WEST Indian-born musician and bandleader, Carl Barriteau, has died in Australia. He was 85. Barriteau came to London in the thirties to join Ken ''Snakehips'' Johnson's West Indian Dance Orchestra as lead alto and arranger. Johnson was a dancer and Carl was the musical brains behind the band. They were playing at London's Cafe de Paris in Leicester Square, in May 1941, when a German bomb scored a direct hit in front of the bandstand, killing Johnson, tenor sax player Dave Green, and several dancers. Barriteau was injured but recovered to resume his musical career.
He played with Ambrose and Eric Winstone and re-formed the West Indian band to take part in the 1942 Jazz Jamboree, before forming his band for a tour.
Sadly, his business acumen wasn't in the same field as his musical ability and he became bankrupt. He later led the band at the Eldorado Ballroom in Leith but was arrested for breaking the terms of his bankruptcy and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. This was reduced on appeal. He led a smaller eight-piece unit into the fifties, appearing regularly at Green's Playhouse Ballroom in Glasgow, where his band was augmented to a 12-piece with local musicians.
A virtuoso clarinet player, Barriteau was the only musician allowed to record Artie Shaw's Concerto for Clarinet, a tour de force on the instrument. His second wife was Glasgow singer Mae Cooper, who had previously sung with Ivy Benson's All Girl Orchestra. Mae is the sister of Glasgow entertainer Nicky Kidd, a regular performer at the Glasgow Pavilion in the fifties.
With the decline in the popularity of the dance bands, Carl and Mae emigrated to Australia in the late 1950s where Carl continued to play and teach until shortly before his death. He is survived by his wife, Mae.
Jimmy Brown
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