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Don Harper (18 March 1921 – 30 May 1999) was an Australian jazz violinist and composer. During his long and diverse career, both in his native Australia and in the UK, he was a regular on radio and TV music shows, and recorded many albums as a solo performer or as leader of a group. He also composed themes for TV shows includingWorld of Sport andChampion House, as well as incidental music for the 1968Doctor Who storyThe Invasion.
Don Harper was born in Melbourne in 1921.[1] He took up violin at the age of eight, and by his teens was playing in dance bands. By the mid-1940s, his band Don Harper and his Music were drawing big crowds in the Melbourne area. A decade of non-stop work led to his quartet winning a talent show in 1954 and provided funds for the next step in his career.[2]
Following an invitation from British comedianTommy Trinder,[3] whom he met while touring Australia, Harper moved to the UK in 1955, and became a regular performer, as leader of a quartet or sextet, on many BBC Radio shows includingMusic While You Work,Workers' Playtime, andMidday Music Hall. He also worked as a solo violinist at cabaret clubs, as a session musician in recording studios, and conducted the orchestra at the nightclub The Talk of the Town.[4]
Returning to Australia in 1962, Harper was regularly seen performing on Australian television and on radio as well as in many jazz clubs across the country. He also toured alongside[5] theDave Brubeck Quartet. It was during this period that he studied musical composition withRaymond Hanson at theNew South Wales State Conservatorium of Music at the University of Sydney, and this shaped the next part of his career.
When Harper returned to the UK, the composition of music became the focus of his work. He wrote themes for TV shows including LWT's long-runningWorld of Sport,[6] BBC drama seriesChampion House, and Rediffusion'sSexton Blake. He also wrote incidental music for TV shows, including theDoctor Who serialThe Invasion[7] in 1968, and BBC science fiction/horror seriesOut Of The Unknown in 1969. His music composition also included tracks for production music labelKPM (sometimes credited as "Don Jackson").[8] In 1972 he collaborated withDelia Derbyshire andBrian Hodgson of theBBC Radiophonic Workshop (both recording under pseudonyms), on a KPM album of electronic music.[9] A further exploration of electronic music led to the 1974 albumDon Harper's Homo Electronicus (UK, EMI Columbia) on which Harper collaborated with a group of musicians including jazz keyboardist Alan Branscombe playing theARP 2600.[10] The album contains a re-working of Harper's own composition "World of Sport". In the late 1970s he teamed up with British jazz guitaristDenny Wright, recording albums and appearing on BBC radio shows including “Sounds of Jazz”.[11] Another project, which combined his musical skills with art and classic fiction, came in 1978, when he composed a series of songs to illustrate theLewis CarrollAlice In Wonderland stories. The resulting book and album were released in 1978,[12] and re-released in Australia in 1985.[13]
Harper worked in the UK until 1983, when he decided once again to return to his home in Australia, where he formed the Australian Chamber Jazz Ensemble as a recording and touring group. He also took up the position of Head of Jazz Studies atWollongong University's School of Creative Arts,[14]
He continued performing live and recording in his later life, and released an album,Images of Australia, in 1997[15]
Some of his incidental music fromDoctor Who was later reused, in reorchestrated form, as part of the De Wolfe stock score ofMary Millington's True Blue Confessions (1980).[16]
In 2005,MF Doom andDanger Mouse, in their collaborative projectDanger Doom, sampled Don Harper's "Chamber Pop" and "Thoughtful Popper". Elements of "Dank Earth" from theDawn of the Dead soundtrack were sampled on "Intro" byGorillaz fromDemon Days, which was also produced by Danger Mouse.
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