Philip Lewis

Decca's director of music was Philip Lewis, who had a background in light classical music and directing theatre pit orchestras. So far as the new Decca studio group was concerned, Lewis relied heavily on Arthur Lally to suggest which musicians to select. The roster of sidemen included Sylvester Ahola on trumpet, with Danny Polo and Johnny Helfer on reeds, and later Joe Brannelly on banjo, all of whom had already played with Lally in The Rhythmic Eight (and three of whom were members of the Ambrose orchestra). All the recordings from the first two sessions (June 20th and 29th, 1929) were issued as by Philip Lewis and his Dance Orchestra, but from the third session (July 16th, 1929) onwards the pseudonym "The Rhythm Maniacs" started to be used, increasingly so as the months went by.
At the time they were issued, few purchasers had any idea who the musicians involved on these blue label Decca records were – the ascendancy of "star" jazz musicians would not take place until the swing era. It has taken the efforts of a few dedicated discographers and collectors to sort out the complex and ever-shifting personnel of studio bands and give credit where it is due. Brian Rust was one of the first to fully appraise the talents of the musicians on these rare sides.