Sylvester Ahola

Sylvester Ahola, also Hooley, ( born May 24, 1902 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, † 13 February 1995) was an American jazz trumpeter and cornetist.

Life

Ahola ( whose family is of Finnish origin ) began as a drummer and changed even as a child to trumpet and cornet. He played with the orchestra of Frank Ward, with whom he recorded in 1924 (not published), and from 1926 with whom he starred in the Paul Specht, also in 1926 in England. After that, he was with Ed Kirkeby, the The California Ramblers (with whom he made his first published recordings) and in the band of Adrian Rollini and Peter van Steeden. In 1927 he went back to England, where he was very successful, and took up a lot especially from the end of 1928 in the orchestra of Bert Ambrose played. Because of difficulties with the British trade unions in 1931, he moved back to New York. He played again at Van Steeden and again took with Ed Kirkeby in the early 1930s on. Then he was in the house band of NBC until 1940. Then he moved to his home town of Gloucester, was a musician active only at the local level. In his last years he played again with the Cape Ann Symphony Orchestra.