Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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GERALDO

(b Gerald Bright, 10 Aug. '04, London; d 4 May '74, Vevey, Switzerland) UK dance band leader. Adopted Latinized name opening at the Savoy Hotel '30 with his Gaucho Tango Orchestra, suitably dressed in someone's idea of native costume; soon added conventional sweet fare, sounding like Jan Garber or Guy Lombardo in the USA: one of the few UK dance bands of the era that never played hot at all. His singer on the radio late '30s was Al Bowlly. After WWII he organized bands for transatlantic P&O liners and hired young boppers like Ronnie Scott, who were willing to play sweet for the free trip to NYC and back so they could hear the real thing on 52nd Street: the gig was known as Geraldo's Navy, the 'strict tempo' work perhaps giving rise to composition 'P&O Blues' by Mike Carr.