SOUNDTRACK TO MYLIFE Jim Sutton
The veteran NZ radio personality’s ‘Nostalgia’ show ran every Saturday night for 25 years (1988-2013) on Newstalk ZB until discontinued by the station last year.
MUSIC HAS always been a part of my life but the crazy thing is that I never learned to play a musical instrument like the piano or guitar.
At the tender age of 10 I joined the Auckland City Junior Brass Band but didn’t last the distance. Maybe I could have been a trumpet player.
Notwithstanding, music has always been a major part of my life. Radio was where we kept up with the hits of the day, and family and friends’ parties was where I learned to appreciate those great old singalongs, my favourite being ‘‘a little street where old friends meet’’.
I first started collecting music in earnest during the 1970s from the second-hand record stores that sprung up all over town. From Bing Crosby – introduced to me by my grandmother – to the hits of the 50s.
Many were available in compilation form so I was in music heaven with Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jnr. I also have a love for those great voices of the 20th century, again introduced to me by my grandmother.
She took me to see the great Caruso and Mario Lanza, and also to the Auckland Town Hall to see Mina Foley in concert and her fabulous performance of the Nuns’ Chorus.
Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman and Glen Miller feature high in my listening stakes, and many of these great entertainers have formed part of the large number of compilation artists featured on my CDs through the years.
I have always had a special love of New Zealand entertainers and was the recipient of the original master tapes of the Tanza recordings from the Astor studios in Auckland, gifted to me by Mrs Vida Peach, which I have remastered and shared with New Zealanders.
My favourite great voice is Paul Robeson, and my favourite Kiwi singer is Eddie Low.
I miss my time on the air.
Radio was where we kept up with the current hits of the day, and family and friends’ parties was where I learned to appreciate those great old singalongs.