Denny Wright - Musical Career

Musical Career

Denny spent the first part of the war playing in jazz clubs in the West End of London, doing almost non-stop session work and performing in bands on many hit wartime shows. He worked with Stephane Grappelli for the first time in London around 1941. Denny was unable to join up, being classified as medically unfit due to a childhood injury suffered in a road accident which resulted in his spleen and half of his liver being surgically removed. Whilst still at school, Denny served with the Auxiliary Fire Service in Brockley. When he was old enough to join up, Denny joined ENSA, entertained the troops, apparently had a great time, and ended the war in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.

After the war,in 1945, he set up London's first bebop club, the Fullado in New Compton Street, where he played both piano and guitar. In the late 1940s he toured Italy and the Middle East with the Francisco Cavez orchestra before ending up playing in King Farouk's palace. He returned to the United Kingdom. Throughout the 1950s Denny was hard at work providing some of the great guitar accompaniments for Lonnie Donegan, Johnny Duncan, Humphrey Lyttelton, Marie Bryant (one of Duke Elligton's great vocalists) and others, as well as featuring on the BBC's Guitar Club. Wright worked with Tex Ritter, providing him with musical accompaniment at the 'Texas Western Spectacle' at the Haringey Arena in 1952; in addition to playing a Sheriff in one scene (which Denny loved, always having been a great fan of Westerns), he had to ride around an arena with Tex and the band whilst playing his guitar; on one fateful night, he discovered that the cinch on his saddle had not been properly tightened — he began to list and by the time he left the arena he was almost horizontal — but still on the horse and still playing!

Denny was part of Lonnie Donegan's group who first took skiffle to the Soviet Union in 1957, where his exploits included being mistaken for a champion weightlifter — also called Wright — and presented with medals at every station on the sleeper train to Moscow, hurling a large glass ashtray at a regimental band of pipers who began rehearsing in the early morning, and knocking a Chinese acrobat out after he knocked Denny's amplifier off the stage.

From 1940 (Workers' Playtime, among others) until the early 1980s, Denny Wright was a regular in the recording studios as one of Britain's best session musicians. Denny loved the life of a session musician, and he relished the musical challenges that it brought, providing guitar on hits by Mary Hopkin, Dusty Springfield and Tom Jones, among others.

Denny Wright's free-flowing improvisational style came to the forefront through his work with Lonnie Donegan in the 1950s. Denny was a pioneer in establishing a fresh lead guitar style in the context of the folk and blues roots from which Donegan drew his song repertoire. Drawing upon and transcending the jazz blues elements in his own background, and the vital influence of Django Reinhardt, Denny produced constantly innovative lead breaks and solos for Donegan's live work and recordings on both acoustic archtop and electric guitar.

Together with Bill Bramwell and Donegan's younger lead guitar players, Les Bennetts and Jimmy Currie, he helped forge an approach to lead styling inspirational for the next generation of British lead guitarists working with blues-based material in a rock context.

In the 1960s, in addition to a great deal of session work providing backing for many top artists including Mary Hopkin and Tom Jones, Denny was working with his friend Keith Cooper to keep the jazz flag flying; Tribute To The Hot Club by the Cooper-Wright Quintet is a wonderful example of their work together. In addition to jazz and session work, Denny was also a keen contributor on the folk scene, working extensively with the brilliant folk singer and guitarist Steve Benbow. Denny and Steve were to remain firm friends, working together to the delight of audiences to the end of Denny's career. During this period, Denny also began a long partnership with Rediffusion, providing many albums that are now collector's items.

In the early 1970s, Denny once more accompanied Stephane Grappelli, beginning at the Cambridge Folk Festival where Stephane's career was relaunched. Denny recorded and performed concerts with numerous leading British and international musicians during this time. In 1978, he formed Velvet with Ike Isaacs, Len Skeat and Digby Fairweather. In 1981, Denny was voted BBC Jazz Society Musician of the Year. After Velvet, Denny formed a band with Don Harper before reforming the Hot Club of London with Johnny van Derrick (violin), Gerry Higgins (double bass) and his protégé Rob Seamon (guitar). Denny played with the Hot Club of London across the UK, as well as at the jazz festivals in Eindhoven and Cork. His last gig, at The Grapes in Shepherd Market, Mayfair in late 1991, was with Johnny van Derrick. The 1970s saw Denny form a close friendship with Anton Kwiatkowski, one of the leading Producers/Engineers for EMI; throughout the decade, the worked together on many albums, mostly for EMI's Music for Pleasure label.

Denny occasionally taught young guitarists, both privately and as a peripatetic teacher at London comprehensive schools, and guest lectured at the Royal College of Music on the life of a session musician.

Apart from jazz, Denny Wright's listening tastes ranged from Delius and Ravel to Kate Bush ('The Man With The Child In His Eyes' was one of his all time favourites.)