WONDERFUL ORIGINAL 1953 HARMONICA 78 FROM THE REMARKABLE RONALD CHESNEY ON THE UK COLUMBIA "QUEENS CORONATION" COLOURS LABEL

RUBY

b/w    HARMONICA RAG

Max van Gelder (12 February 1916 – 2 October 2004), professionally known as Max Geldray, was a jazz harmonica player. He was well known for providing musical interludes in British radio programmes such as Workers Playtime and The Goon Show.

Geldray was born in the Netherlands and played jazz in England, Belgium, France and his home country, before settling in Britain at the outbreak of the Second World War; he was wounded during the Invasion of Normandy. He appeared in nearly every episode of The Goon Show, providing one of the musical interludes and the closing music for each programme. After The Goon Show series finished in 1960, he settled in the US, where he worked as an entertainer in the Reno casinos alongside the likes of Sarah Vaughan and Billy Daniels. Moving to Palm Springs, he eventually became a part-time counsellor at the Betty Ford Center. He was married twice and has one son. Geldray died in 2004 at the age of 88.

15 years after the release of this record "Ruby" was re-recorded by Stevie Wonder and was issued on the Tamla Motown label in 1968

DISC DETAILS:

UK COLUMBIA 1953 "CORONATION LABEL" DB 3301 78rpm  10" SHELLAC

CONDITION - E-/V+