JAZZ SIR,—II is a bit baffling to have to reply
to someone contradicting things you never said and arguing about points on which there is no apparent disagreement. Still, I'll try to make clear to Mr. Max Harrison : That I don't dispute that jazz 'followers are drawn from every social strata,' since that was the theme of my article—and which was why 1 cited Tynan, Amis, etc.', to show that the younger writers now naturally absorb jazz as part of the social atmosphere; That I did go to hear Ellington (twice)—otherwise I wouldn't have commented upon the concerts, and Mr. Harrison must know, if he was there himself, that by 'comic-hat number' I was referring to Ray Nance's ebullient clowning in 'Just Squeeze Me' and t Don't Mean A Thing.' I might also have men- tioned Ozzie Bailey's schmaltzy 'Autumn Leaves,' with Corner House-ish violin accompaniment. Per- sonally, my gorge did not perceptibly rise at either, but I reiterate that these were the kind of ingredients in the Ellington repertoire that made the purists grumpy; That Mr. Harrison is either deluding himself or
trying to delude others when he 'refutes' that attendances at American jazz concerts have declined. The fact is, regrettably, that there has been a general falling off—serious enough to cause Melody Maker, the musical trade paper, to ask in its September 20 issue: "Why are customers cold-shouldering concerts by visiting Americans?' and to follow that in the next issue with a full-page article headlined The Truth A bout the Concert Slump; That 1, didn't say that jazz records are made by "untutored coloured labourers."' What 1 did say was that the British revival in the Forties was sparked by old recordings of untutored coloured' labourers —for instance, George Lewis, Jim Robinson, Bunk Johnson, Alphonse. Picou, King Oliver, who were musicians when and where they could pick up a living .and at other times worked with their hands. There is nothing insultingly sacrilegious in the phrase—it is a statement of fact.
There is, I fear, 'a. stifling aroma of incense over all of Mr. Harrison's letter : precisely the sort Ot solemn, inbred cultism that,- in my article, I was rejoicing.we were escaping from.—Yours faithfully,
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