Jamie Cullum Among The Giants

A new jazz radio station in England, theJazz, recently conducted a poll of its listeners to determine--as they put it--the "best ever jazz record." This was the result, as reported on the BBC web site.

TOP TEN
1. Miles Davis - So What
2. Dave Brubeck - Take Five
3. Louis Armstrong - West End Blues
4. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
5. Miles Davis - All Blues
6. John Coltrane - My Favourite Things
7. Weather Report - Birdland
8. Jamie Cullum - Twentysomething
9. Duke Ellington - Take The 'A' Train
10. Miles Davis - Blue In Green

If you go to the web site of theJazz and examine its list of the top 500 records, you will discover that recordings by Jamie Cullum, a young British singer and pianist, placed 29, 32, 33, 46, 53 and 54. Do listeners to theJazz hear something that puts him in a league with Davis, Brubeck, Coltrane and Ellington? Or is there just the slightest chance--shocking to suggest it, I know--that there was a bit of ballot stuffing by Jamie Cullum interests?

This sort of thing accentuates the absudity of surveys and polls that rank the popularity of art. It may encourage some of us to reevalute the wisdom of taking part in, for instance, critics polls.