Graham Bell & His All Stars - 1963 - Hernando's Hideaway FLAC

Hernando's Hideaway/Down By The Riverside/Rag Trade Rag/South



Graeme Emerson Bell, Australian jazz musician (born Sept. 7, 1914, Richmond, near Melbourne, Australia—died June 13, 2012, Sydney, Australia), pioneered a resurgence of traditional jazz as dance music in Australia and parts of Europe as the leader of Australia’s foremost jazz band. Bell, who studied classical piano, got his start in jazz in the 1930s, playing piano in his brother’s band in Melbourne clubs. During World War II he founded the Graeme Bell Jazz Gang, which achieved national popularity through radio broadcasts and record sales. The group, rebranded the Australian Jazz Band after the war, toured Europe (1947–48), where listening to jazz was considered a sedentary activity.


 Graeme Bell in front of a sign advertising The Graeme Bell All Stars tour in Czechoslovakia, 1947

The band’s jaunty front lines dazzled across Dixieland standards, show tunes, and folk songs and set off a revival of dancing to jazz. Back in Australia in 1949, Bell cofounded Swaggie Records. He also resumed touring Australia (and later Europe and Asia) with his original band and then with the Graeme Bell All Stars, which he formed in 1962. During his 70-year career, Bell recorded more than 1,500 tracks. He was made MBE (1978) and an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO; 1990) for his services to music and was inducted (1997) into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame. The annual Australian jazz awards (established in 2003) were known as the Bell Awards in his honour.