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Finn Peters Jaws Mack the Knife

George Coleman, Amsterdam After Dark (Timeless)

Joe Zawinul Nils Lofgren Zero Mostel

PC Ned Strangelove, the bent copper The Kinks Libby Purves

Mulligan certainly had an ear for trad/dixieland; you can hear this in the otherwise ultra-cool "Cherry" by the classic Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker. It's interesting to ponder whether his fondness for counterpoint owed something to the multi-lined approach of dixieland, though counterpoint was, of course, a pretty standard feature of the West Coast school. Mulligan also came to be accepted as a stalwart of the 1950s mainstream giants of jazz. In the famous CBS "Sound of Jazz" television broadcast, he lines up with Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Ben Webster to back Billie Holliday. Norman Granz's pairings of him with Ben Webster and Johnny Hodges are likely to appeal to you: The aspect of Mulligan you refer to came as quite a revelation to me. I knew him first in the 50s from the Birth of the Cool sessions and the Quartet with Chet Baker and saw him as the epitome of cool. I would never have imagined him playing with Hodges or Webster! But we came to find that Mulligan had depths we hadn't realised!

Alex Riel Stanley Dance Franz Bopp

Bugs Bunny The Beatles Perse-Oreilly Earwigger

Rolf Ericson Erik the Red The Red Dean

Some fine music there, David! The Lambert, Hendricks and Ross tracks took me back to around 1960 when I was a student. Those albums seemed always to be in the background! The Gasser is a new one on me. Appropriately titled, it deserves to be better known.

Coop Jar Jar Binks George G Ale

Alfie Bass Peter Ind Kirsty Allsop

Jazz Record Requests from BBC Radio 3 Now playing: Annie Ross, "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet

Cardew the Cad The Card Cecil Sharp

Compositions and arrangements by Bill Holman

Blood Ulmer The Liver Birds Brian Organ

George Coleman Octet, Big George (Affinity)

What a great idea - he would be a natural in that role. He could probably have made a living as a stand-up comic. Yes, indeed! Alan Barnes told one at Wigan last year about the man who couldn't get through on the phone to the incontinence clinic. Asked where he was ringing, he replied, "Everywhere from the waist down" :blush2:

Ray Gosling Ron Drake Tony Duckers

Oliver Nelson Half Nelson Nelson Boyd

Ratso Rizzo Alexander Pope Louis Prima(te)

Jerry Wald Tuesday Weld Marty Wilde

Billy Boy Big Boi Boyzone

Paul Gonsalves, Gettin' Together (OJC/Jazzland)