Cyril Blake

The story so far.

Written and edited by Smokiller

Cyril Blake, nicknamed Midnight, was a trumpeter, guitarist and bandleader born on 22 October 1900 who worked mostly in London's club scene. He picked up banjo and guitar while visiting relatives in New York, reached England as a stowaway in 1916 and spent several years in the merchant navy. From 1921 he played guitar with the Southern Syncopated Orchestra, then moved between clubs in Paris and London through the 1920s and switched to trumpet. In 1928 he toured Europe with Thompson's Negro Band, and in the 1930s he played in the band of his drummer brother George Happy Blake. He set up his own band at Jig's Club in Soho in 1938, and in the 1940s he led a band behind Lord Kitchener on Parlophone recordings in a calypso style. Records credited to Cyril Blake's Calypso Serenaders include Nora with Kitchener, General Election with Lord Beginner, and Iere. He led the Calypso Serenaders in 1950 and died in 1951.