WHEN David Sillars recently entered the cramped and musky den which is Primal Scream's London back-street recording studio, he did so in fear and trepidation. For the dapper host of Be Bop To Hip Hop, Radio Scotland's weekly jazz show, was well aware of the exiled Scots' reputation as wild-eyed pipers at the gates of rock 'n' roll excess.
''I was expecting to be confronted by unparalleled scenes of dissolution and debauchery,'' says Sillars. ''Steaming nubiles of all genders swinging naked from the rafters; snarling loons smoking mandrake root; riotous ne'er-do-wells quaffing the contents of lava lamps and suchlike.
''In fact, Bobby Gillespie and his cohorts were a very hard-working bunch, and as nice as ninepence to boot. And they all know their stuff.''
Indeed they do, and a wider range of it than might be supposed, musically-speaking, as listeners will be able to appreciate when Primal Scream's taste in jazz is unveiled on next Wednesday's edition of Be Bop To Hip Hop.
''We've long had established greats such as Herbie Hancock on the programme talking about their favourite jazz, and we've had people from the newer jazz-dance-crossover frontier like US3, but Primal Scream are the first rock/pop band,'' says Sillars.
''We're always keen to get away from rigid demarcation lines and pointless pigeon-holing, from the notion that rock-cred is incompatible with jazz-cred.''
Ditto the Scream, whose taste in jazz encompasses Miles Davis (Great Expectation), Don Cherry (Brown Rice), hip-hoppers the Pharcyde, and John Coltrane (Om).
Under the guidance of Paul Weller's producer, Brendan Lynch, the Scream team also felt moved to dip a toe into the broiling waters of jazz themselves, recording a special instrumental track solely for Be Bop To Hip Hop.
''It's called Cyclorama - The Scream Welcome The Iceman, and when they'd finished it for us, they decided it would form the basis for their next single.''
Does the programme have its eyes on jazzular liaisons with any other rock wallahs? ''To New York for a recording session with Lou Reed! That would be a hot one. It's not so far-fetched an idea, either, given that Lou Reed not long ago recorded a version of Walk On The Wild Side with the vintage blues shouter Jimmy Scott. We found this out from Jimmy Scott himself when we tracked him down in the Netherlands, where he'd been in exile for years.
''But realistically, we're simply hoping that one or two lovers of Sidney Bechet might discover something new, and that a few Primal Scream fans will listen to a bit of jazz that they wouldn't otherwise have done.''
Or in other words, from be bop to hip hop, don't let the dictates of one genre stop you enjoying all forms of music.
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