Biography
Born on 12 May 1911 in Glasgow, Scotland, and passing away on 2 May 2000 in the same country, the musician grew up under the influence of a father who conducted a local amateur orchestra. Formal piano instruction began at age seven at the Athenaeum School of Music, and by eleven, while still attending school, he was already performing at silent movie theatres throughout Glasgow. He soon advanced to orchestral work and, at fourteen, joined a dance band. Together with Andy Lothian he became a regular attraction at Glasgow’s Kings Café, where a local theatrical impresario first noticed them. Larger venues followed, and by seventeen he felt prepared for a national career. In London he worked with Arthur Rosebery before returning north to audition for Jack Hylton’s band during one of its Scottish engagements. From 1930 onward he toured the UK and Europe with Hylton and also visited the USA; when Hylton stayed behind in America, Munn took temporary leadership of the ensemble in London and later moved to Sydney Lipton’s group. Throughout World War II he performed whenever opportunities arose, and after 1945 he continued in various London nightspots as well as venues in Brittany. A BBC Jazz Club broadcast led to his appointment as bandleader at Torquay’s Imperial Hotel, a post he held for the following thirty years. Into the early 1990s he was still appearing in theatre shows along England’s south coast.