with The Best of Jazz on records Producer KEITH STEWART
Says Humphrey Lyttelton :
' The records I play on Best of Jazz are entirely my own choice. I run the programme as if it were a jazz evening to which my friends come to listen to my records and bring some of their own. And I do play some of my own that the BBC library don'have. I take note of suggestions from friends and colleagues in the jazz world and also of suggestions from listeners who write In - although I don'play requests. I want the programme to reflect my tastes and those of people who share them - you see what I mean.
'But, since my tastes are fairly catholic, the scope is wide. I think one should introduce as wide a range as possible and I go out of my way to hear music I wouldn'necessarily buy. My 45 minutes is more a foundation course in jazz rather than a What's New in Jazz. As to labels, well, those terms " traditional " and " modern " are only temporary-I've been doing this sort of programmes for ten years now and some of the jazz that was modern when I started is now traditional.....