Media / Talk of the trade: Not all that jazz

DISCORD in the world of jazz: on to my desk drops a letter from those eminent practitioners Cleo Laine and John Dankworth, reporting outrage in the 'jazz fraternity' at the new remit agreed between the Radio Authority and Jazz FM, the London music station due to expand to north-west England this year.

Under the station's new promise of performance, only 25 per cent of the music played has to be jazz; the rest can be soul, blues and rhythm and blues. Moreover, the name is to be changed to the non- commital JFM.

David Maker, the chief executive of Jazz FM, says that the old promise of performance contained no specific requirement for jazz at all, merely ruling that the output had to be 'music which can be said to be influenced by jazz or to have been instrumental in its evolution'.