... IF EVER a musician lived the jazz life it was clarinettist Pee Wee Russell, whose story is told by Robert Hilbert (Pee Wee Russell; The Life Of A Jazzman, Oxford University Press, £17.50). Russell was one of those men of legend, somebody who rose in the afternoon, drank a bottle of milk, stumbled out to the liquor store to buy a quart of whisky, went back to his apartment to drink it and then ...

... of having his play The Common Pursuit staged in London under Pinter's direction, Simon Gray has followed his play to the US. His diary is a series of amusing often peeved notes about the difficulties, almost the impossibilities, of an Englishman abroad: the diary begins in Los Angeles, where his play is maltreated by cast and producer, and reaches off- Broadway where it is triumphant. En ...

... some 64 are in colour and are among the finest quality reproductions I have seen--details the rapidly changing styles cohabiting between the first Revolution of 1905 and the early thirties. Rudnitsky, tactfully, does not draw attention to the impact of Stalinism on the Russian theatre, but his text is characterised by a lucid and informative style. He suc ceeds in showing how after 1917, ...

... On the record Jazz on Record, by Brian Priestley (Elm Tree Books, £14.95) It is a trifle odd that while there have been many histories of jazz and even more jazz documentation in the form of discographies, no one has written jazz history in this way, as the story of the medium which was chiefly responsible for the worldwide propagation of jazz, the mophone. It is true, as Brian Priestley ...

... More memories Thank* For The Memories by Leslie Frost. (Kestrel Printing of Bamsley, £5.95). Copies post free from the author at 6 Hillside, North Anston. Sheffield S31 7AZ. Another nostalgic look back at some former theatres of Sheffield and district, this time in an 88 page, A4 size paperback, with a glossy cover, by the author of a previously published work on similar lines titled Seats in ...

... Bringing good theatre to the masses Theatres of the Left 1880-1935: Workers Theatre Movements in Bri tain and America, by Raphael Samuel, Ewan MacColl and Smart Cosgrove (Routledgc and Kegan Paul, £8.95 paperback) The connection between socialism and the theatre has always been of absorbing interest. In the latter part of the 19th century, when socialism was being propagated by artistic ...

... Hollywood or its stars from these hundreds of anecdotes and one-liners spoken during the past 60 years by actors and directors. Some of them actually sound a little too glib and polished to have come from the mouths of the alleged perpetrators, and one suspects that behind many of them mav be the practised hand of the publicity agent and magazine interviewer. But there are a few dozen laughs ...

... Into the valley of death Richard Burton, My Brother, by Graham Jenkins (Michael Joseph, £12.95) Criticised for being opportunist, this book by Richard Burton's brother is no worse than other show business biographies. I ai least u nas an autncniic ring wncn it deals with the actor's childhood, with what is presumably a true account of how it came about that Richard Jenk ins, as he then was, ...

... know. For one thing, it does not give the plots of the operas; on the other hand, it provides masses of information not generally found in other works of reference on the subject. It comprises a wide selection of all operas produced from the 16th century to today, details about their composers, librettists, dates of premieres, producers, outstanding singers and conductors. It explains the ...

... musical examples but no photographs, is one of the strangest artists of our century, seeming to sum up in his own person our need for exile and our eclecticism; his love of parody and ability to use it to express his own emotions suggesting our own disinclination to commil ourselves to 'belief. There is no parallel with the genius of Stravinsky, in his need for models to imitate and in his ...

... The last tycoon Peter Hepple gets a glimpse of the man behind the cigar Still Dancing, by Lew Grade (Collins, £12.95) In the beginning was the deal, and it is still the deal, not the product, that turns Lew on. First it was speciality acts, the first Grade line of business. Then it was a wider range of artists. Next came the sole bookings for theatres and the building up of an empire. with his ...

... in that it does not attempt to include everybody in the field, concentrating instead on biographies of 200 key figures from the twenties to the eighties, indicating what made them outstanding and directing the reader to the best examples of their recorded work, furth er reading and their appearances in other media, particularly films. There is an introduction to each decade, a useful reference ...