Ivy Benson

Ivy Benson ( born November 11, 1913 in Holbeck, Yorkshire, † May 6, 1993 in Clacton -on-Sea ) was a British bandleader, known for the creation of a women 's big band in the swing era ( Ivy Benson and her All Girl band). She played piano, electric organ, clarinet, saxophone and other instruments.

Life and work

Benson was the daughter of a musician and learned early piano. Even with eight years she performed in clubs as a baby Benson and nine years in the Children's Hour radio station BBC. After she had listened to Benny Goodman record, she wanted to be jazz musician, left with fourteen years the school. She learned clarinet and saxophone, which she earned her first saxophone with working in a factory in Leeds and engagement in dance bands. 1929 to 1935 she played in Edna Croudson 's Rhythm Girls and then any of these Teddy Joyce and the Girlfriends, before moving to London in the late 1930s, and in 1939 founded her own band (first as Ivy Benson and her Rhythm Girls). She appeared in revues and Covent Garden. 1943 her band was mediated by Jack Hylton the house band at the BBC; as Ivy Benson 's All Ladies Orchestra was presented in the feature film The Dummy Talks with Jack Warner and Claude Hulbert. In 1944, she played six months at the London Palladium and 1945 in the Allied victory celebrations in Berlin and then in the Truppentreuung in Europe and the Middle East. Although membership in the British bandleader Association was denied her as a woman, she led the band until the early 1980s, each adapted to the prevailing taste repertoire. In 1950, she was involved in the musical film A Ray of Sunshine, she appeared twice in 1957 in the television series The Music Box. From 1975 they were called Ivy Benson and her band show after new laws prohibited only female bands. In 1982, she broke up with a final performance at the Savoy Hotel.

Her band had initially a high turnover, partly due in that many of its musicians blew with soldiers.

Benson was married twice, first with the theatrical agent Caryll Stafford Clark ( 1949-1951 ) and from 1957 to 1964 with a sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, they met on the Isle of Man on their summer engagements. She played there often in the Villa Marine Gardens before up to 6,000 listeners. Even in retirement she continued to maintain musical holiday guests on the coast.