Al Bowlly - By my side (1931)

Albert Allick "Al" Bowlly (Jan.7,1899 - April 17,1941) was a popular Jazz guitarist, singer, and crooner in the United Kingdom during the 1930s, making more than 1,000 recordings between 1927 and 1941. Bowlly showcased a diverse range of material unsurpassed by any contemporary other than perhaps Bing Crosby. He was also a truly international recording artist.

Bowlly was born in Lourenço Marques, to Greek and Lebanese parents who met en route to Australia and moved to South Africa. He was brought up in Johannesburg, South Africa. After a series of odd jobs across South Africa in his youth, namely as a barber and jockey, he gained his musical experience singing for a dance band led by Edgar Adeler on a tour of South Africa, Rhodesia, India and Indonesia during the mid-1920s. One year after his 1927 debut recording date in Berlin, where he recorded Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" with Edgar Adeler, Bowlly arrived in London for the first time as part of Fred Elizalde's orchestra. That year, "If I Had You" became one of the first popular songs by an English jazz band to become well known in America as well, and Bowlly had gone out on his own by the beginning of the 1930s.

In the 1930s, he was to sign two contracts which were to change his fortunes, one in May 1931 with Roy Fox, singing in his live band for the Monseigneur Restaurant in London, the other a record contract with Ray Noble's orchestra in November 1930.

During the next four years, he recorded over 500 songs. By 1933 Lew Stone had ousted Fox as bandleader, and Bowlly was singing Stone's arrangements with Stone's band.

In December 1931, Bowlly married Freda Roberts, but Bowlly discovered his new wife in bed with another man on their wedding night. The couple separated after two weeks, and sought a rapid divorce. He remarried in December 1934, this time to Marjie Fairless, the marriage lasting until his death.

A visit to New York in 1934 with Noble resulted in more success and their recordings first achieved popularity in the USA. Bowlly appeared at the head of an orchestra hand-picked for him and Noble by Glenn Miller.

During the early-mid 1930s, Bowlly gained his own radio series on NBC and travelled to Hollywood to co-star in The Big Broadcast in 1936, which also starred one of his biggest competitors, Bing Crosby.

His career also began to suffer as a result of problems with his voice from around 1936. Bowlly also played a few bit parts in films around this time. Bowlly and his wife Marjie moved back to London in January 1937. He never really explained why he had returned, with contemporaries and fans being treated to a variety of stories ranging from the fact that he missed London to claims that he got mixed up with a gangster's moll, so was run out of America.

Bowlly had appeared with his own band, the Radio City Rhythm Makers, but they had split by late 1937 when his vocal problems were traced to a wart in his throat. With he and Marjie separated and his band dissolved, that year Bowlly was once again down on his luck. In 1938, he finally returned to the USA to successfully undergo major throat surgery for the removal of his vocal wart, but had further difficulties with his voice late in his career.

With his success in Britain a shadow of its former self, he toured regional theatres and recorded as often as possible to make a living, moving from orchestra to orchestra, including those of Sydney Lipton, Geraldo, and Ken Johnson. He underwent a revival from 1940, as part of a double act with Jimmy Messene, with an act called Radio Stars with Two Guitars, performing on the London stage. It was his last venture before his death in April 1941. The partnership was an uneasy one, as Messene suffered from a serious drinking problem by this stage.

Bowlly's last recorded song, made two weeks before his death, was a duet with Messene of Irving Berlin's satirical song on Hitler, "When That Man is Dead and Gone".

The evening on April 17,1941, Bowlly and Messene had just given a performance at the Rex Cinema in High Wycombe. Both were offered the opportunity of an overnight stay in the town, but Bowlly opted to take the last train home to his flat in Jermyn Street, London instead. Bowlly's decision proved to be fatal, he was killed by a Luftwaffe parachute mine which detonated outside his flat later that evening. Bowlly's body appeared unmarked: although the massive explosion had not disfigured him, it had blown his bedroom door off its hinges and the impact against his head proved fatal. Bowlly was buried with other bombing victims in a mass grave at the City of Westminster Cemetery, Uxbridge Road, Hanwell, London, where his name is spelled Albert Alex Bowlly.


Al Bowlly - By my side (1931)

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Music

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• Al
• Bowlly
• 1931
• 20s
• 30s

[ldFlorida]

A great arrangement by Al Bowlly! Love it!!

[markstar777]

great stuff

[SirRiehl]

I love it!! Thank you for uploading this.. I love Al Bowly