TV personality and jazz artist who presented ‘My Music’
Musician, broadcaster and composer Steve Race OBE died on 22 June, 2009, aged 88.
From behind his piano he hosted the popular Radio 4 panel game My Music, which ran from 1967 until 1994.
He was also a familiar face on television, presenting countless music-related programmes.
He had previously been known as a jazz and bebop musician and composer, and he also wrote advertising jingles.
Stephen Russell Race was born on 1 April 1921 in Lincoln and he learned to play the piano at the age of five. During his childhood, he was a local celebrity, playing the organ at churches and cinemas.
He studied at the Royal Academy of Music before going professional, working with top band leaders like Harry Leader, Lew Stone, Cyril Stapleton and Ted Heath band. He also worked with Hollywood star Judy Garland as an arranger.
He was a member of RAF dance bands during the Second World War. After the war his broadcasting career continued on BBC children's television before being made musical director at the Associated Rediffusion TV company who made programmes with the likes of Tony Hancock and Peter Sellers .
In the early 1960s he had minor chart hits with his jazz singles Nicola and Pied Piper (The Beeje), though he claimed his most lucrative composition as the 'Sweet as the moment when the pod went pop' jingle for Birds Eye's frozen peas.
He joined the new station Radio 4 as host of magazine programme Home In The Afternoon, before taking the chair of My Music in which the panel of comics and musicians answered questions on music, identified tunes and sang songs. Mr Race hosted all 520 editions of the show and also set most of the questions.
In the 1970s he wrote several books on music as well as quiz books and his autobiography, Musician at Large (1979). His other activities including politics and he was a founding member of the Social Democratic Party. From 1998 until shortly before his death, he set quick crossword for the Daily Telegraph.
Mr Race was survived by his daughter and his second wife, Léonie. His first wife, Marjorie, died in 1969.
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