Denny Wright

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Denny Wright bigraphy, stories - English jazz guitarist

Denny Wright : biography

6 May 1924 – 8 February 1992

Denys Justin Wright (6 May 1924 – 8 February 1992), better known as Denny Wright, was a jazz and skiffle guitarist who performed with Stephane Grappelli, Lonnie Donegan, Johnny Duncan (bluegrass musician), Digby Fairweather, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Eckstine, Fapy Lafertin and many other musicians, including young rising stars such as Bireli Lagrene and Nigel Kennedy.

He was a session musician for many years and frequently acted as arranger and fixer for recording sessions. Wright was a prolific composer for jazz and orchestra and led many bands in his career, ranging from small jazz ensembles through night club bands to full size orchestras. In addition to jazz and skiffle, he worked with Latin American and Jamaican bands, including Kenny Graham’s Afro-Cubists. He greatly enjoyed contributing to some of the best swing bands and orchestras of the period, playing frequently with the Carl Barriteau orchestra, with Decca Records’ own house-band under Phil Green, and even the Glenn Miller band on occasions. In 1980, Denny Wright was voted the BBC Jazz Society Musician of the Year.

Although he was best known as a guitarist, his favourite instrument was actually the piano, no doubt partly inspired by his great friend George Shearing. His piano playing can be heard, for instance, on Travellin’ Blues by Johnny Duncan and the Bluegrass Boys.

Personal life

Denny married Barbara Nelson-Jones, lyricist and actress, in 1961 and their son, St.John, was born on 1 March 1963 while Denny was on stage with Lonnie Donegan in Leeds. Barbara died on 16 February 1989 after an eight-year battle with breast cancer. They had been married over 27 years. Denny, who was devastated by his wife’s death, died on 8 February 1992 in London after a nine-year battle with bladder cancer, a direct result of his very heavy smoking. Johnny Van Derrick and Denny’s son, who had given up his career to become Denny’s carer, were with him when he died.

Denny’s hobbies included fishing, sailing, reading historical fiction, and playing board wargames with his son.

Background and early life

Denny Wright was born in Deptford, London, England, and grew up in Brockley, with frequent forays to the Old Kent Road and the Elephant and Castle. His parents were Joseph William Wright, a first-generation Londoner who worked for the General Post Office, and Selina Elizabeth Stewart, a Scot. Although his first instrument was the piano. His older brother, Alex Wright, was a semi-professional guitarist before the war and it was inevitable that Denny, ten years younger, was soon trying to play his brother’s guitar. He must have succeeded, because Denny began playing professionally before World War II, while still at school. For a schoolboy, he was pulling in a substantial income. Indeed, when one teacher took a dislike to him, Denny took his entire class to the cinema and the teacher arrived after lunch to find an empty classroom.

There were always two things that gave away Wright’s self-taught guitar style: firstly, that he nearly always used his thumb on the top E string (totally incorrect, according to the ‘experts’) and that Denny could only play as fast as he could sing — very often on a Denny Wright solo, it is possible to hear him humming or singing along with himself.

Musical career

Wright 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. Wright 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, 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 guitar accompaniments for Lonnie Donegan, Johnny Duncan, Humphrey Lyttelton, Marie Bryant (one of Duke Elligton’s 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.