MANY MUSICIANS who helped to make popular music great are forgotten names today, if indeed they were ever known outside of a particular band's followers. However, their contribution is not diminished by that. Eldon Shamblin was not a front man but, 60 years ago, his guitar playing and arrangements helped to establish Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys as a leading country music band, and then, in the 1970s, he played with the top country music act of the day, Merle Haggard and the Strangers.

FIFTIES ROCK 'n' roll was torn between the rootsy rhythm 'n' blues of the original black performers and the watered-down teen-idol variety of white middle America. The record company mogul Lew Chudd worked in both these strands and played a major role in the career of leading exponents of both genres.

Once criticised for singing songs as if he believed them, that was precisely what made him the best.

FROM TIME to time, it is the parts of newspapers that have nothing to do with the news that give the most pleasure. For some, this will be the crossword; for me it is the obituaries. I know that many readers skip over them.

JAZZ WAS not KO'd by rock, as asserted by George Russell ("Lydian modes and all that jazz", 7 March). It was KO'd by James Caesar Petrillo, president of the American Federation of Musicians from 1940 until 1958. The two-year-long recording ban he called in 1942 spelled doom for the instrumental star bands, such as those of Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Jimmy Lunceford, Harry James and Artie Shaw, and paved the way for the current dictatorship of the vocalist - they, not being union members, had continued to record.

Big bands have become musical dinosaurs says Phil Johnson but all that could change with the music of Maria Schneider who comes to the Barbican this week breathing new life into orchestral jazz

The Julian Joseph All-Star Big Band was the Proms jazz feature two years ago. In 1996, Darius Milhaud's jazz-inspired ballet La Creation du monde was the nearest the season came to the subject. This year, however, it was the turn of John Dankworth and Cleo Laine to act as jazz standard- bearers, complete with the Dankworth Sextet, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC Big Band.

Sir: It is infuriating, when trying to do business on the telephone, to find oneself left listening for minutes on end to an idiotic musical- box representation of Mozart or a foxtrot played by Glenn Miller. I suspect that irritation with this practice is almost universal. So how can customers convey their displeasure to the many companies that use this device?

"It was a fabulous time, a golden age for jazz," the bassist Eddie Jones said of the ten years he spent in Count Basie's band which began in 1953. "It was a good time to be in that band and a good time to be alive. Working for Basie was a pleasure: all he asked was that you show up, do your job, look good, and play well." A job in the band was much to be prized. "You couldn't afford to get sick in that band - if you didn't show up you disappeared."

Energy, yes; creativity, in abundance - but did it live up to all the hype? Tamsin Blanchard chooses the best - and worst - of London Fashion Week.

There was Hitler and rationing - but also the thrill of swing music, of womanly curves and manly suits, and Hollywood at its most glamorous. Because of, or despite, the War, the Forties have an excitement rivalled this century only by the Sixties. A revival of Forties music, clothes and dance is now in full spate. Happy days are here again, says Sandra Lawrence, herself a Forties-style singer.

Research carried out on albums and singles released this year shows that the number of recordings put on to the market reached an all-time high. There are also some startling statistics, for example the artist with the most album releases in 1996 was discovered to be French crooner Charles Aznavour. He was responsible for no fewer than 28 albums, including re-releases and compilations.

Renee Fleming's debut recital at the Edinburgh Festival was generously conceived and enthusiastically received: Lieder by Schubert and Schumann were followed after the interval by recent American settings of poems by Emily Dickinson, five melodies by Faure and Joaquin Turina's rather less well-known Tres Poemas. This soprano wields an astonishing, rich voice which is capable of dazzlingly varied colours. She also possesses a formidable technique and has the potential for a career on the concert platform as great as on the stage. Her manner is both engaging and authoritative.

I first heard `Strange Fruit' in 1964 in the company of Hamish Imlach, who was busy with my musical education at the time. We were also busy getting stoned. I'd never heard of Billie Holiday or the song, so it had considerable impact on me, especially as it was the first protest song by a black woman I'd heard.