Kōrero: Popular music

Ruru Karaitiana's 'Blue smoke' was the first record released by TANZA, and the first song written by a New Zealander to be recorded and processed locally and released on a local label. Karaitiana wrote the song in 1940 on the way to the battlefields of the Second World War and it became a favourite tune of the 28th (Māori) Battalion. The sheet music was published in 1947; the recording, by Pixie Williams, was released in 1949 and became a New Zealand classic.