
"Your Woman" is a single released in 1997 by British one-man band White Town, also known as Jyoti Mishra. It features a muted trumpet line taken from "My Woman" by Al Bowlly and it reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in 1997. It also hit number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100...
".
Nat Gonella died at his home in Gosport on August 6, 1998, aged 90.
Gonella was a down-to-earth and unassuming character, and remained so throughout his life. On BBC Radio 4, Barry Humphries
Barry Humphries
John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...
said that "Oh Mona" was one of two tracks that had most appealed to him in his life. Humphrey Lyttelton is among those who have testified to the fact that fame and success sat easily on his shoulders, and reports that he would show genuinely astonishment when Lyttelton would confess, as well as other prominent musicians, to Gonella having been his first jazz hero.
External links
- A Nat Gonella Tribute
- NAT - A Tribute at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club
- Nat Gonella & Ted Easton´s Jazzband performing Oh Monah on German television