Lake's 3-CD compilation is neatly packaged and rewardingly comprehensive, always assuming that prolonged exposure to UK traditional jazz is your thing. Still, it is mine (most of the time) and the sheer variety and yes, historical interest, of much of this material more than justifies Lake's enterprise. Similar things have been done before by, well, Lake in 2000, with four CDs culled from the old Esquire label under the heading The Great Revival 1949-58 and by Sequel with their Trad Dad! set from 2002. This time round, the remit stretches much further back to the likes of clarinettists Danny Polo and Sid Phillips from the late-1930s through to the classic, and still active, Chris Barber band recorded here in 1963. This via a wide-ranging look at the many bands, major and minor, who entered the recording studios at the height of the so-called ‘trad boom’; 73 tracks in all, some (25) previously unissued. No space to give you a track-by-track breakdown, but enough to highlight the transition among these home-grown talents from ‘thud and blunder’ rhythms to something more streamlined viz the Chicago-style bands of Alex Welsh and Harry Gold on disc three. Musicianship improves even if the sheer drive of something more earthy and early like the Saints Jazz Band's ‘I Want a Girl’ is still hard to match. Interesting names keep popping up, like modernist trumpeter Dickie Hawdon in Terry Lightfoot's band, alongside the young Roy Williams on trombone. Another survivor, Acker Bilk sounds good and fervent on ‘Creole Jazz’ as do Humphrey Lyttelton, Tony Coe and Joe Temperley on ‘Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair’ from 1961, with the still-active Eddie Taylor on drums. So many delights to savour, some bands hewing more strictly to the tenets of traditionalism than others, these selections avoiding familiar flag wavers and all the better for that, vocalists like Beryl Bryden and George Melly instantly evoking memories of sweatladen nights at the 100 Club. All this plus a substantial booklet essay by compiler Paul Adams. Suggestion; take in small doses to avoid trad-fatigue!