All This and Slowly Deteriorating Fast : The Memoirs of a Geriatric Jazz Buff

Jim Godbolt was born at the start of what is known as the "Jazz Age" and his life (1922-2013) broadly followed the course of the beginning, development and evolution of jazz. Growing up in South London, he became interested in the music of the dance bands, broadcast on the BBC, but soon took more notice of the "hotter" bands that played proper jazz - especially the recordings of those brought to his attention through his attendance at No.161 Rhythm Club. These included Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Sidney Bechet, Miff Mole, Frankie Trumbauer and other American musicians. After serving in the Navy during the Second World War, he became more firmly committed to the music when managing George Webb's Dixielanders, who were soon to have a new recruit in Humphrey Lyttelton. The 1950s were taken up by managing, amongst others, Mick Mulligan's Magnolia Jazz Band, which included George Melly, and working for the Wilcox Agency, who handled a range of musicians, including John Dankworth. These memoirs follow Jim's route into jazz and the characters he came into contact with. During the 1960s he represented various rock bands, and he recalls this period with less than enthusiasm, although he was able to seek solace in his regular appearances for the jazzmen's cricket team, the Ravers. He writes of his fellow players with great affection and respect, whilst remembering the high points of his modest career as an "ever-present". His life took a turn after the publication of All This & 10%, which outlined his work as an agent, followed by All This & Many a Dog, which included his brief spell as a meter reader for the LEB. Both books attracted critical acclaim, not least from poet Philip Larkin and from George Melly, who wrote in the New Statesman, "Godbolt is a natural gossip with a keen ear and eye for human idiosyncrasy." A long relationship with Ronnie Scott and Pete King followed, as he was for many years the editor of Jazz at Ronnie Scott's, the club's house magazine. Finding a niche in writing, several other books appeared, including the highly regarded History of Jazz in Britain 1919-1950, of which Humphrey Lyttelton announced on BBC Radio 'Sounds of Jazz', "If you have not bought this book, I urge you to do so - now!" Proper Music issued a companion CD set featuring recordings by artists mentioned in the book. As he increased in age, so Jim's health declined, and he is particularly poignant in charting the ailments and problems that bedevil those in later years. Yet throughout these memoirs there is the wry and wispish sense of humour, incisive in parts, often self-deprecating, that characterises his writing and gives us an insight into a unique life in jazz.