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Billy Bell - Jazz Guitarist,
 Billy
Bell seen here on the right in front of announcer David Jacobs during a BBC
Broadcast of the Ivor Mairants Guitar Group, Left to right, Joe Mudelle Bass,
Jack Duarte, Ivor Mairants and Dennis Wilson on Piano. Billy appears to be
playing an Electric Archtop with tear drop sound holes and a single Pickup with
controls mounted on the Scratchplate.
Billy was a versatile musician,
being able to play banjo, guitar, tuba and bass. It is as a guitar player he
is best remembered, though if the Rust and Forbes "British Dance Band"
discography is to be believed, he made a huge number of record both as a
double bass and tuba player. Here's a quick rundown of his likely dance band
recording career:
Emlyn Thomas's London Band...............................1923
to possibly 1925 (banjo)
Bert & John Firman's Zonophone house bands......1927 - 1932 (tuba)
Nat Star's studio band for Homophone........ various sessions 1929 to
1931 (banjo)
Jack Harris' Grosvenor House Hotel band.........May 1931 to May 1932
(bass and tuba)
Jay Wilbur's house band on Rex
& Crown records.. various from 1933 - end 1941 (bass)
Phil Green's band................................................. one
session in April 1935 (guitar)
 Billy
Bell, Bert Weedon, Steve Gauna, Jack
Llewellyn, Joe Fenton, George Elliott along with
Judd Proctor on Guitar and Bassist Joe
Mudelle.were all in the Big Ben Banjo Band inspired by Bandleader Norrie Paramor
for easy listing and commercial success beyond his wildest dreams.
Formed during the height of their popularity, from 1954 to 1958 by Columbia A &
R man Norrie Paramor and were purely intended as a recording unit. Basically they
were a Dixieland-style outfit with banjos predominant. Norrie had the pick of
the top session musicians, and his original line up included George Chisholm on
trombone, Tommy McQuater (trumpet) and Bert Weedon (guitar). They continued to
record prolifically, right through into the 1970s.
Nice little Earner
Norrie Paramor and the Big Ben Banjo Band
Leader/Piano:
Norrie Paramor
Banjos: Billy
Bell (bottom Right), Bert Weedon (Top), Steve Gauna,
Jack Llewellyn,
Joe Fenton, George Elliott
Trumpet: Stan
Roderick
Trombone: George
Chisholm
Accordion: Reg
Hogarth
Guitar: Judd
Proctor
Bass: Joe
Mudelle
Tuba: Jim
Powell
Percussion: Jock
Cummings
Drums: Denis
McCarthy
I started playing the piano when I was six years old, learning the usual
stuff, and happy in retrospect to have learned reading and playing the
traditional way. When I was eleven, my sister got a guitar for Christmas along
with a guitar manual written by Billy Bell. I stole the guitar from her
and started to teach myself to play using the tutorial and other bits I had
picked up from old records laying around the house. Several years later I
was fortunate to call on Billy Bell for a BBC radio session and I told him about
my first steps on guitar and how he’d personally inspired me. He shattered my
romantic illusions saying that he’d simply agreed to have his picture on the
front cover of the book in exchange for a free amplifier. That's Jazz!
- Dave Cooke
 Jack Llewellyn and
Ivor Mairants testing
a new
Van Straten Guitar.
Behind them, from left to right, are Van Straten,
Joe Deniz (gr) headstock in hand, Dick Knight,
Dick Sadleir and Lauderic Caton.
That could be Billy Bell in the glasses centre rear.
Joe 90 Theme Recording
Personnel: Billy Bell (guitar, banjo); Jim Sullivan, Vic Flick
(guitar); Michael Jeffries, David Snell (harp); David Katz,
George French, Ray Moseley, Julian Gaillard, Jack Mandel, Lou Whiteson, John
Jezzard, Ralph Elman, Jack Greenstone, David McCallum, Reg Leopold (violin);
John Underwood , David Bellman, John Dyer (viola); Bram Martin, Fred Alexander,
Reginald Kilbey, Alan Ford (cello); Tommy Reilly (harmonica); Henry Krein
(accordion); Keith Bird, Cyril Reubens, Roy Wilcox, Peter Hughes (clarinet);
Tommy McQuater (trumpet); Alf Reece (trombone, tuba); Jock Bain
(trombone); Frank Rycroft (horns); Bill Davies (organ); Joe Mudelle,
Dave Richmond (bass guitar); Jock Cummings, Stan Barrett, Alan
Hakin, Eric Allen (percussion).
Unknown Contributor Role: Jack Emblow.
Joe Muddell or Mudelle - Bassist
born in
1920 Joe
Muddell was an original
Club Eleven bass player. He began
playing at seventeen years of age but his musical career was interrupted by war
service in the RAF. He played with Tito Burns in
1947 before
Club Eleven in
1948. Then in
1950 became a founder member of the
Johnny Dankworth Seven. Worked
with various groups in the early 1950s before forming his own band in
1952
before long spells with Tommy Whittle and
Tony Kinsey in the mid
1950s.
He than became a prolific free-lance musician with TV, radio and studio work.
The Club Eleven was so named because it had 11 founders -
business manager Harry Morris and 10 British bebop musicians.
It was first opened at 41 Great Windmill Street in Soho in
1948, and had two house
bands,
one led by Ronnie
Scott and
the other by John
Dankworth.
Scott's sidemen included Tony
Crombie, Lennie
Bush, Tommy
Pollard,
and Hank
Shaw,
while Dankworth's included Leon
Calvert, Bernie
Fenton, Joe
Muddell,
and Laurie
Morgan.
When Scott toured the U.S., Don
Rendell filled
his spot. Denis
Rose organized
many of the activities at the club. In 1950 the club moved to
50 Carnaby Street, but shuttered a few months after the move as
a consequence of a police raid.
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PAUL
VERNON CHESTER
