Mai Jones (6 February 1899 – 7 May 1960), was a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

entertainer An entertainer is someone who provides entertainment in various different forms. Types of entertainers * Acrobat * Actor * Archimime * Athlete * Barker * Beatboxer * Benshi * Bouffon * Circus performer * Clown * Club Hostess/Host * Comed ...

and

radio producer A radio producer oversees the making of a radio show. The job title covers several different job descriptions: *Content producers or executive producers oversee and orchestrate a radio show or feature. The content producer might organize music choi ...

Biography

Jones was born in

Newport, Monmouthshire Newport ( cy, Casnewydd; ) is a city and county borough in Wales, situated on the River Usk close to its confluence with the Severn Estuary, northeast of Cardiff. With a population of 145,700 at the 2011 census, Newport is the third-largest au ...

, the daughter of the local railway stationmaster. Having won a scholarship to study music at the University of Wales, Cardiff, she went on to the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

. Her early successes included being selected as one of the official accompanists for the

National Eisteddfod of Wales The National Eisteddfod of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Eur ...

Pontypool Pontypool ( cy, Pont-y-pŵl ) is a town and the administrative centre of the county borough of Torfaen, within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire in South Wales. It has a population of 28,970. Location It is situated on the Afon Lwyd ri ...

in 1924. Singing and playing both

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

and

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

, she began to make a name for herself as an entertainer in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, and broadcast on radio for the first time with Jack Payne's band. During the 1920–30s, she also contributed the contralto voice to a well-known and often broadcast singing duo called The Carroll Sisters, with Elsie Eaves (soprano). In 1941, she joined the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

as a radio producer of light entertainment programmes. Programmes produced by her included ''

Welsh Rarebit Welsh rarebit or Welsh rabbit ( or ) is a dish consisting of a hot Cheese sauce, cheese-based sauce served over slices of Toast (food), toasted bread. The original 18th-century name of the dish was the jocular "Welsh rabbit", which was later fo ...

'' and ''Saturday Starlight''. As part of the wartime Cardiff artistic and music community Mai had known

Idloes Owen Evan Idloes Owen (10 September 1894 – July–September 1954) was a Welsh singer, composer, and conductor. He was the principal founder of the Welsh National Opera. Early life Idloes Owen, was born in late 1894 in the mining village of Merthyr ...

, also a composer, arranger and conductor, who performed with the pre-war Lyrian Singers. Idloes went on to found the

Welsh National Opera Welsh National Opera (WNO) ( cy, Opera Cenedlaethol Cymru) is an opera company based in Cardiff, Wales; it gave its first performances in 1946. It began as a mainly amateur body and transformed into an all-professional ensemble by 1973. In its ...

in 1943. He was instrumental in providing Mai with a musical score written originally by a fellow Lyrian performer, Thomas Morgan. Mai then collaborated with lyricists Lyn Joshua and James Harper to create the now Welsh standard " We'll Keep a Welcome". It had its début on 29 February 1940; the BBC's resident 25-strong male voice choir, the Lyrian Singers, performed the new song. It was an overnight success. Successful songs written by Mai Jones included: "Blackbirds" (1924), "Wondering If You Remember" (1927), "We'll Keep a Welcome" (1940), "Nos Da/Good night" (1946) and "Rhondda Rhapsody" (1951). In 1947, she married a singer, David Davies. She retired from the BBC in 1958 and died not long afterwards as a result of a head injury. Her husband outlived her. A plaque commemorating her was unveiled in 2010 at the couple's former home in St Marks Crescent, Newport.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Mai 1899 births 1960 deaths Welsh women songwriters 20th-century Welsh women singers Welsh women pianists Welsh contraltos Alumni of Cardiff University Alumni of the Royal College of Music BBC radio producers People from Newport, Wales 20th-century British pianists Women radio producers 20th-century women pianists