Ray Ventura

Raymond Ventura 16 April 1908 Paris France 29 March 1979 Palma de Mallorca Spain was a French jazz pianist and bandleader He helped popularize jazz in France in the 1930s His nephew was singer Sacha Distel Ventura was born to a Jewish family In 1925 he was the pianist for the Collegiate Five which recorded as the Collegians for Columbia beginning in 1928 and for Decca in the 1930s A year later he led the band and it became a dance orchestra resembling a big band His sidemen included Alix Combelle Philippe Brun and Guy Paquinet In the early 1940s he led a big band in South America and in France during the rest of the decade One of his bands popular songs from 1936 was Tout va très bien Madame la Marquise in which the Marquise is told by her servants that everything is fine at home except for a series of escalating calamities It was seen as a metaphor for Frances obliviousness to the approaching war Source Article Ray Ventura from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30