Tony Crombie (1925–99)
Tony Crombie was a modern jazz and rock and roll drummer, bandleader and composer, who also played vibraphone and piano.
Born Anthony John Kronenberg, Crombie grew up in London’s East End and was a self-taught musician who started playing drums aged 14. His mother played piano for silent films, and his father was a furrier. Tony initially went into the family business.
British saxophonist Ronnie Scott was a friend of Crombie and went with him to New York in 1947, where they heard performances by bebop artists such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. On returning, Scott and Crombie, along with other musicians including saxophonist John Dankworth, helped to develop the early bebop scene in the UK.
Crombie started his own rock and roll band The Rockets in 1956, releasing several singles, but by 1958 the band had morphed into a jazz group, which included Scott and Tubby Hayes.
In the 1950s and 1960s Crombie was in demand for his arranging and composing, and Miles Davis, Stéphane Grappelli and Annie Ross were among those who recorded his tunes. He also had some success in the 1960s as a TV and film composer.
Crombie was a member of Ronnie Scott’s famed nine-piece band of the 1950s and was house drummer at Ronnie Scott’s Club. He also led his own bands, including Jazz Inc with saxophonist Bobby Wellins and pianist Stan Tracey.
Biography by John Rosie
The Man from Interpol
In this third and final article about drummer and composer Tony Crombie, the story of the theme music for the TV series The Man from Interpol, written by Crombie, is discussed by Austin Powell.
Tony Crombie: Article 3
Image Details
| Interview date | 1st January 0001 |
|---|---|
| Interview source | Jazz Professional |
| Image source credit | |
| Image source URL | |
| Reference number | |
| Forename | Tony |
| Surname | Crombie |
| Quantity | 3 |
Interview Transcription
In 1960, commercial television in Britain was still in its infancy. Barely five years old, it still didn't cover all of the country, though it had already captured the lion's share of the viewing figures. The Top Ten most watched shows that year were all on commercial television: "The Royal Variety Show" topped the listings, the game show "Take Your Pick" was at number three and the detective series "No Hiding Place" was the fourth most watched show.
At other times you might have watched "Juke Box |Jury", "Boy Meets Girl" or "Sunday Night At The London Palladium", and from America came series like "77 Sunset Strip", "Highway Patrol", "Bonanza" and "The Untouchables".
Sensing an opportunity to produce programmes for the fledgling ITV companies, American brothers Edward and Harry Danziger took over a former wartime aero-engine factory In Elstree and converted it into a state of the art production centre with six sound stages and enough land to cater for all manner of exterior filming.
No strangers to film production (they'd been producing in Britain for the cinema and American TV since 1953) their company, Danziger Photoplays produced Saber Of London especially for British television in 1959 and quickly followed that with "Man From Interpol".
Over the opening credits of each of the thirty-nine, thirty-minutes episodes that were made, a voice-over proclaimed "Crime is international, and so is the law. In constant touch with the police forces of the world is...the "Man From Interpol". That man was Commander Anthony Smith, an Interpol investigator assigned to Scotland Yard and played by Richard Wyler, an actor who'd previously worked in America as Richard Stapler Supporting Wyler in the series and working under any one of six different directors who worked on the series was a cast of actors who are today all highly recognisable names. John Le Mesurier, Bill Owen, Warren Mitchell, Leonard Sachs, Peter Vaughn, Nyree Dawn Porter, Francis Mathews and Pete Murray all turned up in at least one episode while at least ten of the scripts were written by Brian Clemens who would go on to write for "Danger Man", "The Avengers", "The Professionals" and "The Persuaders" among a list of TV and film credits that would fill a book.
The story behind the music written for the series is another of those "in the right place at the right time" or even "it's not what you know, but who you know" scenarios. Aside from their film-making activities, in 1958 the Danziger brothers moved into the hotel business, buying the Cordon Hotels group which owned The Mayfair and Grosvenor Hotels in London and the Metropole Hotels in Monte Carlo, Folkestone and Brighton. It was while they were going through this process they "bumped into" the owner of the Flamingo Club, agent, manager, music publisher and record producer Jeffrey Kruger. Realising there was a synergy between film-making and music making. The Danzigers and Kruger formed a publishing company, Metropole Music, which as part of Kruger's Florida Music company would be responsible for creating and controlling the music for the Danzigers' films. Leaving the creative end to the man already in the music business, Kruger suggested Tony Crombie to write the music for "Man From Interpol". The Danzigers accepted this without question.
Tony Crombie, a self taught piano player and drummer, had been centre stage on the British jazz scene for well over a decade when he was drafted in to write the theme and incidental music for the series having worked with other top names such as Johnny Dankworth, Ted Heath and Ronnie Scott. He'd also been given the ultimate accolade of being chosen to join Duke Ellington's prestigious band for a UK tour in 1948.
His association with Jeffrey Kruger was also a long-standing one. Kruger acted as Crombie's manager and had produced his records, (through another Kruger company, Herald Records) for release on Tempo, Decca and Columbia where in 1956, Tony Crombie's Rockets with Clyde Ray as lead vocalist recorded "Shortnin' Bread Rock", subsequently to become the first British rock 'n' roll record to make the charts.
A new label on the scene was chosen to release the music from the "Man From Interpol", Top Rank, part of the giant Rank Organisation was barely nine months old when it released a three track single consisting of the series' main theme, "Interpol Cha Cha Cha" and "Interpol Chase" ()AR 182), quickly followed by a sixteen track LP (Top Rank 35/043). The LP was also released on Top Rank's American label (RM327), but with a slightly different track listing.
