18 Facts About Nat Gonella

Nathaniel Charles Gonella was an English jazz trumpeter, bandleader, vocalist, and mellophonist.

Nat Gonella founded the big band The Georgians, during the British dance band era.

Nat Gonella transcribed Armstrong's solos and learned them by heart.

Nat Gonella played briefly with Roy Fox in 1931 and remained in the band when Lew Stone, Fox's former pianist, took over leadership the following year.

When Louis Armstrong visited London in 1932, Nat Gonella met him by begging the staff at the Boosey and Hawkes music shop to allow him to deliver Armstrong's trumpet, which had been left at the shop for cleaning.

Nat Gonella made uncredited appearances with Lew Stone and Al Bowlly in the films Bitter Sweet and The King's Cup.

Nat Gonella's reputation grew when he formed The Georgians in 1935.

Nat Gonella became a headline act on the variety circuit before the outbreak of World War II.

Nat Gonella joined the army in 1941, and was recruited into the Stars in Battledress campaign, touring allied camps in Europe and North Africa.

Nat Gonella reformed his band after the war, but the economic and musical climate was changing rapidly at that time.

Nat Gonella flirted briefly with bebop, acknowledged that it was not for him, and returned to the variety stage during the 1950s, touring with the likes of the comedian Max Miller.

On 22nd February 1960 he featured on the UK television show This Is Your Life, an appearance which later inspired an album The Nat Gonella Story, modelled on Louis Armstrong's A Musical Autobiography.

Nat Gonella appeared on the BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs in August 1966.

Nat Gonella moved to Lancashire in 1962, and toured regularly on the Northern club circuit until his alleged retirement on his 65th birthday, on 7 March 1973.

Digby Fairweather's New Georgians paid tribute to Gonella's musical heritage in 1984, and Fairweather and fellow trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton co-hosted a television tribute, Fifty Years of Nat Gonella, the following year, in which Gonella himself was an enthusiastic participant.

Nat Gonella continued to sing occasionally with various bands, and made the headlines again in 1997 when a sampled excerpt of his trumpet playing from a recording he made in 1932 was used in White Town's number one pop hit "Your Woman".

Nat Gonella died at the Gosport War Memorial Hospital, Hampshire on 6 August 1998, aged 90.

Nat Gonella was a down-to-earth and unassuming character, and remained so throughout his life.