Tim Jonze writes about British pop singers who sailed the transatlantic liners to bring rock to this country (The sailors who taught Britain how to rock’n’roll, G2, 1 July), apparently without noticing that this trade had been going on since the 1940s among jazz musicians. It was how people including Ronnie Scott and Johnny (as he then was) Dankworth heard the early bop pioneers like Charlie Parker during their shore leave in New York. The British dance band leader Geraldo frequently worked the liners for Cunard, and many jazz musicians put up with having to play for strict tempo dancers on the ships just so they could hear the new music at first hand: his band was often referred to as Geraldo’s Navy for that reason.
Dr Richard Carter
London
