Al Bowlly
| Al Bowlly | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Albert Allick Bowlly 7 January 1898 Lourenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique |
| Died | 17 April 1941 (aged 43) London, England, UK |
| Occupation | Singer, guitarist, songwriter, composer and band leader |
| Years active | 1927–41 |
Albert Allick "Al" Bowlly (7 January 1898 – 17 April 1941) was a Mozambican-born South African/British singer, songwriter, composer and band leader, who became a popular jazz crooner during the British dance band era of the 1930s and later worked in the United States. He recorded more than 1,000 records between 1927 and 1941. His most popular songs include "Midnight, the Stars and You", "Goodnight, Sweetheart", "The Very Thought of You", "Guilty" , "Love Is the Sweetest Thing" and the only English version of "Dark Eyes" by Adalgiso Ferraris as "Black Eyes" with words of Albert Mellor.
Bowlly was born in Lourenço Marques, in the then Portuguese colony of Mozambique, to Greek and Lebanese parents who met en route to Australia and moved to South Africa. Bowlly was brought up in Johannesburg. After a series of odd jobs across South Africa in his youth, including being a barber and a jockey, he gained his musical experience singing for a dance band led by Edgar Adeler on a tour of South Africa, Rhodesia, India and Indonesia during the mid-1920s. However, he fell out with Adeler and was fired from the band in Surabaya, Indonesia. After a spell with a Filipino band in Surabaya he was then employed by Jimmy Liquime in India. Bowlly worked his passage back home by busking. Just one year after his 1927 debut recording date in Berlin, where he recorded Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" with Edgar Adeler, Bowlly arrived in London for the first time as part of Fred Elizalde's orchestra, although he nearly didn't make it after foolishly frittering away the fare money sent to him by Elizalde.
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