... Jazzy rhythms President Records has recently issued some exceptionally interesting CDs, compiled by Joop Visser, which cover the period when jazz, blues and rock'n'roll were somehow mingled together in what was then called rhythm and blues. The time was the mid-forties, ten years Derore rock'n'roll emerged as a distinct entity in the hands of white performers. The link between Wynonte Hants ...

... Powerful and moving story Seen last year as part of the Covert Garden Festival, Let Him Have Justice is not the type of musical to make worldwide waves or even warrant more than the odd production in this country. But as a piece of musical drama it has a lot going for it when it comes to sincerity and passion, being based on the real-life story of Derek Bentley, an illiterate youth who was ...

... McJazz Lives On Sandy Brown (One-Up OU 2092) When Sandy Brown died in March this year, British and, indeed, world jazz lost a strikingly gifted and idiosyncratic musician. These tracks, recorded in the late fifties and early sixties by Denis Preston and mainly released on earlier albums, form an excellent tribute to a man who was not only a clarinettist with an instantly recognisable style but ...

... New theatre centre Steven Berkoff, whose London heatre Group have been per forming at the Greenwich Theatre, has discovered a building in Isling ton which could solve some ofNorth London's theatre problems. In Al- r meida Street, not far from the King's Head, it is Georgian and in very good condition and even used for a short while as a music-hall in the 1840s. There is a basement and another ...

... DISC DATA COUSIN JOE. the veteran blues man from New Orleans, will be celebrating his 70th birthday on December 20 in Europe, which he visited for the first time in 1964 He is doing a number of British dates during the tour, mainly in colleges. but he is at the 100 Club, Oxford Street, on December 12 Jim Simpson of Big Bear Records, Birmingham, who represents Cousin Joe here, has fust ...

... Dream Babies--Girls and Girl Groups of the Sixties (Capitol EG 26 0573 1) If the late sixties and early seventies was the age of the singer/songwriter, the early sixties was the era of the solo singer and vocal group. Just how many of them made a few records and sank out of sight is demonstrated on this fascinating album of disposable trash, the principle being, of course, that even dross ...

... Dudley Moore at the Wavendon Festival (Black Lion BLP 12151). As Alun Morgan writes in his sleeve note. Dudley Moore's success as a comedian is inclined to make us forget his real ability as a jazz pianist, especially in those items with a Latin American flavour. There are some Moore originals in this crisp, witty and melodic collec tion, in which bassist Pete Morgan and drummer Chris Karan ...

... Splendid stuff by Sandy Sandy Wilson Thanks the Ladies (Overtures OVER 1001) It has taken some time for this to find its way on to disc, for it was recorded at the Players in 1972. Nevertheless, it is worth the wait, for it is a reminder that Wilson, best known for The Boy Friend, is one of the best lyricists we possess, following broadly in the tradition of Coward but having more bite ...

... DISC DATA The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (That's Entertainment TER 1029) The mammoth Channel 4 presentation of Nicholas Nickleby had rather more of Stephen Oliver's music than the stage production. It is mainly incidental music in the truest sense of the term, wonderfully apt in its Victorian way, but hardly standing up in its own right. Harry Rabinowitz is the conductor. ...

... DISC DATA Mersey Beat (Parlophonc PCSP 1783293) It was Bill Harry who first coined the phrase Mersey Beat and to celebrate the fact started his own paper of that title, which charted the course of the developing Merseyside music scene a full couple of years before Britain became aware of the Beatles. This double album, graced by Barry Thorpe's painting which shows all the youthful Mersey ...

... DISC DATA Half a Sixpence--Original Cast (That's Entertainment TER 1041) One of a batch of Decca originals rereleased by That's Entertainment, this is not only a reminder of the 1963 musical which was the best show Tommy Steele has ever starred in, but the first appearance on disc of the then very young Marti Webb, charmingly playing the role of Kipps' sweetheart. The strength of H.G. ...

... The Cradle Will Rock The Acting Company (That's Entertainment TER 1105) The cast album of the legendary musical which came from New York to the Old Vic last summer. It was watched and listened to with respect, but few of us thought we were in the presence of a neglected masterpiece and this album proves we were right. It is in fact a historical curiosity, first staged nearly 50 years ago ...