Ike Hatch

 ( 1892 Births ) 

Isaac Flower Hatch (August 21, 1892 – December 26, 1961), known as Ike "Yowsah" Hatch, was an American singer, pianist, and club owner, based for most of his life in Britain.

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Biography He was born in New York City, and studied singing under Abbie Mitchell. A tenor, he won first prize in a 1919 singing competition in Camp Mills, Long Island, played with Wilbur Sweatman's band at the Eltinge Theatre, and recorded as a with W. C. Handy's Memphis Blues Band. In 1925, he was recruited by pianist Elliot Carpenter to form a duo to play and record in Britain and Europe. They travelled to England, where they toured widely, performing both popular songs and classical , and made recordings for the Zonophone label. Arthur Badrock, "Hatch & Carpenter in England", Vintage Jazz Mart. Retrieved 30 March 2021 Andy Simons, "Black British Swing : The African Diaspora’s Contribution to England’s Own Jazz of the 1930s and 1940s", Black British Swing, 22 December 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2021

The duo split up in 1930, and Carpenter returned to the United States where he reputedly played the piano part mimed by Dooley Wilson in Casablanca. Hatch established himself as a regular performer in London , and starred with Florence Mills in the touring stage musical Blackbirds, with a band that included pianist Will Vodery and saxophonist Rudolph Dunbar. He also contributed musical numbers to the popular and long-lasting BBC radio series The Kentucky Minstrels, starring comedians Scott and Whaley.Denis Gifford, The Golden Age of Radio, B.T. Batsford Ltd, London, 1985, , p.145

In the early 1930s, Hatch opened his own club, The Nest, in Kingly Street, Soho. He became a well-known figure and was invited by Nancy Cunard to sit on the London campaign committee supporting the Scottsboro Boys. By 1935, he had opened a second club, the Shim-Sham (named after Shim Sham), at 37 Wardour Street.Rudolph Dunbar. 'Harlem in London', in Melody Maker, 7 March 1936, p.2 The reputed owner or co-owner of the club was Jack Isow (Russian-born Joseph Aaron Isowitzsky), responsible for several clubs in the area, while Hatch was its public face. The Shim-Sham Club developed a reputation for hosting top jazz musicians, its openness to radical politics, and for its free and easy atmosphere in which white and black customers mingled, there was a casual attitude towards alcohol licensing laws, and there was tolerance of unconventional lifestyles. It was frequently subject to raids by the police, who regarded it as "a den of vice and iniquity". Vicky Iglikowski-Broad, "The Shim Sham Club: ‘London’s miniature Harlem’", National Archives, 5 February 2020. Retrieved 30 March 2021

Hatch recorded in London in 1936 and 1937, as Ike "Yows Suh" Hatch and his Harlem Stompers, initially for Parlophone and then on the Regal Zonophone label. His recordings were a mixture of humorous songs and . He also worked as an actor, appearing in the 1937 Paul Robeson film Jericho. He continued to operate, and perform in, clubs and cabaret venues in London through the 1940s and 1950s, and made occasional television appearances as a musician. He performed nightly at the Starlite Rooms in Mayfair for the five years leading up to his death, at home in Paddington aged 69, in 1961.

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