Manuel & The Music Of The Mountains

Orchestra leader Geoff Love, born 4 September 1917 in Todmorden, Yorkshire, England, and deceased 8 July 1991 in London, England, first adopted the Manuel alias under a pseudonym. As the British-born offspring of a Black American dancer, he gravitated toward music while still young and, by the late 1950s and early 1960s, stood alongside Joe Loss and Ted Heath among the nation’s foremost bandleaders. The Manuel identity granted him latitude to absorb South American musical influences; although the earliest discs kept their creator’s name hidden—until Love was revealed in a guest spot on BBC television’s Juke Box Jury—those same recordings ultimately channeled his abilities most naturally. His extensive recorded legacy, especially within EMI Records’ acclaimed Studio 2 stereo catalogue, kept the ensemble among Britain’s foremost light-orchestral draws across the 1960s and 1970s.