For some time now, I've hesitated to say anything about the ASCAP-BMI fight, purely because I don't believe I know enough about it. Who's at fault is hard to say, although Uncle Sam seems to have all the answers. For may part I'll put a plague on both houses and hope they get it in the neck for trying to put one over on the public.

For when you come down to the bottom of the whole business, the fact remains that music is written, composed, published, and broadcast for public consumption, and when a few strictly Broadway guys get together and try to deprive their fellow-citizens of one of the few sources of fun left to them these days, then they deserve everything that hits them, and I hope the Government doesn't pull its punches.

Both Gene Buck and Neville Miller, mouthpieces for ASCAP and radio respectively, have voiced touching sentiments regarding their affection for the listening public and for what that public wants. Yet right now you and I have to sit around and listen to sugar-tongued announcers' plugging tunes obviously whipped up in an awful hurry for one purpose: to beat a deadline. Band leaders, whose themes songs are their musical John Hancock, are forced to change those themes for tunes which scarcely identify them or their music. Of course, we hear an occasional bell-ringer like There I Go, but that's not enough, not by a long shot.

The general reaction of most people to the "public domain" tunes is just bewilderment. That's not what we want to hear--and if we don't get what we want in a terrific hurry, the songpluggers and radio men will find themselves dictated to from Washington, where for quite some time now rumor has it that things are run in the interests of the people and definitely not in the interests of a few of the boys from Lindy's.

NEWS AND NEW RELEASES. By all means get to the Bermuda Terrace, where Red Norvo is playing. I haven't been able to hear the band yet myself, but I'll guarantee you can't go wrong on Red (He calls me Charlie) . . . Benny Goodman's twelve-inch coupling features a number of things, including Helen Forrest singing The Man I Love, Benny's clarinet, a bit of Cootie's trumpet, the best sax section in the world, and some extremely imaginative orchestration by Eddie Sauter on the reverse, Benny Rides Again. On the latter, Sauter ignores any conventional form and just lets his mood carry him away--with the help of the band (COLUMBIA). . . George Avakian, of Yale and Columbia Records, recently had the good fortune to discover some previously unissued Louis Armstrong sides, which COLUMbia has just released. Most interesting is Ory's Creole Trombone, a good example of the old New Orleans parade style . . . Another COLUMBIA reissue that should be on your list is Benny Goodman's 1934 Moonglow, featuring Jack and Charlie Teagarden, Teddy Wilson, and Benny himself . . . If you want to know where Meade Lux Lewis got his style, listen to his old-time teacher Jimmy Yancey, on Yancey's Bugle Call and 35th and Dearborn (VICTOR). Jimmy plays in a nice easy-going style, with bass figures somewhat more elaborate than those of Meade Lux . . . Since I wrote about ASCAP-BMI I learned from a very unreliable source that the whole thing has been settled. It seems that ASCAP gave in and has made some sort of settlement offer. The story is supposed to break Monday, but as usual, Miller gets there first. (I hope.)