Marathon pianist back in New Zealand after 21 years

Press, 9 April 1979, Page 2

Marathon pianist back in New Zealand after 21 years

( The New Zealand-born (marathon pianist. Jimmie Montecino, is back in his homeland after 21 years entertaining throughout Canada. He is here for a six-month (visit to promote a film (documentary of his life ! story, appropriately called '“Jimmie Playing With Time.”, ; Mr” Montecino made his first Canadian appearance at (the Palais Montcalm in Quebec City, playing non-stop (for seven days and nights ■ before a crowd of more than j 22.000. He was then booked to play at the Beaver Hotel on' Rue St Jean, where he entertained nightly for 14 months. From then he was the top name in his field of entertainment, playing ragtime, gay nineties, honkytonk, and popular piano music. When Mr Montecino star-

I red at the Golden Garter Sajloon, La Ronde, at Expo 67 in Montreal, he was seen by millions of people. He remained there in the role of honk-tonk entertainer for the next two years before touring Canada, playing at night clubs, shopping centres, and conventions. After playing a marathon in Toronto in 1966 Mr Montecino was approached by a prominent film production corporation, which later made a deal with the Canadian National Exhibition for him to attempt to break his world record of 176-3/4 hours. Filming began on Mr Montecino’s seventy-third birthday in 1976. He began in brilliant sunshine, but after two hours and a half the sky turned black and it began to pour with rain, which came through the top of the canopy of the float in which he

was playing drenching him and his piano. Undaunted, he kept playing until the storm had passed, catching a bad cold in the process which later developed into pneumonia. More trouble occurred on the first two nights when an attempt was made to move Mr Montecino’s float into a building. It would not fit through the door. Mr Montecino played on to the fifth of the seven nights he had been contracted to play, but it was too much for the veteran! entertainer and he broke) down and collapsed on the) stage. He was taken to hos-l pital, his heart apparently! stopping on the way, and) was revived by a hard-work-ing medical crew. All of this was captured on film. When he awakended the next day he summoned his wife and asked for his clothes so that he could leave the hospital and still perform that night, which he did.

Mr Montecino’s heart has stopped four times during a career in which he has broken 37 records since 1924. “But I keep fooling them,” he said. “I am still the same as I w.s 20 years ago. 1 look at a mirror and ask myself, ‘Why the hell don’t I grow old?’ There is not a grey hair in my head." Mr Montecino has a bilateral cataract extraction and is legally blind. However, with special spectacles he sees well with both eyes. He expects to be very busy in the six months he is in New Zealand. As well as arranging screenings of his film on television and in theatres, he hopes to do stage shows where possible lin the centres while the film is being shown. The film is being shown throughout Canada and the United States as a television special. Shot on 16mm stock, the film has won great praise at smaller film festivals in Canada. The director Kit Hood, won the award for best director in 1978. Mr Montecino also plans to perform in night clubs in New Zealand, and for sentimental reasons will make his first appearance at

Dunedin, where he lived for about 30 years before going overseas. He will make two special honky-tonk pianos for performances in the North and South Islands. After the New Zealand visit Mr Montecino will return to Canada to appear in a commercial for the Larry Piano and Organ Company and resume his radio and television spots. His life has had its ups and downs. “When I left here I was] nothing,” he said. “Now I| loften have to pinch myself' Ito make sure I am not dreaming.”

| His visit to New Zealand is the first since he left, and he said that when he arrived at Auckland Airport ■he nearly cried. , “You have the best country in the world. The people are different and I am really looking forward to, playing here,” he said. Asked if he intended to retire in New Zealand, Mr Montecinu said: “I will never retire.”