In the 1920s and 1930s, Rignold played violin with many jazz and dance bands of the day, including those of Mantovani, Jack Hylton, Jack Harris, Fred Hartley, Ambrose, Lew Stone and Jay Wilbur. Rignold was highly regarded as a jazz player. In 1936 "The Gramophone" magazine said of him, "With the possible exception of the Negro artist, Eddie South, and our own Eric Siday, who is abroad, there have been only two violinists who have hitherto meant anything to jazz – Venuti, of course, and more recently the French musician Stephane Grappelly ("sic"). To my mind Hugo Rignold is a greater artist than any of them." Rignold went on to lead his own London Casino Orchestra.