
Ray Ventura
Born
April 16, 1908
Died
March 29, 1979 (70 years old)
Known For
Production
Place of Birth
Paris, France
Raymond Ventura (16 April 1908, Paris, France – 29 March 1979, Palma de Mallorca, Spain) was a French jazz pianist and bandleader. He helped popularize jazz in France in the 1930s. His nephew was singer Sacha Distel.
Ventura was born to a Jewish family. In 1925 he was the pianist for the Collegiate Five, which recorded as the Collegians for Columbia beginning in 1928 and for Decca in the 1930s. A year later he led the band, and it became a dance orchestra resembling a big band. His sidemen included Alix Combelle, Philippe Brun, and Guy Paquinet. In the early 1940s he led a big band in South America and in France during the rest of the decade.
One of his band's popular songs from 1936 was "Tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise" in which the Marquise is told by her servants that everything is fine at home except for a series of escalating calamities. It was seen as a metaphor for France's obliviousness to the approaching war.
Source: Article "Ray Ventura" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

La Chance aux chansons
Self (archive footage) · (1 episode)
1984

Numéro un
Self · (1 episode)
1975
Samedi soir
Self · (1 episode)
1971

L'assassin connaît la musique
Self (uncredited)
1963

Cinépanorama
Self · (2 episodes)
1956

Femmes de Paris
Self
1953

One Hundred Francs Per Second
Self
1953

Monte Carlo Baby
Self
1951

We Will All Go to Paris
Self
1950

Mademoiselle Has Fun
Self
1948

Whirlwind of Paris
Self
1939

Feux de joie
Self
1939

Quadrille
Himself (as Ray Ventura et ses Collégiens)
1938

Everything is Going Very Well Madame la Marquise
1936

Adventure in Paris
1936