Wednesdays MIDDAY
Presented by Gill Falson
Music has been the life force in Gill’s family for generations. Grandmother, Ruby Daniels, widowed by the 1914-18 War, reared her two small sons with money earned playing piano for silent movies.
Ruby’s eldest son, Jack Daniels, became the music teacher at Cessnock High School and played piano for dances and balls throughout the Hunter Region. He also gathered a comprehensive record collection that has influenced his daughter ever since. Listening to 78’s of Ellington, Django, Basie, Goodman, Condon, James, Shaw, Waller etc. was mother’s milk to this young child.
Moving to ‘The Big Smoke’, Sydney, aged 18, Gill established herself as a singer/dancer in the city’s flourishing Night Club scene. There she met and married prominent trumpet player, composer and music arranger Ron Falson, who was kept busy writing for, and playing on, music based television programs, from 6 O’Clock Rock & Bandstand to the Midday Show and all Tonight Shows in Sydney and Melbourne.
So for 50 years Ron arranged music and Gill copied out the individual parts using pen and ink. No computers. This lifetime involvement has given Gill a comprehensive knowledge of the history of Jazz. Comes in handy choosing tracks for ‘Playing Favourites’!
