Sydney Bernard Kyte (born Solomon Barnett Chyte; 1 June 1896 – 29 July 1981) was a

British dance band British dance band is a genre of popular jazz and dance music that developed in British dance halls and hotel ballrooms during the 1920s and 1930s, often called a Golden Age of British music, prior to the Second World War. Thousands of miles awa ...

leader and violinist who became known in the 1930s, when he led the resident band at The Piccadilly Hotel in London's West End.

Principal Probate Registry The National Probate Calendar is a register of proved wills and administrations in England and Wales since 1858. History The probate calendar was created by the Probate Registry, which was responsible for proving wills and administrations from ...

; London, England; ''Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England''

General Register Office General Register Office or General Registry Office (GRO) is the name given to the civil registry in the United Kingdom, many other Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth nations and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The GRO is the government agency r ...

. ''England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes''. London, England: General Register Office. Kyte made numerous recordings, and remained active into the 1950s.

Early life

Kyte, who was Jewish, was born in

Whitechapel Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough tow ...

, east London, in 1896. As a 13-year old boy, he took part in a performance of classical music at the

Salle Érard Salle Érard The salle Érard () is a music venue located in Paris, 13 rue du Mail in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. It is part of the hôtel particulier which belonged, from the 18th century, to the family of piano, harp and harpsichord manu ...

which was reviewed in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

''. The newspaper wrote that his solo performance "showed promise". Kyte studied at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

, winning a scholarship at the age of 15, and was later an associate of the academy. He joined the Royal Life Guards in 1914.

Career

Kyte achieved prominence as deputy leader of the Savoy Orpheans dance band, whom he began recording with in 1926 as their violinist. He also played the violin on recordings by The Sylvians, another

Savoy Hotel The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August 1 ...

band, in 1927. This was followed by short stints at

The Berkeley The Berkeley is a 5-star luxury hotel located at Wilton Place in Knightsbridge, London. The hotel is owned and managed by the Maybourne Hotel Group, which also owns The Connaught and Claridge's in Mayfair, London. History 1800s and early ...

hotel and Ciro's nightclub. During the 1930s, Kyte was musical director at The Piccadilly Hotel in central London, which he and his band played and broadcast from. In 1939, it was estimated that apart from Henry Hall, no other bandleader had achieved as many hours of radio broadcasting as Kyte, at over 700 hours. By that point, Kyte had been resident bandleader at the hotel for six years. His fame was such that he was one of 25 dance band leaders featured on a 1936 set of Lambert & Butler cigarette cards. According to this profile, he enjoyed fishing, "particularly for octopuses off the coast of Majorca". It also noted that he was musical director to the

Duke of Westminster Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they ...

. Kyte and his orchestra appeared in the 1937 musical film ''

Saturday Night Revue ''Saturday Night Revue'' is a 1937 British musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot o ...

''. In October 1931, Kyte began his recording career as a bandleader, in a session with the Piccadilly Hotel Band for Regal which included the popular song " Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries". His band recorded regularly for Regal until September 1932. That month, he moved to the

Durium Durium is a highly durable synthetic resin developed in 1929. It was used in phonograph records, as well as in the casting process for metallic type and in the aeronautics industry. Origin It is a resorcinol-formaldehyde resin, the result o ...

label, where he led their Durium Dance Band. The following year, Kyte's band switched to Edison Bell Winner for three sessions. After a break from recording of over 18 months, he started recording for Panachord in 1935. In 1936, the band were with

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, record label * Decca Gold, classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, musical theater record label * Decca Studios, recording facility in West ...

for three sessions. This was followed by a recording session for Rex in June 1939, which saw the end of his regular studio sessions. Among the titles recorded by Kyte were "

Paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...

", " The Sun Has Got His Hat On", " Stars Fell on Alabama" and "

A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin in 1919 which became the theme song of the ''Ziegfeld Follies''. The first verse and refrain are considered part of the Great American Songbook and are often covered as a ...

". Vocalists on his recording sessions included

Anona Winn Anona Winn (born Anona Edna Wilkins, 5 January 1904 – 2 February 1994) was an Australian-born actress, broadcaster and singer, who spent most of her career in the UK. Career Born in Sydney, she studied at the Redland College For Girls in Syd ...

and

Sam Costa Samuel Gabriel Costa (17 June 1910 – 23 September 1981) was an English singer, entertainer and broadcaster. Initially a popular singer in the dance band era and a comic actor on the show ''Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh'', he was later a disc ...

Personal life and death

Kyte married his wife Amy in

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

, London, in 1928. From the 1930s to the 1960s, he lived in

Golders Green Golders Green is a suburb in the London Borough of Barnet in north London, northwest of Charing Cross. It began as a medieval small suburban linear settlement near a farm and public grazing area green, and dates to the early 19th century. It ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

(now

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

). He survived Amy by three years and died on 29 July 1981, in

Great Leighs Great Leighs is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Great and Little Leighs, in the Chelmsford district of Essex, England, halfway between Chelmsford itself and Braintree. In 1931 the parish had a population of 728. Histor ...

, near

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

, in Essex, where he had recently been living. Kyte was 85 years old.

References

External links

Discogs profile
*
AllMusic profileFind a Grave memorial
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kyte, Sydney 1896 births 1981 deaths 20th-century British violinists 20th-century English conductors (music) 20th-century English male musicians Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Dance band bandleaders Decca Records artists English bandleaders English male violinists English violinists Jewish English musicians Military personnel from Chelmsford Military personnel from the London Borough of Barnet Military personnel from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Musicians from Chelmsford Musicians from the London Borough of Barnet Musicians from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets People from Golders Green People from Great Leighs People from Whitechapel