Category Archives: Music

Spotify – love them, though they’re slippery

Posted on Wednesday, 12 November, 2014 by

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 →

Posted in 50s music, Jazz, Music | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

From Fugues to Finales

Posted on Sunday, 21 October, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in chamber music | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Maori Battalion Marching Song a cultural ripoff?

Posted on Tuesday, 12 June, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in Jazz, Music, New Zealand recorded music, Nostalgia | Tagged , | Leave a comment

End of an era

Posted on Monday, 9 April, 2012 by

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 →

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A little jazz is a dangerous thing

Posted on Wednesday, 14 March, 2012 by

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 →

Posted in 50s music, Jazz, New Zealand bands | Tagged | 2 Comments

From wax cylinders to streaming music

Posted on Wednesday, 23 November, 2011 by

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 →

Posted in Music | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Gwin back to Dixie

Posted on Thursday, 25 August, 2011 by

Last Saturday night I listened to a live dixieland band for the first time in 45 years. The previous time I was part of the band, at a NZ Universities Arts Festival held in Palmerston North in my final year at … Continue reading →

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