Gordon Stretton

Who was Gordon Stretton?

Gordon Stretton, born William Masters, To Ann J Masters Nee Williams Born 1862 was a Welsh-African-descended drummer from Liverpool, who first gained fame in the 1910s and later became one of the first Liverpool-based musicians to gain international acclaim. He played with Charlie Chaplin in the "Lancashire Lads Dancing Troupe" and eventually performed in locales including London and Paris, before settling in Buenos Aires, Argentina where he lived from the late 1920s after being hired by businessman Augusto Alvarez to act in one of the local entertain companies, at the cinema theatre "Select Lavalle". He died in 1982.

In 1908, he toured Britain as a member of a Jamaican choir. In 1921, in New York City he recorded with the Syncopated Jazz Band. In 1923, he led the Orchestre Syncopated Six in Paris, where he recorded "Fate" and "Tu Verras." After relocating to Argentina, by 1929 he founded Gordon Stretton's Symphonic Jazz Band.