Jack Payne (orchestra conductor)

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Jack Payne (born August 22, 1899 in Leamington Spa ( Warwickshire ) as John Wesley Vivian Payne , † December 4, 1969 in London ) was a British director of dance orchestras.

Live and act

Payne, who did his military service in the Royal Air Force , initially played on the side as a pianist in dance orchestras before he then played music to support the troops. During the 1920s he played at dance events in London hotels before he brought his band to the BBC and in 1928 became director of the radio dance music. It quickly became "a national institution" because it played every afternoon on the radio for tea and is quoted as saying:

"Primarily, it is my job to put happiness and sunshine over the air."

His band was part of the BBC's first television broadcast in 1929; shortly thereafter he also starred in the film Symphony in Two Flats (1930). In 1932 he went into business again with his orchestra, which caused a great deal of press coverage. He was also involved in the music films Say It with Music (1932) and Sunshine Ahead (1936) and composed three waltzes, "Blue Pacific Moonlight", "Underneath the Spanish Stars" and "Pagan Serenade". While he essentially had to play sentimental and humorous music at the BBC, he now turned increasingly to jazz and worked in 1935 with Garland Wilson . In 1938 he founded a twenty-member big band. He also toured France and South Africa. In 1941 he was again head of the BBC dance music and held this post until 1946. He then worked as a disc jockey before he hosted the program Words and Music and then Off the Record at the BBC Television Service in 1955 . He has also composed music for television films and wrote two autobiographies, This is Jack Payne (1932) and Signature Tune (1947).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Asa Briggs The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom. Vol. 2: The Golden Age of Wireless Oxford 1995, p. 83
  2. ↑ Kurt Blaukopf, Siegfried Goslich, Wilfried Scheib Fifty Years of Music on Vienna Radio 1973, p. 123
  3. ↑ BBC Handbook 1929, p. 164
  4. ^ Catherine Parsonage The Evolution of Jazz in Britain, 1880-1935 2005, p. 49
  5. ↑ John Tobler: NME Rock 'N' Roll Years , 1st. Edition, Reed International Books Ltd, London 1992, p. 14, CN 5585.
  6. ↑ John Mundy Popular Music on Screen: from the Hollywood musical to music video Manchester 1999, p. 163, 194
  7. ↑ Information from Planet Barbarella
personal data
SURNAME Payne, Jack
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Payne, John Wesley Vivian (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British orchestra conductor
DATE OF BIRTH August 22, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Leamington Spa , Warwickshire
DATE OF DEATH 4th December 1969
Place of death London