Philip Larkin was a poet who used his skills as a wordsmith to champion the jazz he loved, and to defend it against the absurdities which were being visited upon the arts generally in the name of modernism. He has been dismissed as a reactionary old fuddy-duddy, because it's far easier to shoot the messenger than to rebut his argument. This set has been issued to mark the quartercentenary of his death, and is none the worse for being rooted mainly in the twenties and thirties.
The discs are arranged in logical but not chronological sequence. The first (I Remember, I Remember) brings together his early acquisitions which "spoke directly to our understanding". That visceral appreciation deepened and widened at university and disc 2 (Oxford) selects some of the records he shared with his fellow undergraduates, Kingsley Amis included. Whether by chance or intention, it features mainly white bands, but the balance is restored by Disc 3 (All What Jazz). Up until now all of the records selected had been issued as 78s, with an average playing time of 3 minutes, but the final disc (Minority Interest) presents some more extended items from the LPs that Larkin and friends would listen to at jazz evenings in the seventies and eighties (except for Earl Bostic's "Flamingo" which I recall clearly as having been issued on both 78 and 45).
The set includes an illustrated booklet of over 50 pages, which carries two appreciations of Larkin, and a commentary on the tracks, often drawing on Larkin's writing on the subject. All too often jazz criticism sends the reader off on a search (often fruitless) for the recording in question, so to have both yoked together is a treat not to be missed, particularly when the critic is so articulate.