Ray Ventura

Ray Ventura, the French bandleader, earned apt comparisons to England's Jack Hylton, since each successfully introduced jazz and American dance music to audiences in their homelands throughout the 1920s and 1930s via approachable foxtrots that featured authentic jazz improvisations alongside pop and novelty vocal elements. Born in Paris on April 16, 1908, the younger Ventura began playing piano in 1924 with a group known as the Collegiate Five. In 1928 the ensemble started recording for Columbia under the name the Collegians, and the next year they began functioning as Ray Ventura's Collegians, issuing discs steadily for a series of labels as their popularity reached its height through the 1930s. Trumpeter Philippe Brun, trombonist Guy Paquinet, and saxophonist/clarinetist Alix Combelle served as the orchestra's star soloists, while Belgian trumpeter Gus Deloof, U.S. multi-instrumentalist Spencer Clark, and Django Reinhardt's brilliant string bassist Louis Vola ranked among the other key players. After Nazi Germany invaded France in 1940, Ventura—who faced danger due to his Jewish ancestry—disbanded his orchestra and moved to Lyon, where he summoned his Collegians to regroup for a tour of Southern France. The reconstituted band, now strengthened by trumpeter Pierre Allier, trombonist Eugene d'Hellemes, and saxophonist Andre Ekyan, delivered a farewell performance in Cahors before crossing the Spanish border into Madrid. Plans were then arranged for the full orchestra to proceed to Cadiz and board an ocean liner destined for Rio de Janeiro, where the musicians arrived on December 24, 1941.

Booked at the Casino da Urca, Ray Ventura et ses Collegiens slowly captivated the public, particularly once vocalist Henri Salvador performed his impersonation of Popeye the Sailor Man. The band remained for several months before traveling inland and southward to Montevideo, Uruguay, where they opened in June 1942. The following month they reached the center of Buenos Aires and began performing for patrons at various nightclubs and theaters along the Avenue Corrientes, among them the prestigious Tabaris Cabaret between Suipacha and Esmeralda. Throughout the rest of 1942 Ventura's Collegians produced numerous recordings for the Odeon label, yet work soon vanished and the group fell apart. Several members promptly secured positions with Argentine jazz ensembles, and Vola assembled his own recording group modeled on the Quintet of the Hot Club of France. Never content to wait passively for opportunities, Ventura assembled still another band that merged musicians and repertoire from Europe and the Americas, then resumed recording for Odeon. After appearing once more in Rio de Janeiro, the ensemble dissolved and Ventura returned to Europe by way of North America. The next time he directed a group, it performed a blend of earlier hits, U.S. pop, jazz standards, and Latin American dance tunes.

Ventura, who eventually worked as a theatrical producer, composer, and screenwriter, had begun appearing in motion pictures with and without his orchestra in the late 1930s; he starred in Feux de Joie, Tourbillon de Paris, and Mademoiselle S'Amuse, then directed La Memoire d'un Heros. In 1951 he starred in Nous Irons a Monte Carlo, and in 1953 he produced and acted in Monte Carlo Baby. In 1964 he produced Rolf Haedrich's thriller Stop Train 349. Ray Ventura died in Palma de Majorca, Spain, on March 30, 1979.