Hi Jerry!

Quite a few of the hard-core folkies I know are keen jazzers. Many others are not (a few can't bear the stuff). I can't recall any other factor that correlates with this division - but then taste in music is such a very personal thing.

For me, a remark Humphrey Lyttleton made in a radio interview gets pretty close to explaining the unique appeal of this kind of music. Humph said "Jazz is the only kind of music which appeals simultaneously to the head, the heart, and the feet." I would't agree entirely - try dancing to an Ornette Coleman record - but I see what he's getting at.

For me, there are no clear frontiers between "folk" and "jazz". Last Saturday night, I was at a ceilidh held to celebrate the 25th birthday of Hexham Morris men. The band (Peeping Tom) finished the evening with a Circassian Circle, danced to "I Got Rythym" and "Puttin' on the Ritz". It worked beautifully - I'm sure George Gershwin would have been pleased (though Fred Astaire might not have approved of some of the stepping).

Wassail!