I don’t think jazz of itself has ever meant sufficient to me for me to have given it serious thought before. But I’m attached to certain tunes for their personal associations – e.g. ‘Dancing Cheek to Cheek’ + ‘The Lady in Red’ – they played them a lot at the first dance or two I went to (I was about 15), ‘When I grow too old to Dream’ – a friend used it in her music-hall act. ‘Let’s put out the light + go to sleep’ – a pleasant party. ‘Sitting in the Dark’ – well worn on a caravan holiday. On the whole I prefer the more wistful sort of things (’When I grow too old to Dream’) things with a story (‘Angeline’) or unusual tunes (‘Café in the Square’, ‘Any umberellas’) to hot swing. Favourite composer – Noel Coward, vocalist Gracie Fields. So far I’ve found more people agreeing with me than otherwise. Most upholders of red rhythm I’ve found to be school boys whose chief object is to annoy their sisters, + college youths who either want to appear tough or else prove they’re neither bourgeois nor purely intellectual. << less