NEWS FROM THE ZB'S

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 414, 30 May 1947, Page 14

NEWS FROM THE ZB'S

HEN he was only 19 years of age George Gershwin was asked to write the score for a Broadway revue. And in the foflowing six years he produced works, each of which added to his stature as a composer, e pecially of music peculiarly American. Probably his best-known compositions are Rhapsody in Blue, for piano and _ jazz orchestra, and Porgy and Bess, wi-h libretto from Du Bose Heyward’s play Porgy. Commenting on Porgy and Bess, Oscar Levant méntions in his biography of Gershwin, that the composer was always dissatisfied with his works. He wanted to write something serious, but his ambition was thwarted by the neverending commissions for light music. But when he had finished Porgy and Bess, he remarked that his life as a compo.er had not been wasted. Rhapsody in Blue has always found an appreciative audi-, ence, from the time of its first public performance in the Aeolian Hall, New York, in 1924. George Gershwin and his work will be the subject of a 15-minutes’ programme to be broadcast at 2.0 p.m. on Sunday, June 8, from 1ZB Auckland, % * * EFTON DALY, the New Zealand ‘pianist: who accompanied Noel Coward on his Dominion tour, will be heard in a recorded session from 3ZB on Sunday, June 1, at 4.30 p.m. Daly, who is 35 years of age, was born in

Christchurch and was a pupil of the Christchurch Boys’ High School. He did not start on his musical career till he was 14 and even then he showed a preference for improvising rather than for studying musical notation and _ its technicalities. Later on he decided to make for London, but when he was in Sydney the war broke out and altered his plans. There he met Noel Coward, when the latter was playing at the Minerva Theatre, and was engaged as his accompanist for the tour of Australia and New Zealand. Afterwards Daly joined the Army and was attached (continued on next page)

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to the Intelligence section of the A.I.F. : During a leave period he recorded his_ first commercial pianoforte ’ solos. * x Fe : ‘THE housewife’s lot to-day, standing .in queues and carrying home the meat and groceries, is like the police-_ man’s, so a session conducted recently by 1ZB was appropriate. Called ‘Housewives’ Laugh," it attracted more than 20,000 entries and ran for five weeks. Jokes came from all over New Zealand and the sponsors found the job of selecting the winners a difficult one. Dudley Wrathall and Phil -Shone conducted the programme. * *" * N Saturday, June 7, at 10.45 p.m., listeners to 3ZB will hear, in a variety programme, some songs by Vera Lynn, the London ‘stage and radio artist. To date Vera Lynn has introduced more than 60 songs to the public. She is a Cockney who, in 1936, became vocalist to Ambrose and his Band. Later she started recording as a. soloist; then she acquired her own orchestra. The story goes that she cannot read a note of music and that she learns all her songs by ear. :