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Tom Waltham

Tom Waltham was born in Paddington, London, May 21st 1899. He joined the British Army in June 1917, and was sent to France. There he met several American musicians, including Jim Europe, Will Vodery and A. R. Etzweiller, who were playing for military audiences and French civilians. Waltham stayed in France at war's end. He had met New Orleans jazz trombonist Emile Christian when Christian was a member of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band which had recently played in London. The two formed a small group, playing in Paris. Later, joined by trumpeter Max Neff, the group became known as the Ad-Libs.

Waltham was admitted to Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique (Sacem) in 1920 (in 2016, 52 of his works as composer or arranger are listed on the Sacem website). The following year, the Ad-Libs began playing at Zelli's, 16 bis rue Fontaine . In 1922-23 Waltham and the Ad-Libs were engaged by the Folies Bergères to accompany the futurist American dancer, Nina Payne. Folies Sur Folies premiered on 11th February 1922 and Nina appeared as an ibis in the tableaux Let Women be Beautiful and gave Cubist and Dadaist dances in The Girl of Tomorrow. The five musicians - on stage dressed as pirates - were Waltham (piano, conductor, arranger), Max Brun (clarinet, saxophone), Christian (trombone, bass saxophone), Bert Matthews (drums) and an unknown trumpeter. In October 1923, Waltham made his first recording, for Pathé: four piano solos, sandwiched between two pieces by the Rumolino's Hot Boys Band. The first discs of his band alone were made for the French company Gramophone in June 1925. In September the L'Ermitage reopened at 72, Avenue des Champs Elysées with the Ad-Libs on stage. In January and February 1926, the Ad-Libs appeared at the Empire (41 avenue de Wagram) accompanying dancers Harry Pilcer, sister Elsie Pilcer and Dudley Douglas. That summer, some of the group got the chance to jam (faire du boeuf) with Paul Whiteman's orchestra on their tour of France. Later in the year, the orchestra made more recordings with Pathé, and also some radio broadcasts, one of which included Waltham's dadaist Syncopated Nightmare, a novelty foxtrot.

In 1927, the Ad-Libs went on tour, first in April to the Hôtel Negresco on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice in April, then in July to the Villa des Fleurs in Aix-Les-Bains and in August the l'Hôtel de la Couronne in the same city - all most luxurious establishments and renowned for their jazz. Back in Paris for the 1927-1928 season, they played at Ciro's, the Washington Palace and especially the Café de Paris, where they continued to play regularly in 1929 and 1930. In the second half of 1928 Emile Christian left Waltham, probably shortly after the final recording session for Gramophone. At the time the group was joined by André Billiard, A. and J. Chaudioux. Now their style tended towards tangos, waltzes and paso dobles, and they played at the Café de Paris, the Pavillon d'Armenonville in the Bois de Boulogne and the Hôtel Claridge. In 1930 the band appeared in two films: Je t'adore, mais pourquoi? (director Pierre Colombier, Pathé Natan, March 1930) and Autour de votre main, Madame (Gaumont Franco/Film Aubert, April 1930). At the end of the year, they went to Nice and played in the Casino Municipal, then the Restaurant du Grand Cercle. About this time he recorded Franz Lehar's Dein ist mein ganzes Herz/Je t'ai donné mon coeur for Pathé, a recording that is still widely available.

Over the next years, Tom concentrated on composing and arranging, with editor Max Eschig. This activity proved more profitable than directing his orchestra. Nevertheless, Tom continued to record from time to time. In 1934, after participating in the shooting of the movie Amiral Bizibi he accompanied singers for several labels, e.g. Gilberte Legrand and Jacqueline Ford in children's songs of which he was co-author. The following year, Tom switched his publisher to Masspacher, at the same time as starting a new five-year recording contract (which lasted until 1940) with Polydor. In 1937, Waltham played in the operetta La Petite Guerre which toured in France and Belgium.

In 1940 with the Wehrmacht approaching, Tom, still a British citizen but long settled in France and recently married to a French woman, elected not to leave. At the beginning of the occupation he was interned with other British and Commonwealth nationals (and Americans after December 1941) in the Camp des Internés Britanniques in the 19th century barracks in Saint-Denis. Life in the camp was tolerable, and the thin rations were supplemented by the International Red Cross. Recreation was possible and Tom assembled an orchestra out of prisoners. He discovered that Arthur Briggs, the African-American jazz trumpeter, had been interned in the SS Polizeihaftlager for political prisoners near Compiègne. Why Briggs was there is not known; he was an American citizen (this was not yet 1941) and not a political prisoner. Tom petitioned the German authorities to have him transferred to Saint-Denis, and this was granted. There Briggs and Waltham were at the heart of the camp’s musical activities. Jazz was forbidden in the camp so the interned jazz musicians, many of African heritage, turned to classical music. A printed program survives of a 1942 Concert Symphonique including works by Albeniz, Granados, de Falla, Mozart, Handel, Franck and Liszt. Tom Waltham directed "Arthur Briggs et son Orchestre". The concerts were a success and were popular with German officers.

After the Liberation, Tom became music director at Masspacher and he composed a number of songs, notably for Édith Piaf. He retired in the second half of the 60s and lived with his wife near Montmartre in the 18th Arrondissement. He died two days after his 75th birthday, May 23, 1974.