Steve Race

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Steve Race
Born
Stephen Russell Race

1 April 1921
Died22 June 2009 (aged 88)
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)radio personality, pianist, composer
Spouse(s)Marjorie Leng (d. 1969)
Léonie Mather

Stephen Russell Race

OBE (1 April 1921 – 22 June 2009)[2] was an English composer, pianist and radio and television presenter
.

Biography

Born in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, the son of a lawyer, Race learned the piano from the age of five.[3] He was educated (1932–37) at Lincoln School, where he formed his first jazz group, which included a young Neville Marriner, later a major figure in the world of classical music. At sixteen, he attended the Royal Academy of Music, studying composition under Harry Farjeon and William Alwyn. After leaving the academy, Race (encouraged by the classical music critic of the News Chronicle, Scott Goddard)[4] wrote occasional dance band reviews for Melody Maker and, in 1939, joined the Harry Leader dance band as pianist, succeeding Norrie Paramor.[5][6]

Race joined the

Second World War, he began a long and productive career with the BBC, where his ready wit, musicianship and broad musical knowledge made him much sought after as a musical accompanist for panel games and magazine shows, such as Whirligig and Many a Slip
.

At the same time he was playing in the bands of

Johnny Dankworth, Peter Chilver, Norman Burns (drums), Jack Fulton (bass) and Race on piano, and four more (with the addition of saxophonist Freddy Gardner) as the Bosworth Modern Jazz Group on the Bosworth label.[8][9] He also developed a sideline arranging player piano
rolls for the Artona company.

From the 1950s to the 1980s, he presented numerous music programmes on

PM
.

Race coined the term Denham Concerto for short romantic film pieces inspired by the success of Richard Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto, such as Hubert Bath's Cornish Rhapsody, Nino Rota's Legend of the Glass Mountain and Charles Williams' The Dream of Olwen, after the Denham Film Studios where many of them were made.[10]

Composer

As a composer, he produced a number of pieces in the jazz, classical and popular idioms. The bebop jazz piece Blue Acara (named after one of the many tropical fish he and his wife collected)

UK Singles Chart in March 1963.[17][18]
In the mid-1970s this piece was played as
Queen's Park Rangers
ran onto the pitch at the start of each home game at Loftus Road. Steve Race was a season ticket holder at the club.

Race wrote (and with the Steve Race Orchestra performed) library music for the

Chappell Recorded Music Library,[19] an example being Pacemaker.[20] But his best-known and, according to his autobiography, his most lucrative composition is his music for the Birds Eye frozen peas jingle, "Sweet as the moment when the pod went pop". Race also wrote the acoustic guitar jingle which introduced programmes made by Southern Television
in the 1970s and early 1980s.

In the film Calling Paul Temple (1948) Race (with Sid Colin) wrote two of the songs performed by Celia Lipton, and appeared himself as the pianist/bandleader in the nightclub section.[21][22] He also wrote the score for the 1962 British B-movie crime film Crosstrap,[23] and the scores for Three Roads to Rome (1963),[24] Against the Tide (1965)[25] and Land of Three Rivers (1966).[26]

Windsor Blues, a duet written in 1970 for

Prince Charles (cello) and the Earl of Chester (trumpet) has been recorded. (The two titles refer to the same person, and the cello part was intended to be tape recorded by Charles).[27]

Personal life

Race's autobiography, Musician at Large, was published in 1979, and in 1988 Souvenir Press Ltd published his book about his grandfather's short but interesting life, from lead miner to missionary, entitled The Two Worlds of Joseph Race.

Race married Marjorie Leng in 1944 and they had a daughter, Nicola. Marjorie died from cancer in 1969. He married again in 1970, to radio producer Léonie Mather, who survived him.[5] Race had his first heart attack in 1965. He died of the second attack at his home in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, in June 2009.[5]

In the 1980s he was a supporter of the Social Democratic Party.[28]

Publications

  • Piano-Style: A Complete Guide for the Modern Dance Band Pianist (sheet music, 1949)
  • Musician at Large (autobiography, 1979), )
  • The King's Singers: A Self Portrait by Race, Nigel Perrin and The King's Singers (1980, )
  • My Music (1980, )
  • Dear Music Lover (1981)
  • Music Quiz (1983, )
  • The Two Worlds of Joseph Race 1988

References

  1. ^ "Berkshire Life". Archived from the original on 26 June 2009. Retrieved 15 September 2008.
  2. ^ "Steve Race". The Daily Telegraph. London. 22 June 2009. Retrieved 22 June 2009.
  3. ^ Spencer Leigh "Steve Race: Musician and broadcaster best known for his association with the programme 'My Music'", The Independent, 24 June 2009
  4. ^ Barker, Dennis (23 June 2009). "Obituary: Steve Race". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  5. ^ required.)
  6. ^ "Harry Leader and his Band". Mastersofmelody.co.uk. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  7. ^ Tracy, Sheila. Who's Who in Popular Music (1984), p. 150-51
  8. ^ Godbolt, Jim. A History of Jazz in Britain, 1919-1950, Quartet (1984), p 229-30
  9. ^ 'Bop In Britain Volume 1: The Learning Curve 'Bop-In' Britain Volume 1 - The Learning Curve], Jasmine Records JASCD 637 (2003), Proper Music]
  10. ^ "British Light Classics WARNER CLASSICS 2564 61438-2 [TB]". Musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  11. ^ "Harry Parry..." Henrybebop.co.uk. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  12. ^ "Datenbank - HitHistory Website". Hithistory.de. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  13. ^ "ISNI 0000000081268519 Cera, Esteban ( 1921-2009 )". Isni.oclc.org. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  14. ^ "Faraway Music". 19 September 1961. Retrieved 6 October 2021 – via IMDb.
  15. ^ "Steve Race; Faraway Music". YouTube. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  16. ^ "Steve Race and his Orchestra, Nicola". YouTube. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  17. ^ "Steve Race and his Group: Pied Piper (The Beejee)". YouTube. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  18. .
  19. ^ "Chappell LPC694-705". Open.spotify.com. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  20. ^ "Steve Race and his Orchestra: Pacemaker". YouTube. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  21. ^ "CALLING PAUL TEMPLE". Library of Congress. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  22. ^ "Credits and the song 'Lady on the Loose' by Steve Race and Sid Colin, from Calling Paul Temple (1948)". YouTube. Retrieved 4 August 2020.[dead YouTube link]
  23. ^ "The Steve Race Group and Tubby Hayes: Crosstrap". YouTube. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  24. ^ "Three Roads to Rome (1963)". BFI. Archived from the original on 27 April 2019. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  25. ^ "Against the Tide (1965)". BFI. Archived from the original on 5 May 2019. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  26. ^ "Land of Three Rivers (1966)". BFI. Archived from the original on 19 May 2021. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  27. ^ Music for a Prince, Music by a Prince, Toccata TOCN0009 (2021)
  28. ^ "'People said it did in his career': 33 pictures that defined British politicians". The Guardian. 3 February 2024. Retrieved 4 February 2024.

External links