They Still Like The Old-Time Dances!

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 246, 10 March 1944, Page 26

They Still Like The Old-Time Dances!

Henry Rudolph, "I believe in putting over the popular melodies, but they must be tuneful ones." We had called on him to ask how his Old-time Dance session from 2YA was going, having heard reports that it was going very well. When first started, the session was something of an experiment, but of course is. well past the experimental stage now. It is, in fact, two and a-half years old. "T AM not a swing fan," said In that time, Mr. Rudolph (who is conductor of the band) has received many letters of appreciation, and these have not come only from young people. For instance, one woman of 73 wrote confessing that she "invariably has a little waltz to the music," but asked for certain items to be played "before 10 o’clock, as that is my bed time," Another admirer writes: "We are all agreed down here that there are not any recordings to come up to your music," The band, which is heard from 2YA on the second Saturday of every month is fortunate in having Vincent Aspey as leader, and the other leading lights are John Parkin (pianist), Jean Aspey (cellist), Jim Grant (bass), Jack Harper (drummer), Stan Crisp (trumpeter), with Doreen Calvert, .Yvonne Andrews and Tom Morrison as vocalists. Mr. Rudolph himself plays the piano, violin, saxophone, piano-accor-dion, xylophone and vibraphone-but not all at once. The combination goes to camps once a month with programmes organised by 2YA. "We do give them things like ‘Kalamazoo’ when they ask for it, but our success has always depended on tunes like ‘Donkey Serenade’ and ‘Sympathy’." Mr. Rudolph told us, And then he added: "Music is a hobby with me. I had five years of the violin in London. I’ve never been taught to do things like arrangements, but I do the arranging for the band. I’ve had a band of my own since 1922. Once it was the Swing Time Harmonists, then the Harmony Serenaders. We did all the big shows at Government House in the old days, Plunket Balls, and so on, but since the war we have given up playing at dances. We prefer radio work. It is more exacting, but you seem to get more out of the players and just as much out of the listeners."