| # | Fact |
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| 1 | Edmundo was always proud of the cars he drove. Over the years he bought a Bentley, Mercedes and several Rolls Royce. In fact he used to put his drums in the back of one. |
| 2 | Britt, the first wife of Edmundo Ros said to him one day. "One of your partners in the dance school has asked me to leave you and marry him". "What did you say?" enquired Edmundo. "I said I'd think about it". Britt replied. "Well when you have decided tell me first". Which she did. They had been married for thirteen years. (From 1950 till 1963). |
| 3 | The Coconut Grove was renamed in 1964 to the internationally known and very exclusive Edmundo Ros' Dinner and Supper Club at 177 Regent Street telephone number Regent 7675. A self confessed snob, Edmundo ensured an aristocratic clientele by demanding that any member who wished to join had to appear in the current copy of Debrets. Ladies with big hats or wearing trousers were not admitted, including, on one occasion, the wife of Sir Cecil Hardwick. The club had 24 musicians and 53 employees of whom one had, as his sole job, to polish the silver. |
| 4 | Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (1991). |
| 5 | King Hussein of Jordan, a Latin music aficionado, with his party was denied entrance in The Coconut Grove because one of his party, film star Peter O'Toole, was not properly dressed and did not accept the tie offered to him.". |
| 6 | He normally was nicknamed by fans and journalists as the King of Latin Music. |
| 7 | In the 2000 New Year Honours, Ros (then aged 90), was appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in ceremony at Buckingham Palace. |
| 8 | He was a Freemason, initiated into the Chelsea Lodge No 3098 and a Founder Member and Worshipful Master of Lodge of Ascension No 7358; on retirement a member of Sprig of Acacia Lodge No 41, Javea, Spain. |
| 9 | In his illustrious career he has received countless awards and honorary fellowships including the freedom of the City of London, Javea and Trinidad. |
| 10 | He gave his last public performance on 8 January 1994. |
| 11 | Ros was a Freeman of the City of London, having been admitted to the Freedom of the Worshipful Company of Poulters on 5 January 1965 and subsequently clothed with the Livery of the Poulters' Company on 22 June 1965. |
| 12 | In 1994 Edmundo conducted and sang with the BBC Big Band with Strings at The Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. The other conductor was Stanley Black. The concert was broadcast over BBC Radio 2 and it was such a success that a Japanese recording company invited them into a recording studio in London to make yet another Edmundo Ros CD. |
| 13 | Throughout Edmundo's musical career he always ensured that his musicians were treated with the utmost respect like one big happy family but, just like the clientele, they had to stick to the rules. Stage costumes had their own hanger with a name-tag and had to be carefully hung on a rail that was provided at the end of the session at three in the morning. Clothes for cleaning were put in a basket for the laundry, a military discipline he learnt in Trinidad. |
| 14 | In 1975, during Ros's seventh tour of Japan, his band's Musicians' Union shop steward tried to usurp Ros's authority by making arrangements with venues behind his back. Upon their return to the UK Ros organised a celebratory dinner after a BBC recording session and announced the disbanding of the orchestra. He destroyed almost all the charts (arrangement sheets), which conclusively ended the orchestra's existence. |
| 15 | Ros married twice: first to Britt Johansen in 1950. The first marriage produced two children, Douglas and Louisa. He designed and built a large house in Page Street, Mill Hill, London NW7, which he named Edritt House, after himself and his first wife. The house still stands, next to Copthall Girls' School. He remarried in 1971. |
| 16 | As was customary in those days, Edmundo's father took the name William Hope-Ros, the overall owner of the Plantation and of Scottish decent, William, created a multipurpose retail store called "Hope Ros's, Bonanza" in Port of Spain, which still exists and it was here that Edmundo was born and stayed until he was 17. |
| 17 | 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. |
| 18 | All the leaders of Allied Countries in II World War and the Royal Family came there to dine and listen to Edmundo's Rumba Band. By then, with his gently rhythmic style and engaging vocals, he was enormously popular with the public generally, and his orchestra was often invited to play at Buckingham Palace. |
| 19 | Edmundo was educated in the local school. He was the eldest of four children, two sisters, Ruby and Eleanor followed by an illegitimate brother Hugo which caused his parents to separate. |
| 20 | At the Bagatelle a visit from Princess Elizabeth and party made his name. The future queen danced in public for the first time to Edmundo's music. By then, with his gently rhythmic style and engaging vocals, he was enormously popular with the public generally, and his orchestra was often invited to play at Buckingham Palace. |
