The recently published "Jazz Record Book" will prove helpful to folk who are just beginning to grope their way along the paths and bypaths of jazz music and need a few signposts. But for the devotee who knows all the available records and what he likes as well, the chief interest of the book would seem to be merely the opportunity it offers for comparing his own appraisals with those of the authors. I'm not sure whether that is worth $3.50 or not.

The most interesting part of the book for me was the introductory section, a short history of jazz into which considerable research must have gone. The descriptions of some of the old cradles of jazz, like Storyville, New Orleans's district of easy virtue, are particularly informative.

As for the records, everyone can find fault with the selections, according to his taste. I found little reason for the authors to include so many obscure records of the vintage of 1925 which only a few collectors probably own. Most commendable is the wide scope of the book, although many of the examples are certainly not the best of a particular band or player's work. Almost every big band of today that ever recorded a riff is mentioned, and there are some reflections on the quality of big-band arrangements. You'll find even the Alec Wilder Octet and the Golden Gate Quartet, not usually welcomed into the jazz household, but the line had to be drawn somewhere, and the door slammed before Hazel Scott and Carmen Cavallaro got in....

The annual Metronome all-star band's "Royal Flush" lacks compactness and unity, but offers a good chance to identify each soloist. There are ten-in all, only two of whom play more than eight bars. The reverse, "I Got Rhythm," by a smaller band, is much better, with the improvisers given more of a chance. Except for a disorganized finale, it's perhaps unequalled in four years of these all-star sessions.... The new Columbia Roswell Sisters album officers the best jazz singing by a trio that can be heard today: Their interpretations far surpass in vitality and harmonic interest anything the Andrews Sisters can do. Connic Boswell's arrangements have the jazz idiom down pat. "Everybody Loves My Baby" is perhaps the best of the sides, for it includes a great trumpet solo by Bunny Berigan as well as the rousing antics of the trio.... I also liked "There'll Be Some Changes Made," sung as a blues.... Someone asked me how to get to the Savoy Cafe to hear the Frankie Newton band. Take an Egleston car from Park Street, get off at West Newton Street, walk a block north to Columbus Avenue and make for the green-lighted sign across the street. I envy you a most satisfying evening.