| Orchestra or Band | Albert Ball's Flying Aces |
| Performance Notes | Albert Ball's Flying Aces was originally formed in 1916 by the aviators of 266 Squadron RFC. To relieve the stress and horror of their daily aerial dog-fights high above the trenches, they used to gather in the evenings to play then-popular music on whatever instruments they could find, naming themselves after a famous airman of the time.
Having settled in Paris following the 1918 Armistice, they now use their music and their wartime experiences to try to bring peace and understanding to a 1920s world, performing a wide repertoire ranging through naive 1910s pop songs, very early ragtime, the 'heroic age' of jazz and blues, French and German polkas and chansons, faux-exotic dance numbers and laments, Great War propaganda songs, music hall rabble-rousers and Edwardian sentimental ballads - music which epitomises the spirit of that lost generation, resolutely jaunty and upbeat in the face of terrible loss and adversity.
"Authentic and upbeat post-war hot jazz and ragtime band led by the charming Nicholas D. Ball who sings, drums and plays that most criminally underused instrument; the spoons" TimeOut |