Uploaded April 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
The Devonshire Restaurant Dance Band plays a superb version of Boyd Senter's composition "Slippery Elm", with great solos by Frank Guarente (trumpet - two solos), Bert Firman (violin), Billy Barton (tenor sax) and Arthur Lally (clarinet).
The band that Firman directed at the Devonshire Restaurant in London's Piccadilly (with an entrance on Mayfair Place) was a brassless unit; Frank Guarente was added for recording purposes only. The dance band at the restaurant never played hot jazz like this! Indeed, Firman prided himself on having one of the quietist bands in London for dinner-dancing!
The Devonshire Restaurant was installed within Devonshire House, an office block and showroom that was built in the mid-1920s on the site of the former London home of the Dukes of Devonshire. The restaurant opened in the Spring of 1926 but failed to impress and closed in the Spring of 1928. After several relaunches, under various names, the venue eventually became the San Marco restaurant.
DEVONSHIRE RESTAURANT DANCE BAND
Bert Firman, violin, directing: Frank Guarente - trumpet / Arthur Lally - alto sax, clarinet / Barney Sorkin - alto sax, clarinet / Bill Barton - tenor sax, clarinet / John Firman - piano / Jack Simmonds - banjo / Billy Bell - brass bass / Jack Trebble - drums
Recorded at Hayes, Middlesex, May 26th, 1927
Yy-10762-2…….Slippery Elm…….Zonophone 2964
The Devonshire Restaurant Dance Band plays a superb version of Boyd Senter's composition "Slippery Elm", with great solos by Frank Guarente (trumpet - two solos), Bert Firman (violin), Billy Barton (tenor sax) and Arthur Lally (clarinet).
The band that Firman directed at the Devonshire Restaurant in London's Piccadilly (with an entrance on Mayfair Place) was a brassless unit; Frank Guarente was added for recording purposes only. The dance band at the restaurant never played hot jazz like this! Indeed, Firman prided himself on having one of the quietist bands in London for dinner-dancing!
The Devonshire Restaurant was installed within Devonshire House, an office block and showroom that was built in the mid-1920s on the site of the former London home of the Dukes of Devonshire. The restaurant opened in the Spring of 1926 but failed to impress and closed in the Spring of 1928. After several relaunches, under various names, the venue eventually became the San Marco restaurant.
DEVONSHIRE RESTAURANT DANCE BAND
Bert Firman, violin, directing: Frank Guarente - trumpet / Arthur Lally - alto sax, clarinet / Barney Sorkin - alto sax, clarinet / Bill Barton - tenor sax, clarinet / John Firman - piano / Jack Simmonds - banjo / Billy Bell - brass bass / Jack Trebble - drums
Recorded at Hayes, Middlesex, May 26th, 1927
Yy-10762-2…….Slippery Elm…….Zonophone 2964
