Reginald Foresythe (28 May 1907 – 28 December 1958)[1] was a British jazz pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader.
Foresythe was born and died in London.[1] His father was a West African barrister[2] of Sierra Leone Creole descent and his mother was an Englishwoman of German descent. The Foresythe family descended from Charles Foresythe, a Sierra Leonean colonial official who settled in Lagos, Nigeria, in the 1860s. Charles Foresythe was born in the early nineteenth century to a European army captain and a mother from Tasso Island, Sierra Leone.
He played piano from age eight. He worked in the second half of the 1920s as a pianist and accordionist in dance bands in Paris, Australia, Hawaii, and California. He also wrote music for films by D. W. Griffith and played in Paul Howard's Quality Serenaders.[1] In 1930, Foresythe moved to Chicago, Illinois, United States.
In America he wrote arrangements for Earl Hines and music for Paul Whiteman. Hines made one of his songs, "Deep Forest", a part of his repertory, while Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Adrian Rollini, and Hal Kemp recorded Foresythe's compositions.[1] He worked in New York City in 1934–35, arranging for Whiteman and recording with Benny Goodman, John Kirby, and Gene Krupa.
In London, Foresythe assembled a studio recording group called "The New Music of Reginald Foresythe". Between 1933 and 1936, he recorded for British Columbia and Decca, usually spotlighting his jazzy tone poems. Among the more well known were "Serenade to a Wealthy Widow", "Garden of Weed", "Dodging a Divorcee", and "Revolt of the Yes-Men". His recordings featured reeds and sax, but no horns.[1] In January 1935, Foresythe assembled a one-off session in New York which featured Benny Goodman and Gene Krupa recording four of his compositions.[1] Foresythe also recorded a number of piano solos and piano duets with Arthur Young (which included at least three medleys and four arrangements of "St. Louis Blues", "Tiger Rag", "Solitude" and "Mood Indigo" for HMV in 1938).
He served in the Royal Air Force during World War II, then accompanied vocalists and played solo piano in London in the 1950s.[1]
Foresythe collaborated with songwriters Andy Razaf and Ted Weems, composing "Be Ready" (with both), "Please Don't Talk About My Man" (with Razaf), and "He's a Son of the South" (with Razaf and Paul Denniker). Foresythe died, following a fall downstairs, in relative obscurity in 1958.[1]
Foresythe was gay, and was known to regularly get into fights in gay clubs and bars.[3]
Following the war, Forsythe was diagnosed with "war nerves", what is today known as PTSD. A decade on from his heyday, his confidence shot, Foresythe became a full-blown alcoholic and spent the late 1940s and 50s playing clubs in Britain.
All issues as The New Music of Reginald Foresythe unless otherwise indicated
London, 14 October 1933:
London, 1933 (date unknown) Reginald Foresythe, piano solo:
London, 9 February 1934:
London, 1934 (date unknown) Reginald Foresythe and Arthur Young, piano duet:
London, 6 September 1934
New York, 23 January 1935
London, 1935 (date unknown) Reginald Foresythe and Arthur Young, piano duet:
London 19 August 1935 (Reginald Foresythe & his Orchestra):
London, 1936? (date unknown) Arthur Young and Reginald Foresythe, piano duo with drums:
London, 1936? (date unknown) Reginald Foresythe, piano solo:
London, 6 November 1936 (Reginald Foresythe & his Orchestra)
London, 27 November 1936 (Reginald Foresythe & his Orchestra):
London, 1938 (date unknown) Reginald Foresythe and Arthur Young, piano duet: