Steve Race

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Stephen Russell "Steve" Race OBE (born April 1, 1921 in Lincoln (Lincolnshire) , † June 22, 2009 in London ) was a British easy listening and jazz pianist , arranger , author , radio and television presenter .

Life

Race lost his father early on; even during his school days he performed at local concerts. At 16 he attended the Royal Academy of Music , interrupted by serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II. During this time he played with the RAF Swing Stars and the Bomber Command Dance Orchestra . After the war he was a pianist in various bands in London and also worked as an arranger for Ted Heath and Judy Garland . At the end of the 1940s, he made his first recordings of modern jazz under his own name. In 1953 he found a job with the BBC , initially in the children's program Whirligig . At Radio Three he then presented jazz records. From 1955 he was music supervisor at the independent television station Associated Rediffusion , then five years for the program Opportunity Knocks and as musical director of television series with Tony Hancock and Peter Sellers , from 1960 of the Dickie Henderson Show .

From the beginning of the 1960s he began to work as a composer; he wrote the pop song Nicola (1962), for which he received the Ivor Novello Award ; his own band for Parlophone rehearsed easy listening instrumental The Pied Piper (The Beeje) reached 1963 # 29 of the UK singles charts. He also composed numerous jingles , best known for the song Sweet as the moment when the pod went pop for frozen peas from the Birds Eye brand . In the 1960s he appeared as a freelance musician on radio and television programs. His career was interrupted in 1965 by a heart attack. From 1966 he worked for the BBC series My Music , which ran on Radio 4 until 1994 and was successfully relocated to television. In addition, Race wrote regularly for various music magazines such as the New Musical Express , for which he interviewed Frank Sinatra , Jimmy Durante and Judy Garland in the 1960s . In Melody Maker he was critical of the emerging rock'n'roll (" infantile and often suggestive chanting ") and from 1975 he had a column in The Listener for five years . In addition to his autobiography ( Musician at Large , 1979), he is the author of six other books. In 1982 he was honored as Freeman of the City of London , in 1992 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire .

Fonts

  • Piano-Style: A Complete Guide for the Modern Dance Band Pianist (1949)
  • Musician at Large (1979)
  • Steve Race, Nigel Perrin and The King's Singers : The King's Singers: A Self Portrait (1980)
  • My Music (1980)
  • Music Quiz (Weidenfeld, 1983)
  • Dear Music Lover (1981)

Discography

  • Late Race (The World Record Club, 1965)
  • Take One - Dance to the TV Themes (The World Record Club, 1965), with Tubby Hayes , Johnny Scott, Stan Roderick
  • Steve Race (Studio 2 Stereo, 1966)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Obituary in The Scotsman
personal data
SURNAME Race, Steve
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Race, Stephen Russell (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British jazz musician, author and presenter
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Lincoln (Lincolnshire)
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 2009
Place of death London