Ray ellington biography

Henry Pitts Brown, known professionally as Ray Ellington, was an English singer, drummer and bandleader.
Ray Ellington was an English singer, drummer and bandleader.
Ray Ellington was born on March 17, 1916 in London, England, UK. He was an actor and composer, known for The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004).

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Ray Ellington (1916-1985)
and The Ray Ellington Quartet
Born Ray Brown in London, the son of an American comedian and a Russian Orthodox Jew, Ray took up a career in music and took his stage name in tribute to his hero, Duke Ellington. Ray was the drummer and lead singer for the Ray Ellington Quartet, who became one of Britain’s most successful acts of the immediate post-war period, voted Melody Maker’s top small band for two years running. The band was a feature of the Goon Show all the way through its run, filling one musical interlude per show, with Ellington singing a wide variety of popular and modern songs. He was also regularly called on as an actor. His regular roles included Bloodnok’s mortal enemy ‘The Red Bladder’, a fierce Arab chieftain. His presence was also used to make (generally non-offensive) jokes about skin colour.
Ray Ellington on Wikipedia

Max Geldray (1916-2004)
Max was a Dutch-born jazz musician who took inspiration from his hero, Louis Armstrong. He was thought to be the first jazz musician to play his chosen instru

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Ray Ellington was an English jazz drummer, singer, and bandleader. He was most famous for his regular appearances, with his quartet, on the Goon Show. Ellington had a music slot in each show and also occasionally played minor characters.

Ellington was born Harry Pitts Brown, in Kennington, London, the youngest of four children. His father was Harry Pitts Brown, a black music-hall comedian and entertainer, and his mother was Eva Stenkell Rosenthal, a Russian Jew. His father died when Brown was four years old. He was brought up as a strictly Orthodox Jew, attending South London Jewish School (1924–30), before entering show business at the age of twelve, when he appeared in an acting role on the London stage.

Ellington specialised in jazz but experimented with many other genres throughout the show's history and his musical style was heavily influenced by the comic jump blues of Louis Jordan. Ellington's band was one of the first in the U.K. to feature the stripped-back guitar/bass/drums/piano format that became the basis of rock and roll, as well as being one of the fir

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Ray Ellington

English singer, drummer and bandleader (1916–1985)

Ray Ellington
Ray Ellington
Birth name	Henry Pitts Brown
Born	(1916-03-17)17 March 1916^[1] Kennington, London, England
Origin	England
Died	27 February 1985(1985-02-27) (aged 68)^[2] England
Genres	Jazz, blues
Occupation(s)	Singer, drummer, bandleader
Instrument	Drums

Musical artist

Henry Pitts Brown (17 March 1916 – 27 February 1985),^[2] known professionally as Ray Ellington, was an English singer, drummer and bandleader. He is best known for his appearances on The Goon Show from 1951 to 1960. The Ray Ellington Quartet had a regular musical segment on the show, and Ellington also had a small speaking role in many episodes, often as a parodic African, Native American or Arabchieftain (but also often, with no attempt to change his normal accent, in counter-intuitive roles such as a female secretary or a Scotsman).

Early life

Ellington was born Henry Pitts Brown, at 155 Kennington Road, Kennington, London, England, the youn