I bought a record today (a very rare occurrence) – ‘Boo Woo’ by the Harry James Boogie-Woogie Trio. It is an old record, orig. Columbia, reissued on Parlophone, and as far as I remember had guts. James plays muted all the way (spoiling his lovely tone, but artistically correct) and the pianist is Ammons on one side and Johnson on the other. I have no gramophone here so shall have to hoard it. I talk to Bruce Montgomery about jazz a great deal. He is the last person I should have thought would have liked it, but in our last term at Oxford he took a liking to some of our records, particularly the Chicago Rhythm Kings ‘I’ve Found a New Baby.’ His classical training and taste make it impossible for him to like jazz for simple rhythm or power (he does not like Bessie Smith), but he tells me that small-group improvised counterpoint is parallel to the counterpoint of Bach, and that both types of music head their genres and are somehow connected. That sounds sensible enough to me. His eclectic taste makes me aware of how much mediocre stuff we have, though not as much as he would say. Records like Bechet’s ‘Nobody Knows The Way I Feel This Morning,’ Armstrong’s ‘Squeeze Me’, Bessie’s ‘Take Me For a Buggy Ride,’ Freeman’s ‘Buzzard’ and Basie’s ‘Shoeshine Swing’ are a rich inheritance. Yes, sir. Er – yes. << less