... Detour Ahead--Gill Manly Parrot PARCD 505 Look through the London jazz list ings each week and there is a fair chance that the name of Gill Manly will crop up once or twice. She has been quietly building her reputation through live work for several years and makes an impressive CD debut, armed with the approval of that most accomplished and underrated of American singers Mark Murphy. Like him, ...

... ...

... Baker's Dozen still rising high The Boss Is Home--Kenny Baker's Dozen Big Bear ESSCD 224 It was back in the early years of the Second World War that Kenny Baker's name first came to the notice of British swing enthusi asts and suffered because of confusion with an American singer who was starring in films at the time. Now the singer is forgotten but our Kenny goes marching on, well into his ...

... The Glamour of the Thirties--Ambrose and his Orchestra Flapper PAST CD 7055 The Ambrose catalogue continues to yield riches from the golden age of British dance bands, and this CD demonstrates the breadth of its repertoire, instru- mentals, including the previously unissued Sid Phillips composition Man About Town, romantic stan dards, sung by Jack Cooper and Sam Browne, and novelty num bers ...

... Just different Bach Goes to Town-- Alec Templeton Flapper PAST CD 7057 Few people can remember, or have even heard of. Alec Templeton, a brilliant blind pianist from south Wales who was discovered by Jack Hylton, given a spot in his big show band, went to the States with him and remained there to become a radio personality before his death in his early fifties. A veritable musical magpie, his ...

... Lehar Operetta--Original Cast Series Pearl GEMM CD 9110 Selections from four of Lehar's operettas which received such acclaim from British audiences between the wars, though The Merry Widow was first seen back in 1907, the three tracks here, featuring artists from the 1923 revival, being actually recorded nearly ten years later. These are a very individual rendering of Maxim's by the Danish ...

... Let's Face the Music-- Bruce Adams/Alan Barnes Quartet Big Bear ESSCD 269 Big Bear have found themselves a winner in this quintet, whose second album this is. In its baldest sense, this is straight-up bebop, of the type played in the fifties, with strong themes, some of them standards, then a suc cession of solos from the musi cians and a recapitulation of the theme at the close. But, as if to ...

... Oliver-1994 London Palladium Cast Recording First Night Cast CD 47 No British musical since the Second World War has quite so many good tunes as Lionel Bart's masterpiece. From Food, Glorious Food, the opening song in the show, to the last, Reviewing the Situation, they stick in the public conscious ness, and this CD gives the chance to appreciate the fine new orchestrations by William David ...

... Paris! Oh! Que J'aime Paris Flapper PAST CD 7069 A sampler of artists who have other Rapper compilations to themselves, this includes a song from Edith Piaf's first recording session in 1936, Les momes de la cloche, in which she is backed by an accordion band. The earliest tracks, from 1930, feature Josephine Baker, and Maurice Chevalier, and there are later items from France's other ...

... Professor Pip's Songs and Prances Pip 9401 CD Ian Cameron, who used to lead the band at Danny La Rue's club and then built up a society band- leading connection, has an origi nal concept in records for children here. Basically it is music for young children to march up and down to, familiar melodies but arranged in a modem instrumerv tal style, interspersed with jolly chorus and action songs, ...

... Kammerspiel Timbre DMH CD 1 A commendable debut by a young trio of classical musicians who are dedicated to demystifying the chamber music format. The Haydn and Mendelssohn trios (numbers 39 and 1 respectively) are from the standard repertoire. More unusual is the arrangement of songs from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess by Paul Bateman, a pianist who has had a good deal of theatre experience. ...

... The Jazzman--Nat King Cole Topaz TPZ 1012 To the older among us Nat 'King' Cole is associated more with the swingy items gathered together on this set than the lush ballads in which he specialised from the fifties onwards. This was the Cole of the King Cole Trio, completed by Oscar Moore (guitar) and Wesley Prince. later Johnny Miller, on bass, who gained their collective reputation in Los ...