Good to hear the dulcet knowledgeable tones of DJ Helen Mayhew opening theJazz DAB radio schedule on Good Friday at 9am running down the Top 500 jazz tracks as voted for by theJazz listeners. Helen is in good company too as this column has just heard that Mike Chadwick’s acclaimed Cutting Edge show, from the old Jazz FM days, is to resurface on theJazz alongside his new Latin-jazz show. The top 30 of theJazz’s Top 500 run down mirrored many top 100 jazz album lists by including Miles, Coltrane, Armstrong, Brubeck, Ellington, Hancock, Tracey, Jarrett and Weather Report, but with one very obvious exception – the high placing and multiple entries for Jamie Cullum. Unconfirmed rumours suggest that Cullum’s extended fan base was prompted into mass email voting that resulted in his track Twentysomething sitting totally incongruously at eight in the top ten and ‘All At Sea’ at 29, the only vocal tracks in the Top 30 where giants such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Krall and Frank Sinatra were conspicuous by their absence. Elsewhere the Top 500 included many other Cullum tracks, including out and out pop tracks, a point that theJazz has now duly noted…

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