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Nat Gonella

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Ranked #10,043 in Music, #272,401 overall

Pioneer of British jazz

Born: March 7, 1908 in London, England

Died: August 6, 1998

Genres: Hot Jazz, British Dance Band, Dixieland

Instruments: Trumpeter, Bandleader, Singer, also played Mellophone

Associated acts: Lew Stone, Roy Fox, Nat Gonella and His Georgians, Humphrey Lyttleton, Digby Fairweather

Trumpeter Nat Gonella was a revered pioneer of British jazz. In the early 1930s Gonella played in the great dance band of the Monseigneur Restaurant, led by Roy Fox and later Lew Stone, and also led his own band, The Georgians.

Gonella played and recorded with a who's who of British jazz musicians, including Billy Cotton, Archie Alexander, Digby Fairweather and Monia Liter. He also worked with two of the greatest British popular singers of the 1930s, Al Bowlly and Sam Browne, and jammed casually with American greats including Fats Waller, Wingy Manone and Bobby Hackett. In New York Gonella recorded some sides for Decca with a band that included Benny Carter and Buster Bailey. Though most famous as a trumpeter and bandleader, Gonella would sometimes take to the microphone, sounding for all the world like a cockney Louis Armstrong.

Contents at a Glance

FURTHER READING
OTHER BOOKS
Al Bowlly, Tiny Winters(?) and Nat Gonel...
MUSIC
MORE MUSIC
Nat Gonella with Lew Stone & Al Bowl...

Nat Gonella: A Life in Jazz

by: Ron Brown

Amazon Price: $4.25 (as of 05/27/2012)
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OTHER BOOKS

Al Bowlly, Tiny Winters(?) and Nat Gonella

MUSIC

Dance Band Years

Amazon Price: $24.98 (as of 05/27/2012)
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Used Price: $5.91

MORE MUSIC

Very Best of

Amazon Price: $7.22 (as of 05/27/2012)
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Used Price: $34.77

Nat Gonella with Lew Stone & Al Bowlly

some CDs from the Monseigneur band

"...Try to make the music into words and 'speak' them on your instrument as you would in conversation, with a pause here, an inflection there, an accentuation here, and so on....To sum up - put some feeling into it."

~Nat Gonella
Modern Style Trumpet Playing