Steve Race was born in Lincoln, England on April 1, 1921. He was an English pianist and broadcaster.

After studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London he worked in the early 1940s as an arranger for Ted Heath and in 1949 recorded with his own bop group. During the early 1950s he worked as a freelance and began to develop a reputation as a propagandist for jazz. From 1955 to 1960 he was the adviser on light music to the television company Associated–Rediffusion. He presented various programs for BBC radio, notably “Jazz Record Requests,” “My Music” (1966–90), and “Steve Race” (1984–90), the last of which featured the BBC Radio Orchestra and Big Band; “My Music” was transferred to BBC television in the 1980s. Race published an autobiography, Musician at Large (London, 1979), and continued to write books after he retired from broadcasting in 1995.

His abilities as a pianist and arranger may be heard on the album Take One (World Record Club 453), which he recorded with a big band in 1965.

He died June 22, 2009.

[Biography from Grove Music Online]