Today in NZ history- 09/12/1867 - First passengers traverse Lyttelton rail tunnel After 6½ years of construction, it took just 6½ minutes for the first trainload of passengers to speed through the 2.6- km tunnel linking the Canterbury plains to the port of Lyttelton.
- 10/12/1908 - Rutherford wins Nobel PrizeErnest Rutherford’s discoveries about the nature of atoms shaped modern science and paved the way for nuclear physics. Albert Einstein called him a ‘second Newton’ who had ‘tunnelled into the very material of God’.
- 10/12/1908 - Rutherford wins Nobel PrizeErnest Rutherford’s discoveries about the nature of atoms shaped modern science and paved the way for nuclear physics. Albert Einstein called him a ‘second Newton’ who had ‘tunnelled into the very material of God’.
- 10/12/1918 - Anzac troops take revenge on Arab civilians at Surafend40 male Arab civilians were killed by Anzac troops in revenge for the killing of New Zealand Trooper Leslie Lowry
- 09/12/1867 - First passengers traverse Lyttelton rail tunnel
Category Archives: Music
Spotify – love them, though they’re slippery
Some of my own music is on Spotify – anyone can exhume recordings my old band Aardvark made for Tree Records in 1973. We were never asked if we wanted to be on Spotify – not that I would have … Continue reading
From Fugues to Finales
Today we went to a very pleasant afternoon of chamber music, titled From Fugues to Finales. It was organised by the Greytown Music Group as part of the town’s weekend arts festival. This scratch group, tongue-in-cheek-named The Ultimates, was made … Continue reading
Maori Battalion Marching Song a cultural ripoff?
Back in the 1960s when I realised there was money to be made from my modest talents at the piano, I still needed a repertoire that would let me play at social events – 21sts, wedding celebrations, dances etc. I … Continue reading
End of an era
I never owned one of those wind-up 78rpm record players with disposable steel needles (and nor did my parents), but from about 1962 I was into long playing records (LPs) and their 45rpm offspring. I had them for about a … Continue reading
Posted in Jazz, Music
Tagged Bud Shank, Jazz, Jazz singer, LP records, LPs, Miles Davis, Peter Fountain
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A little jazz is a dangerous thing
A couple of days ago I came across an interesting web item that reproduced rules for dance band musicians in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. The rules were aimed at limiting infection by jazz. I emailed the rules to Bob Barcham, Wellington’s … Continue reading
From wax cylinders to streaming music
I have a nice Ngaio Press publishing project at the moment – a history of Charles Begg & Co, a company which bestrode New Zealand’s musical scene for over 100 years from the 1860s. The manuscript was written by the … Continue reading