Neither release brought Crombie any commercial success, though Top Rank did issue a second LP, "Drums, Drums, Drums" (BUY 027) before his records were once again released on Decca, after which he continued his recording career on his manager's own Ember Records label.
Following "Man From Interpol's haphazard TV screening in Britain, the series was sold to NBC in America, but American audiences didn't take to it and it was cancelled after just one season.
In the late eighties most of the series made it to video, some still containing its American sponsor, Bayer, and NBC's credits and in the 1990's satellite TV station Bravo showed most of those though no attempt had been made to complete the series, nor tidy up the opening and closing credits.
Here we present you with Tony Crombie's music as recorded for use in the "Man From Interpol" including tracks that have never been commercially available before and in so doing hopefully remind you of a time when TV detectives, like the villains they were chasing, were operating in a far more innocent world.
Austin Powell January 2004. © MMIV Harkit Entertainment Ltd.
In 1960, commercial television in Britain was still in its infancy. Barely five years old, it still didn't cover all of the country, though it had already captured the lion's share of the viewing figures. The Top Ten most watched shows that year were all on commercial television: "The Royal Variety Show" topped the listings, the game show "Take Your Pick" was at number three and the detective series "No Hiding Place" was the fourth most watched show.
At other times you might have watched "Juke Box |Jury", "Boy Meets Girl" or "Sunday Night At The London Palladium", and from America came series like "77 Sunset Strip", "Highway Patrol", "Bonanza" and "The Untouchables".
Sensing an opportunity to produce programmes for the fledgling ITV companies, American brothers Edward and Harry Danziger took over a former wartime aero-engine factory In Elstree and converted it into a state of the art production centre with six sound stages and enough land to cater for all manner of exterior filming.
No strangers to film production (they'd been producing in Britain for the cinema and American TV since 1953) their company, Danziger Photoplays produced Saber Of London especially for British television in 1959 and quickly followed that with "Man From Interpol".
Over the opening credits of each of the thirty-nine, thirty-minutes episodes that were made, a voice-over proclaimed "Crime is international, and so is the law. In constant touch with the police forces of the world is...the "Man From Interpol". That man was Commander Anthony Smith, an Interpol investigator assigned to Scotland Yard and played by Richard Wyler, an actor who'd previously worked in America as Richard Stapler Supporting Wyler in the series and working under any one of six different directors who worked on the series was a cast of actors who are today all highly recognisable names. John Le Mesurier, Bill Owen, Warren Mitchell, Leonard Sachs, Peter Vaughn, Nyree Dawn Porter, Francis Mathews and Pete Murray all turned up in at least one episode while at least ten of the scripts were written by Brian Clemens who would go on to write for "Danger Man", "The Avengers", "The Professionals" and "The Persuaders" among a list of TV and film credits that would fill a book.
The story behind the music written for the series is another of those "in the right place at the right time" or even "it's not what you know, but who you know" scenarios. Aside from their film-making activities, in 1958 the Danziger brothers moved into the hotel business, buying the Cordon Hotels group which owned The Mayfair and Grosvenor Hotels in London and the Metropole Hotels in Monte Carlo, Folkestone and Brighton. It was while they were going through this process they "bumped into" the owner of the Flamingo Club, agent, manager, music publisher and record producer Jeffrey Kruger. Realising there was a synergy between film-making and music making. The Danzigers and Kruger formed a publishing company, Metropole Music, which as part of Kruger's Florida Music company would be responsible for creating and controlling the music for the Danzigers' films. Leaving the creative end to the man already in the music business, Kruger suggested Tony Crombie to write the music for "Man From Interpol". The Danzigers accepted this without question.
Tony Crombie, a self taught piano player and drummer, had been centre stage on the British jazz scene for well over a decade when he was drafted in to write the theme and incidental music for the series having worked with other top names such as Johnny Dankworth, Ted Heath and Ronnie Scott. He'd also been given the ultimate accolade of being chosen to join Duke Ellington's prestigious band for a UK tour in 1948.
His association with Jeffrey Kruger was also a long-standing one. Kruger acted as Crombie's manager and had produced his records, (through another Kruger company, Herald Records) for release on Tempo, Decca and Columbia where in 1956, Tony Crombie's Rockets with Clyde Ray as lead vocalist recorded "Shortnin' Bread Rock", subsequently to become the first British rock 'n' roll record to make the charts.
A new label on the scene was chosen to release the music from the "Man From Interpol", Top Rank, part of the giant Rank Organisation was barely nine months old when it released a three track single consisting of the series' main theme, "Interpol Cha Cha Cha" and "Interpol Chase" ()AR 182), quickly followed by a sixteen track LP (Top Rank 35/043). The LP was also released on Top Rank's American label (RM327), but with a slightly different track listing.
Neither release brought Crombie any commercial success, though Top Rank did issue a second LP, "Drums, Drums, Drums" (BUY 027) before his records were once again released on Decca, after which he continued his recording career on his manager's own Ember Records label.
Following "Man From Interpol's haphazard TV screening in Britain, the series was sold to NBC in America, but American audiences didn't take to it and it was cancelled after just one season.
In the late eighties most of the series made it to video, some still containing its American sponsor, Bayer, and NBC's credits and in the 1990's satellite TV station Bravo showed most of those though no attempt had been made to complete the series, nor tidy up the opening and closing credits.
Here we present you with Tony Crombie's music as recorded for use in the "Man From Interpol" including tracks that have never been commercially available before and in so doing hopefully remind you of a time when TV detectives, like the villains they were chasing, were operating in a far more innocent world.
Austin Powell January 2004. © MMIV Harkit Entertainment Ltd.
