ABSTRACT
The author started working in London as a jazz musician. He soon became aware of a man of benign aquiline appearance and of a certain quietly commanding presence who frequented jazz clubs and concerts, and who would often be found in the company of jazz musicians with whom he enjoyed a drink and a chat at such places as the, now defunct, Downbeat Club, in Old Compton Street. Francis Newton wrote The Jazz Scene in 1959 and fortunately, since then, jazz has become steadily more accepted as an art form, receiving attention from non-jazz musicians, supporters of the minority arts. In the Musicians Union, jazz musicians are in a minority and it is natural that certain blanket union rulings do not work particularly to our advantage. For instance, at a time of recession, like the present, the jazzman finds the going particularly rough for bad times must decimate any industry which depends on the spending of spare money.
