Rommi,

PM me with your email address and I'll see what I can do. I should say the programme has received quite a lot of adverse comment among the jazz fraternity, mostly of the "bleep bleepin' academics" variety. Personally I thought it was excellent, and MH's portrayal of Morton and Lomax pretty spot on.

However, there's two things bothering me.

First, I might have missed it, but I don't recall any mention of Morton's famous letter to Downbeat magazine, where he claimed to have invented jazz. As far as I've always understood, this is considered to have been the catalyst which brought Morton to the attention of Lomax.

Secondly, MH IMHO portrays Lomax in too reactionary a light, arguing that he was hooked into folk music, regarded jazz as 'the enemy', and was therefore decidedly reluctant about recording Morton; or indeed about recording anything outside of 'folk music'. Well, I'm remembering that this was 1938. It's quite conceivable that at that time, Lomax's only contact with jazz might have been with big band swing - effectively the pop music of the day, without realising that there'd been anything before. In which case he may well have been antipathetic towards jazz per se.

On the other hand, while it's true that Lomax worked within conventional definitions of folk when it suited him, eg., in the cantometrics experiment, he was also prepared to look outside 'folk music' when he found stuff that he considered worth recording. This after all, is the man who recorded blues, calypsos, old time country, bluegrass, cajun music, flamenco, Indian religious bhajans, and at least one Italian brass band! There's an awful lot in there that would leave any 1938 conception of folk music struggling for breath. My guess is therefore that, once he realised who Morton was, and grasped the historical significance of his music and reminiscences, he would not have needed much persuading.

But I witter on. PM me your email address, Rommi.