BillF

Le Carré's latest - an assorted ragbag of readable anecdotes.

Murder Inc The Ink Spots Blott

The Rose of Tralee Jan Thorn Prikker Jacob Wick

Benny Goodman The Bad Plus The Wolf of Badenoch

Ray King Sir Cloudesley Shovell Spade Cooley

20 years earlier than that - he's asking for reading on "pre-1940s music" - which is exactly why I didn't mention all those fine books on bebop that I've read!

Otto Hardwick Lou Hackney Cab Calloway

Haven't read it since I was a Young Man, but would probably feel the same way.

Adam Ant Tommy Steele Chris Rock

Harry the Horse Rider Haggard John of Gaunt

Bruce Turner was very good on this in his autobiography, Hot Air, Cool Music. Noting that Hugues Panassié "had seen fit to magnify the importance of one small corner of the jazz scene, at the expense of everything else," he says:" Here in Britain, Rex Harris brought out a paperback Jazz which sold an alarming number of copies."

Barry Harris playing Charlie Parker's "Passport" on this:

My favorite Lester period!

Dan Druff Mein Herr Clare Balding

Agreed! That set me on the wrong course for all of a year when I was 17 in 1957. Ellington stopped being a jazz musician when he hired saxophonists; anything without a banjo was no longer jazz, etc,etc. Fortunately, at 18 I heard Bird which swept all that away. Ah, the trials of youth!

Chubby Checker Ludo Kennedy Fats Domino

Happy Birthday!

Major Surgery General Disorder Corporal Punishment

No, they know the vocabulary of jazz from their younger days. Almost all youngsters are bewildered by music without backbeat, amplification, vocals, etc., the rare exceptions being youngsters studying music who are exposed to jazz as part of their curriculum and learn to read its complex grammar. However, youngsters don't walk out of places like Starbucks where I sit listening to the musak and thinking That's Cannonball or That's Timmons. Perhaps because it's at low volume it's not recognized as music and is subliminally accepted.

Boy Racers Ella Speed Admiral Graff Spee

Grim London police corruption thriller. Great stuff!

Demeter Gus Demmy Gorgeous Gussie

Ena Sharples Lester Flatt Annabel Pitcher