Ian Handford: The brilliant musician with a dark side

Born William Munn (Billy) on May 12th, 1911, at Parkhead, Glasgow, into a family who lived not a stone's throw from Celtic Park Football Club, he came from both a maternal and paternal line steeped in entertainment. It was no surprise that young Billy was destined for a career in music.

By the age of two, he could memorise and hum the tune of Alexander’s Ragtime Band — the sound of Irving Berlin. By seven, he was already playing the piano, and at eleven, he was accomplished enough to perform regularly at children’s matinees in Glasgow’s Black Cat Cinema. With little time for rehearsals, improvisation became a defining key to Billy's future career.

Later in life, he admitted that those early years were challenging, though they ultimately led him to pursue jazz with conviction.

He played at his first live dance at fourteen, and though still attending school, he was already working as a professional musician. His extraordinary talent didn’t go unnoticed and soon earned him permanent work at King’s Café. Although his original ambition had been to become a chemist, that dream quickly faded when the so-called “hot-shot impresario” Louis Freeman secured him a job at the Plaza Ballroom. By seventeen, Billy was already playing at the Locarno Ballroom in London and later performed with the Jack Roseberry Band in the West End. He cut his first record soon after, and the following year, playing both piano and accordion, he joined what was then the world’s most famous orchestra — the Jack Hylton Band. He would remain with the band for seven years, with Hylton even allowing him to take on freelance work.

Billy toured Europe with the band, followed immediately by an American tour. During this period, while freelancing, he played alongside jazz greats such as Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, and Adelaide Hall, and he even featured in the film She Shall Have Music. However, in 1936, the American Federation of Musicians enforced protectionist policies allowing only American musicians to tour the country.

As a result, Hylton's entire ensemble was forced to return to England. Unwilling to challenge the union, Hylton effectively abandoned his musicians. A legal battle followed as Hylton attempted to claim that all his artists were on “suspended contracts” — a fight he ultimately lost. Billy Munn, among other key figures, immediately severed ties.

While working with the Sydney Lipton Band, Billy also began composing and arranging music. Like Hylton, Lipton gave him creative freedom, even allowing him to record under his own label, Regal Zonophone. His renditions of Night and Day and Because were soon released and warmly received. Billy remained with Lipton while performing at Grosvenor House until 1939, when he joined the RAF. With the Air Force band The Squadronaires, he met trombonist George Chisholm and trumpeter Tommy McQuater — together, they formed a dynamic new group.

While playing during the Second World War at various venues, Munn became the pianist and music arranger for the rising bandleader Victor Sylvester and his new so-called jazz band. These were halcyon days for Billy, as he had created the first-ever Jive Band and introduced a multitude of new Sylvester dances once American GIs arrived to be stationed throughout Britain.

By the late forties, Munn was billed as England's leading piano-playing band leader and would regularly top the Melody Maker listings. It was also a time when George Chisholm and he were being recognised as leading the jive movement once the war ended.

Billy Munn now formed his own band at The Orchid Room in Mayfair, where he would play and mix with the rich, like the racehorse owner Ali Khan, who became a real friend. Yet his lifestyle centred completely around work, long hours and always late nights and drinking – a disaster in the making.