Biography
Born on 11 March 1920 in London, England, and passing away in Australia during June 1994, Burns took up the drums in childhood. While still in his teens he earned a living as a musician aboard P&O liners. Throughout the closing years of the 1930s and the opening years of the 1940s he worked the London dance-band scene, appearing alongside ensembles directed by Lew Stone, Ambrose, Frank Weir, Ted Heath and Geraldo. Additional engagements placed him with George Shearing and, separately, with Tito Burns, to whom he was unrelated. Among the circle of London musicians who embraced bebop as the decade progressed, he belonged to an all-star group assembled in 1948 to champion the new style. In the early 1950s he assembled his own quintet, patterning it after the American ensemble then fronted by his former associate Shearing; Victor Feldman occupied the vibraphone chair. Eventually Burns abandoned professional music, settled in Australia and lived there until his death. Although prized chiefly as a dance-band percussionist, his restless curiosity and affinity for bop established him as a quietly pivotal, largely overlooked contributor to British drumming across the 1930s and 1940s.
Singles
