Reginald Foresythe


Reginald Foresythe was a British jazz pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader.
File:Royal Air Force Operations in the Middle East and North Africa, 1939-1943. CNA292.jpg|thumb|Foresythe entertains members of the RAF 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, Illinois, United States.
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 and 1936, he recorded for British Columbia and 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". Foresythe died, following a fall downstairs, in relative obscurity in 1958.

Personal life

Foresythe was gay, and was known to regularly get into fights in gay clubs and bars.
Following the war, Forsythe was diagnosed with "war nerves", what is today known as PTSD. A decade on from his heyday, his confidence shot, Foresythe became a full-blown alcoholic and spent the late 1940s and 50s playing clubs in Britain.

Discography

All issues as The New Music of Reginald Foresythe unless otherwise indicated
London, 14 October 1933:
  • "Serenade to a Wealthy Widow"
  • "Angry Jungle"
  • "Tea for Two"
London, 1933 Reginald Foresythe, piano solo:
  • "Caemembert"
  • "Chromolithograph"
London, 9 February 1934:
  • "The Duke Insists"
  • "Berceuse for an Unwanted Child"
  • "Garden of Weed"
  • "Bit"
London, 1934 Reginald Foresythe and Arthur Young, piano duet:
  • "St. Louis Blues"
  • "Because It's Love"
London, 6 September 1934
  • "Deep Forest"
  • "Lament for Congo"
  • "Volcanic"
  • "The Autocrat Before Breakfast"
New York, 23 January 1935
  • "The Melancholy Clown"
  • "Lullaby"
  • "The Greener The Grass"
  • "Dodging a Divorcee"
London, 1935 Reginald Foresythe and Arthur Young, piano duet:
  • "Sweet Adeline"
  • "Sweet Adeline"
  • "Roberta"
  • "Roberta"
London 19 August 1935 :
  • "Landscape"
  • "Homage to Armstrong"
  • "Tea for Two"
  • "Sweet Georgia Brown"
London, 1936? Arthur Young and Reginald Foresythe, piano duo with drums:
  • Anything Goes
  • Anything Goes
  • With The "Duke"
  • With The "Duke"
  • Hits of 1935
  • Hits of 1935
London, 1936? Reginald Foresythe, piano solo:
  • "Cheek to Cheek"
  • "The Piccolino"
London, 6 November 1936
  • "Swing For Roundabout"
  • "Anything You Like"
  • "The Revolt of the Yes Men"
London, 27 November 1936 :
  • "Mead and Woa"
  • "Mediation in Porcelain"
  • "Cross the Criss"
  • "Aubade"
  • "Burlesque"
London, 1938 Reginald Foresythe and Arthur Young, piano duet:
  • "Solitude"
  • "Mood Indigo"
  • "Tiger Rag"
  • "St. Louis Blues"

    Filmography

  • Jimmy Boy
  • Calling the Tune
  • The Big Noise
  • ''Stars in Your Eyes''