Donald Helme

Donald spent many years in the advertising industry in Dublin, chairing the world-renowned creative advertising festival held in Kinsale for many years as well as running his own agency.

He was a founding presenter on Lyric, broadcasting Jazz Alley in the station's first week, and continuing to do so every week since then, over the intervening 12 years. Before that he presented The Far Side of The Tracks on RTE FM3.

His lifelong enthusiasm for jazz began in the 1950s with Count Basie, and blossomed from there to include almost all aspects of this absorbing and important music. He is at pains to point out that he is not a musician, and has little sympathy for the introspective cult of some younger musicians who believe that since their audience will be minimal they will merely make music for other musicians. "I am a fan, and maybe over the years I have developed reasonable ears, but I remain insistent onbeing seduced by the sound of jazz, not the technique of it"

The mission of Jazz Alley has always been just that - to seduce listeners with the sound of jazz, and not put people off bytalking about the techniques that make jazz possible.. "We try to have very broad appeal," says Donald, "we try to talk to died-in-the-wool fans of course, but we also want listeners who catch us casually to say 'Wow, I want to hear more of that'. And thankfully our email traffic suggests that that is sometimes just what we achieve".

Hear Donald on:
Jazz Alley: Wednesday, 7-8pm
Click here for programme website