Edmundo Ros (7 December 1910 – 21 October 2011), born Edmund William Ross, was a Trinidadian-Venezuelan musician, vocalist, arranger and bandleader who made his career in Britain. He directed a highly popular Latin American orchestra, had an extensive recording career and owned one of London's leading nightclubs.
Early life
Edmund William Ross was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad. When his mother became involved with a man he loathed and had a son by him, the 17-year-old left for Caracas, Venezuela, to study at the Academy of Music under Vicente Emilio Sojo.
He played drums in the city's nightclubs and in the Martial Band of Caracas, and he was soon hired by Sojo as timpanist in the new Venezuela Symphony Orchestra. As his obituary in The Guardian noted: "His local name, 'Edmundo Ros', launched a lasting myth that he was Venezuelan." At the same time he was the vocalist and percussionist in Don Marino Barreto's band at the Embassy Club, and also recorded several sides as a sideman to Fats Waller, who was visiting London in 1938.
Ros's bands were always based in London nightclubs or restaurants.
Ros’s popularity escalated in postwar Britain through live radio concerts, produced by Cecil Madden.
By 1946 Ros owned a club, a dance school, a record company and an artistes' agency. His band grew to 16 musicians and was renamed Edmundo Ros and His Orchestra. the same year Ros were featured in the film What Do We Do Now?.
In 1948, he supported Carmen Miranda for a year at the London Palladium, while still playing the Coconut Grove, and the following year The Wedding Samba the beautiful Swedish aristocrat Britt Johansen, whom he married that year. In 1950 the Nigerian Ginger Johnson joined the Edmundo Ros Orchestra as its lead percussionist, and recorded several albums with the band.
He became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 1991.
In the 2000 New Year Honours Ros received the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). He turned 100 on 7 December 2010.
Personal life
Ros married twice. He and his first wife Britt Johansen married in 1950 and had two children. He designed and built a large house in London, Mill Hill which he named Edritt House after himself and his first wife. He married his second wife, Susan, in 1971.
Death
Ros retired and moved to Jávea, Alicante, Spain. He died on 21 October 2011, shortly before his 101st birthday.