Ronnie Aldrich
Ronald Frank Aldrich (15 February 1916 – 30 September 1993) was a British easy listening and jazz pianist, arranger, conductor and composer. Early life. The only son of a store manager, he was three years old when he started playing the piano. Education and career. He 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. He was noteworthy for the recording development of playing two pianos in his recordings (the Decca Phase 4 Stereo series). 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. He 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, his wife for more than 30 years. He died of prostate cancer at age 77 in the Isle of Man. Discography. His work  has been released in different formats: LP (vinyl), single (vinyl), cassette, 8-track, open reel (stereo & quadraphonic), CD and recently digital (mp3, m4a). 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 Seaward Music recordings licensed to EMI (One Piano). Seaward also issued a vinyl LP, "The Wonderful World of Man", which contained recordings of the sounds of the Isle of Man , where Ronnie Aldrich lived from the 1960s onwards. This record was sold in the island to tourists. Released as two separate albums in US: Here Come The Hits! (+) and Close to You (++) Released as "Evergreen" in US. (*)not included in American release.