Displaying Olympian knowledge of this protean genre, Gioia combines facts and background information in an absorbing narrative that tootles along, from ragtime which peaked in 1909, to the "struts and prances" of vocalist Jamie Cullum (born 1979).

Tipped by Jamie Cullum as one to watch, Porter is a deep-voiced vocalist from Bakersfield, California. There's an obvious debt to Kurt Elling but Porter seems relatively unbound by technique, sounding less mannered and more soulful as a result.

Monty Sunshine, the clarinettist on the million-selling "Petite Fleur", was at the forefront of the traditional jazz boom in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He had a delightful stage presence and remained modest. "How can any jazz musician get conceited?" he once asked me, "He only has to put on the records of the great masters to wake up to his true status."

Liam Gallagher, the former Oasis frontman, lent some rock and roll glamour to the Drapers Awards at London's Grosvenor Hotel on Park Lane on Wednesday night. Gallagher and his partner, the former All Saints singer Nicole Appleton, were there to pick up an award for his Pretty Green fashion label, which opened its first store in Carnaby Street in July. True to form Liam kept his coat on, swaggered on to stage and bantered with the host Lisa Snowdon. But he disappointed the audience by failing to respond to their pleas for a speech and left soon after picking up his gong.

Model Sophie Dahl is expecting a baby with her musician husband Jamie Cullum, a spokesman for the couple confirmed.

There comes a time when the over-fed, over-pampered restaurant critic waddles to his bathroom mirror, examines the wreckage of his jowly, cross-hatched physiognomy, feels that dyspeptic groaning that comes from too many suprêmes de volaille or tournedos Rossini, and says to himself: "Enough fine dining. I want some crazy fun involving burgers and milkshakes. I want to stand around doing something vaguely sporty. I want to go where the kids go." That's when someone will tell you about the All Star Lanes franchise.

In terms of productivity, Mark-Anthony Turnage sits comfortably at the bottom of the league among contemporary British composers, but as a significant voice, he’s up at the top.

There's been quite a bit of chatter about who should play Elizabeth Taylor in the proposed biopic, and it got me thinking about how very phoney modern actors are, compared with the old breed. You'd think when they abandoned the studio system, the Phoney Quotient would have gone down – now people weren't being forced to change their names and hide their sexual preferences, surely a new sincerity would sweep the bazaars of Thespus?

Banzai! Despite one's wish to avoid stereotypes, Japanese combo S&P really do seem to be all about attack, with furiously driven piano and percussion supplying the backbeat for funky ensemble horn-play.

If you were to travel back to the Last Night of the Proms in 1910, you would see 3,000 people paying their threepence to listen to Edward German's comic operettas and Dorothy Forster's fashionable songs.

Having previously succeeded Alastair Campbell at the helm of an increasingly troubled Downing Street spin machine, it's safe to say David Hill is a man well-accustomed to a political challenge.

Jazz star Jamie Cullum has landed a regular slot as a DJ on Radio 2, it was announced today.