Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 941, 23 August 1957, Page 20

Open Microphone

NEWS OF BROADCASTERS ON AND OFF THE RECORD

HOUGH Terry Gilkyson has been winning a widening circle of admirers since Frankie Laine recorded his first hit, "The Cry of the Wild Goose," seven years ago, it has taken his current calypso number, "Marianne," to make him almost universally known to pop’ song fans. In America _ after only five weeks on the BillTERRY board chart it had ousted "The Banana Boat Song," and as one critic put it-with rather more enthusiasm than originality-it was riding "high, wide and handsome." Terry’s is not one of your rags to riches stories, for when he was born in Pennsylvania in 1916 his father owned an insurance company and his mother a newspaper. Terry had a pretty normal childhood and youth, but when he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1938 he spent a year on a dude ranch in Arizona before going back home to work in insurance. During that year in Arizona he began to write cowboy songs. Then the war came and with it five years of army service for Terry. When he went into camp he took his guitar with him, and he has said since that during that time he learned a great deal about folk song origins. In California after the war he took his first vocal lessons, and soon afterwards married a girl who had been a legal secretary at the Nuremburg trials. His efforts to launch himself on a musical career were not, however, a great success, and he had a spell as a door-to-door salesman before "The Cry of the Wild Goose" started its run of success. Bing Crosby and Vaughn Monroe were among those who had turned the song down when Mitch Miller saw it as a successor to Frankie Laine’s "Mule Train." Since then Terry has written many hits, among them "Christopher Columbus," "Day of Jubilo," "Girl in the Wood" and "Rock of Gibraltar." "Gambella,"

_- the first record Frankie Laine and Jo Stafford did together, was one of a number of songs he wrote especially to suit various artists. And he has also, of course, become a popular folk singer. Musically, Terry has fairly wide in-terests-he’s fond of serious music from Tchaikovski to Bach, and has a natural interest in the early jazz, periods, particularly early blues. In the pop or jazz fields his favourite instrumental numbers are Duke Ellington’s early recordings. "In my own field," he said a few yeats back, "the greatest is Burl Ives. It’s a shame Burl doesn’t stick to pure folk. And then there’s Josh White. He’s wonderful." As a change from all this music, Terry likes to go fishing, out of the way and where no one can find him. * HIRTY concerts and a spell of six days in Bali made up an Indonesian tour of 11 weeks recently for the pianist Janetta McStay. She was accompanying the Spanish dancers after their New

Zealand visit. It was a "relatively easy" tour, Miss McStay told us, though it wouldn’t be possible, anyway, to do the same amount of work in the humid Indonesian climate as in BACK FROM Australia or New ZeaINDONESIA land, Perhaps it was easier for Miss McStay also because she admits she loves travel. The tour covered an enormous areaSumatra and Borneo as well as Java itselfi-so travel was by air, Miss McStay said. In the, bigger centres like Jakarta and Surabaya the concerts were given in halls, and in the smaller places they were held in well-equipped clubs to which many members of the audiences came. from long distances. Audiences were mixed-Indonesian and Dutch-especially in the larger towns, with a great number of Indonesian students at places like Bandeong, which is a centre of learning. "There were good audiences at the concerts," said Miss McStay. "The people are very much interested in dancing and fond of the guitar. Pianos are very good in the circumstances, though there were a few pitch problems in Borneo because of the humidity." Miss McStay found quite a number of other artists touring while she was there, and at the end of her tour met

William Clauson, who, because of great public demand, was giving a return concert at Jakarta. She was enthusiastic about the ballad singer. "I think that in his particular style he is a very, very fine artist," she said. "Anyone who has any affection for folk songs shouldn’t miss hearing him. I-found his South American numbers especially most exciting." Miss McStay was glad to have the opportunity to see Javanese and Balinese dancing,’ and to hear the Gamelan orchestras of Java and Bali-‘mostly percussive, with a gong a fairly important feature, and rhythmically fascinating." from Gamelan music, the few local compositions she heard seemed to show mostly a French influence. Bali she liked very much, though if she went there again-and she hopes to visit Indonesia next year-she would try to stay in some of the older parts beyond the tourist centres. so

T takes an enthusiast to talk about the same subject for 21 years, and those who have listened to Simon Sam from New Plymouth over the years wilf know he is just that. Local talent was used freely on the old North Taranaki Radio Society’s 2YB, SIMON SAM when Herbert Mullon, as he~is known in private life, gave his first stamp talk in 1936. Of that occasion he remembers only a most kindly welcome from Uncle Ted and Aunt -Betty, the recorded "Teddy Bear’s Picnic," and a shaking at the knees. He was surprised when he was asked to continue with stamp talks, and it was right after that first broadcast that he adopted his radio name. Simon Sam, whose stamp talk from 2XP this week (August 21) marks his 21st anniversary, has always aimed over the years to encourage an intelligent approach to stamp collecting, and he has seen the hobby make great advances in New Plymouth among both young and old collectors. Since his talks nearly always deal with the story of a stamp and seldom with technical terms, they interest not only stamp collectors but listeners generally.