Ronnie Aldrich

Ronald Frank Aldrich (15 February 1916 – 30 September 1993) was a British easy listening and jazz pianist, arranger, conductor and composer.

He was born Ronald Frank Aldrich on 15 February 1916 in Erith, Kent, England, the only son of a store manager. He started playing the piano at three years old and was educated at the Harvey Grammar School in Folkestone and learned violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He travelled to India in the late 1930s ahead of World War Two to play jazz and first gained fame in the 1940s as the leader of a Royal Air Force band, later called The Squadronaires who had a 20-year-long career before they disbanded in 1964.

Aldrich was educated at The Harvey Grammar School, Folkestone, and taught violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Before the Second World War, he went to India to play jazz and first gained fame in the 1940s with the Squadronaires, which he led from 1951, when the band was then billed as Ronnie Aldrich and The Squadronaires, up until their disbanding in 1964.

Aldrich was noteworthy for his arrangements for stereo LPs featuring two piano parts, often mixed so that one piano part was only audible in the left channel, while the other was only audible in the right channel (the Decca Phase 4 Stereo series). Aldrich played both piano parts at separate times using overdubbing. He recorded for the Decca Record Company Ltd in the 1960s and 1970s, moving to Seaward Ltd (his own company) licensed to EMI in the 1980s. He also regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 2 with his own orchestra as well as with the BBC Radio Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra, based at BBC Glasgow. Aldrich also recorded special tracks that were released by Reader's Digest. All the Decca recordings have been released on CD format by Vocalion. Many of his sessions for radio stations have been released by Apple iTunes in m4a format.

He was appointed musical director at Thames Television, and thus was widely known as the musical director for the television programme The Benny Hill Show. He was married twice and had a daughter from his first marriage. At the time of his death, he was married to Edith Mary Aldrich (1919–2006), his wife for more than 30 years. In later years he moved to the Isle of Man where he lived with his wife in Strathallan Castle, formerly the Clifton Hotel, in Port St. Mary, but he continued to work in London, where he remained a member of the local Branch of the Musicians Union. He died of prostate cancer at age 77 on 30 September 1993 in Clatterbridge, Cheshire. He found his final rest at St. Luke's Churchyard, Baldwin Braddan, Middle, Isle of Man.

Ronnie Aldrich and the Squadcats

Decca Discography "Ronnie Aldrich And His Two Pianos"

(PFS is the Decca (UK) original catalogue number; SP is the London label (USA) version) / (*) Also issued as "Romantic Screen Themes" in Japan (London SLC4484) / (**) Togetherness (UK double-disc set) was issued as two separate albums in the USA