When the bandleader Ted Heath was looking for a saxophonist for his new big band in 1945, he found my friend Johnnie Gray. Johnnie, who has died aged 94, stayed with the radio favourites for four years, before joining the American Sydney Lipton and his orchestra in their residency at the Grosvenor House hotel in London.
By 1952 Johnnie had created his own 10-piece outfit, which broadcast, recorded and toured all over Europe. In 1955, the American Federation of Musicians agreed to allow a British band to tour the US in exchange for one of their bands visiting here. Britain got Count Basie and in return America got a band they had never heard of Johnnie Gray and his Band of the Day. Before the decade was out, the band had eight return invitations.
Continue reading...