Jazz Ban Down

Among U. S. jazz band leaders, Conductor Abraham Lyman is esteemed as able, cunning, shrewd. Nonetheless "Conductor Abie" was chaffed at when he recently announced that he would "buck and bust" the absolute embargo which the British Ministry of Labor has maintained since 1925 against professional U. S. jazz-folk.

The last U. S. jazz band to play in London--three and a half years ago--was the relatively restrained Brooke Johns Orchestra. Dauntlessly, however, "Conductor Abie" sailed from Manhattan. The Ministry of Labor agreed that "Abie's Own" may perform at a London night club, on condition that the proprietor hire an equal number of authentic British musicians.

Though meagre and defective, "Conductor Abie's" victory may serve as an opening wedge. Even more significant as a sign of growing British jazz consciousness was the installation, last week, of "phonograph kiosks" in the waiting rooms of several London and provincial railway stations.

Today England's "popular dance tunes" are 75 per cent U. S. jazz.