Reginald Foresythe was a British jazz pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. at the piano during a performance of the Services variety show, "Entertainment Pie", at Setif, Algeria during WWII, 1943
Early life
Foresythe was born and died in London. His father was a West African barrister of Sierra Leone Creole descent and his mother was an Englishwoman of German descent. The Foresythe family descended from Charles Foresythe, a Sierra Leonean colonial official who settled in Lagos, Nigeria in the 1860s. Charles Foresythe was born in the early nineteenth century to a European army captain and a mother from Tasso Island, Sierra Leone.
Career
He played piano from age eight. He worked in the second half of the 1920s as a pianist and accordionist in dance bands in Paris, Australia, Hawaii, and California. He also wrote music for films by D.W. Griffith and played in Paul Howard's Quality Serenaders. In 1930 Foresythe moved to Chicago. In America he wrote arrangements for Earl Hines and music for Paul Whiteman. Hines made one of his songs, Deep Forest", a part of his repertory, while Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Adrian Rollini, and Hal Kemp recorded Foresythe's compositions. He worked in New York City in 1934–35, arranging for Whiteman and recording with Benny Goodman, John Kirby, and Gene Krupa. In London, Foresythe assembled a studio recording group called "The New Music of Reginald Foresythe". Between 1933-1936 he recorded for British Columbia and British Decca, usually spotlighting his jazzy tone poems. Among the more well known were "Serenade to a Wealthy Widow," "Garden of Weed," "Dodging a Divorcee," and "Revolt of the Yes-Men." His recordings featured reeds and sax, but no horns. In January 1935, Foresythe assembled a one-off session in New York which featured Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa recording four of his compositions. Foresythe also recorded a number of piano solos and piano duets with Arthur Young. He served in the Royal Air Force during World War II, then accompanied vocalists and played solo piano in London in the 1950s. Foresythe collaborated with songwriters Andy Razaf and Ted Weems, composing "Be Ready", "Please Don't Talk About My Man", and "He's a Son of the South". He died in relative obscurity in 1958.
Discography
All issues as The New Music of Reginald Foresythe unless otherwise indicated London, 14 October 1933
