The Jazz Series was born out of the relationship already in place between Topic Records and The National Sound Archive of The British Library, whereby Topic and the NSA were collaborating on a number of important releases of ethnic music for the Topic World Series. The jazz releases will be drawn from material in the Archive and will be re-mastered (where necessary) to the highest audio standards. In addition, the packages will include extensive, detailed notes and the design is already being acknowledged as having set new standards in this field. The releases themselves will usually concentrate on previously unexplored avenues of jazz history - the first release Black British Swing (TSCD781) exemplifies this approach. It will tend to feature aspects of jazz viewed from a British perspective, although it will not necessarily be limited to this view. We would also like to draw readers' attention to the separate release of Billy Bennett (Almost a Gentleman - TSCD780). While this has very little to do with jazz, it does have a lot to do with the roots of English culture and, in particular, humour, and its surreal comedy has been seen as the fore-runner to The Goons and Monty Python.
|
