Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 897, 12 October 1956, Page 20

Open Microphone

NEWS OF BROADCASTERS ON AND OFF THE RECORD

ROYAL TOUR REPORTER

ISTENERS who have been following Princess Margaret’s East African tour through broadcasts originating in the BBC General Overseas Service will be interested in the picture above of the man behind the voice of Patrick Smith, who has been reporting the tour.

Patrick ‘Smith is a Londoner who graduated in modern languages at University

College. His first broadcasts were in the BBC European Service, and later he reported for Radio WNewsreel. In 1951 Mr. Smith became BBC Middle’

position he held for three years before going to his present post as BBC corre-. spondent in South Africa. He was released temporarily from his regular duties so that he could report the Royal Tour for both the General Overseas and Home Services of the BBC. >

KENTON

READERS who have asked for something more about Stan Kenton will be interested in news of the cracking schedule of 62 concerts in 33 days which he undertook in Britain some months ago, Because of union difficul-

ties, the Kenton Band could tour Great Britain only by an exchange agreement

with Ted Heath’s Band, which toured the United States at the same time and gave the same number of concerts, British musicians’ opinions of the Kenton Band varied. The tiring tour had its inevitable effect and the baritone saxist Jack Nimitz and tenorist Spencer Sinatra, complaining that they were not told how tough the tour would be, left the outfit. They were replaced by the British jazzmen Harry Klein and Tommy Whittle, but because of previous commitments Whittle had reluctantly to pull out and was teplaced by Don Rendell. One of Britain’s best-known bandleaders, Basil Kirchin, had this to say: "After I heard* the trumpets, I felt sorry for Kenton. They had no range. . . Thank goodness for that drummer. Great. But my band agrees with, me that if Ted used those arrangements, he’d show up the Kenton Band on that standard. Only a couple of numbers swung." Most of the British musicians, however, praised the sheer technical ability of the instrumentalists. and

commented that the Kenton sections swung, a trick that British combinations haven’t yet learned. Tommy Whittle, talking with the authority of one who has played with the band, said: "Every aspect of the band’s performance seems to have been worked out. Dynamics, cut-offs, internal balance -right down to who-plays-re ee

which-of-the-solos. What really got me was the timing of the musicians. Some instruments don’t speak as quickly as others, therefore merely blowing together as we do doesn’t produce the breathtaking precision I heard from the Kenton Band."

TRAVELLER

(continued from previous page) YING on a bed in a Russian prison in Poland, wearing kilts, and playing a tin whistle to a group of astounded guards is only one of the experiences described by Joe Wallace in a series of talks, European Journey, which will

be heard in the Women’s Hour of Commercial and X stations in the

next few months. Mr. Wallace is a lécturer at the Otago University School of Physical Education, and spent his sabbatical leave last year touring Europe, where he was studying the organisation of physical education and recreation in different countries. Mr. Wallace was born in Glasgow in 1918 and taught there for some. time. During the war he was an infantry officer and his seven years in the army included extensive experience of life in Egypt, Palestine, Persia and Iraq, as well as nine months in a German prisoner of war camp. He taught in Germany for two years, and has been in every other European country west of the Iron Curtain. Listeners will remember Mr. Wallace’s programme The Reel and Strathspey Club, which he conducted from 4YA for two years, and his broadcasts on athletics and on books. Founder and editor of a professional journal, he also does some writing occasionally. There are seven talks in European Journey, which will start from 2ZA on Monday, October 15, 4ZB on October 29, and 1ZB on November 5. Mr. Wallace tells in amusing and colourful fashion of the people he met and the countryside through which he travelled in Germany, Poland, Spain and France.