Trivia

His band appeared in the Royal Command Performance of 1933.

Musical director and orchestra leader

He was born in London, where he played piano and organ and studied at the Royal Academy of Music.

During the 1940s, he modernised his style and continued to enjoy great success.

He adopted the name "Geraldo" in 1930, and became one of the most popular British dance band leaders of the 1930s with his "sweet music" and his "Gaucho Tango Orchestra".

Over the years, most of the UK's top musicians played with Geraldo's orchestra, including Ted Heath, who played first trombone in the orchestra before leaving to form his own band and the guitarist Ken Sykora, later to become a respected radio personality, and trumpeter Freddie Jameson.

After World War II, Geraldo also ran an agency from his offices at 73 New Bond Street in London. In addition to booking bands for theatres and hotels, he placed musicians on transatlantic and cruise liners - in the music business this was known as "Geraldo's Navy".

He started his career as a pianist playing for silent films.

Geraldo formed his first orchestra under his own name of Gerald Bright and played a five-year residency at the Hotel Majestic, St Anne's-on-Sea, then disbanded and toured South America to study Latin-American rhythms. On his return to London he changed his name to Geraldo, took his colourful Gaucho Tango Orchestra into the Savoy Hotel and stayed there for 10 years, and over two thousand broadcasts.

For his broadcasts he varied the style of his orchestra quite considerably, and a particular series Tip Top Tunes (employing a full string section alongside the usual dance band) enjoyed great popularity.

Several commercial recordings of Geraldo were made, spotlighting the considerable arranging talents of the young Wally Stott (better known in the US as Angela Morley).

Specialist dance band radio stations, such as Radio Dismuke, continue to play his records. Geraldo also features regularly on the Manx Radio programme Sweet & Swing, presented by Howard Caine.

Geraldo was married to Manya Leigh of London.

In 1993 a new Geraldo Orchestra, directed by trombonist Chris Dean, toured the UK provinces.

In the 1950s, he composed the start-up music for Scottish Television. Entitled Scotlandia, it was heard virtually every day for over thirty years at the beginning of programmes.

By August 1930 Bright, after touring Latin America where he absorbed the sounds of the orquesta tipica, opted for a new sound based in a popular dance that was rapidly spreading from Argentina to Europe. He renamed himself and his ensemble the Geraldo Gaucho Tango Band and experienced great success with the public at the Savoy Hotel. Although within three years he had been crowned "Tango King of England.

Many well-known figures in British post-war jazz "served" in Geraldo's musical navy, such as John Dankworth, Benny Green, Bill Le Sage, Ronnie Scott, and Stan Tracey.

At the outbreak of World War II he was appointed Supervisor of Bands for ENSA, and toured Europe, the Middle East and North Africa with his own orchestra.

He died from a heart attack, age 69, while on holiday in Vevey, Switzerland in 1974.

Geraldo became a major figure on the British entertainment scene for four decades, having fronted just about every kind of ensemble and influenced the successful careers of numerous top singers.