Arthur Lally

Arthur Vincent Lally was born in Seaforth, just outside Liverpool, in December 1900, the oldest of six children. His father James taught young Arthur to play the cornet; he switched to trombone before his teens, and by 1914 he was also proficient on trumpet, piano, violin and clarinet, and in demand to play for brass bands and orchestras. During World War One, he worked as a steward on the ocean liners, and purchased his first saxophone whilst on shore leave in America.
  Once home, he played in a Liverpool dance band, before moving to London, in company with bandleader Fred Spinelly. There he joined the New Columbians, appearing at the Hammersmith Palais de Danse and Rector's Club in Tottenham Court Road, where the Original Dixieland Jazz Band had introduced jazz to Londoners just a few years before. This was followed by a stint with John Birmingham, who was the resident bandleader at the Hotel Cecil prior to Jack Payne's arrival in February 1924. Lally then moved on to Ciro's Club where he played in violinist Jean Lensen's band.
In mid-1926, Lally stepped up in the London dance band scene, joining the famous Savoy Orpheans at the Savoy Hotel, where he playing alongside Herb Finney, an American whose hot alto sax playing was an early influence. Lally remained with the Orpheans until the Spring of  1927, when he joined the band at the Devonshire Restaurant, directed by Bert Firman. Firman was also the Musical Director of Zonophone records, HMV's cheaper sister label, and as a result Lally started recording extensively with the Zonophone house band around this time. In fact, throughout this period, Lally was in constant demand for recording sessions - an article in the Melody Maker claimed that he "....has recorded for nearly every gramophone company in England". Even allowing for journalistic hyperbole, this was no great exaggeration.
In September 1928, Ambrose recruited Arthur Lally to replace American saxophonist Perley Breed, who had returned home. Ambrose was then resident at the exclusive May Fair Hotel in Berkeley Street, and membership of his orchestra was regarded within the profession as the pinnacle of success. Lally must have impressed Ambrose because, at the end of April 1929, he was appointed leader of Ambrose's subsidiary group The Blue Lyres, which had a long residency at the Dorchester Hotel.
Just under two months later, Lally was also leading the new Decca studio group featured on this CD. As discographer Brian Rust notes in Jazz and Ragtime Records, these recordings are of "a remarkably high standard from the point of view of a hot dance music collector"; indeed, they are amongst the most prized records within the "hot" British dance band category.