| 21 | The lack of a father and the free and easy lifestyle conspired to turn the young Edmundo into a bit of a renegade. His mother decided that some military discipline might, "tame this little devil". So the Godparents were brought in to see if they could help. Edmundo's Godfather, fortunately, had loans outstanding in the British Army, and so a bit of bartering was negotiated. The Army authorities agreed to instill discipline into the young lad in lieu of a debt, and at the age of 14 he joined the Army. |
| 22 | His number "The Wedding Samba", 1949, sold three million 78s. His album Rhythms of The South (1958) was one of the first high-quality LP stereo records: it sold a million copies. |
| 23 | During the 1950s and 1960s the Ros orchestra appeared frequently on BBC Radio, continuing into the early 1970s on Radio Two Ballroom. |
| 24 | The Caribbean extended family tradition, that glues families together, also included Godparents. His Godfather was a moneylender. It is not entirely clear where he got his money but as a result he made friends everywhere and especially in the occupying British Army Garrison in Port of Spain. |
| 25 | He received a music scholarship from the Venezuelan government of Eleazar Lopez Contreras, and, from 1937 to 1942, studied harmony, composition and orchestration at the Royal Academy of Music. At the same time he was the vocalist and percussionist in Don Marino Baretto's band at the Embassy Club, and also recorded several sides as a sideman to Fats Waller, who was visiting London in 1938. |
| 26 | He played drums in the city's nightclubs and in the Martial Band of Caracas as well as was soon hired by Sojo as timpanist in the new Venezuela Symphony Orchestra. As Sue Steward noted in his obituary for The guardian: "His local name, 'Edmundo Ros', launched a lasting myth that he was Venezuelan.". |
| 27 | He was very interested in music and the Army band beckoned but he had to play an instrument. The drums seemed the best option because Edmundo had a natural aptitude. So for the next three years he learned and played in a British Military Band, quite against King's regulations but - Hey Man dis is Trinidad not Sandhurst. |
| 28 | In 1951 Ros bought the Coconut Grove on Regent Street and in 1964 renamed it Edmundo Ros's Dinner and Supper Club. The club became popular for its atmosphere and music, but it closed in 1965, when legalized casino gambling had drawn away many of its best customers. |
| 29 | Among his percussionists was Ginger Johnson who later performed with The Rolling Stones, Ronnie Scott and Quincy Jones. |
| 30 | He took his music more seriously attending college and winning several scholarships. Although he dabbled with law briefly, his heart was in music and he played in the Trinidad Symphony Orchestra under conductor Edgar Wallace, not the writer, but of the same name. Eventually he moved across to Venezuela, where he stayed for a decade. He joined the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra, which was directed by Vicente Emilio Sojo. |
| 31 | Edmundo's mother Luisa Urquart was a true Trinidadian and possibly descended from one of the warring tribes, the Caribs, who witnessed the return voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1498. She worked as a teacher. Edmundo's father was the product of a liaison between a plantation manager, named Dupigany, and an indentured worker. |
| 32 | In the early 60s, he collaborated with the Ted Heath orchestra on the album Heath versus Ros (Decca Phase 4 1964) that exploited the relatively new stereo recording process. The shift in musical tastes during the decade affected Ros's standing but he played on into the 70s. |
| 33 | In August 1940, Ros formed his own rumba, performing as Edmundo Ros and His Rumba Band at style of Lecuona Cuban Boys directed by Armando Oréfiche. In 1941 he cut his first tracks with Parlophone, the first number being "Los Hijos de Buda". The band played regularly at the Coconut Grove club in Regent Street, attracting members of London's high society and Royal family. |
| 34 | He was with Decca Records from 1944 to 1974, and altogether he made more than 800 recordings. |
| 35 | Ros's bands were always based in London nightclubs or restaurants. The first was the Cosmo Club in Wardour Street; then followed the St Regis Hotel, Cork Street, the Coconut Grove and the Bagatelle Restaurant that opened the doors for Ros and high society. |
| 36 | Formed his first band in 1940, usually performing at night clubs in London's West End. |
| 37 | Studied at the Royal Academy of Music. |
| 38 | Began as a percussionist in a band at a military academy. His first professional engagement was as a drummer and vocalist for Don Marino Barreto's Latin American Orchestra. |
| 39 | Arguably the foremost exponent of Latin American dance music in Britain during the 1940's and 50's. Often used popular tunes set to traditional Afro/Cuban rhythms. |
| 40 | Father was of Venezuelan ancestry and mother was Trinidadian. |
$1.1 Million
