THIS week's column is going to be devoted in the main to Michael Parkinson, newspaper columnist, broadcaster and self-confessed jazz "nut".

I have never had the good fortune to meet Mr Parkinson but have been a fan of his writing for donkey's years and much admire his laconic but thoroughly professional style of radio and television presentation.

However, it is his knowledge and quite obvious love of jazz that I wish to emphasise here. The fact that he shares my considerable respect and admiration for Buddy Rich and Francis Albert Sinatra makes us kindred spirits, though I can't lay claim to any of his other qualities!

His Sunday lunchtime broadcasts on BBC Radio Two are an inestimable joy and he uses them and his hugely popular television chat shows to further the career of fledgling jazz performers, the latest being pianist/singer Jamie Cullum, whose stock went through the roof after his appearance on Parky's TV show.

On last Sunday's radio programme, singer/songwriter Clare Teal came in for some deserved praise from the wonderful Mr P. I have heard Clare before and been impressed by the quality of her voice and it was no surprise to learn that Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holliday were among her greatest influences.

Clare's rendition of the classic Miss Otis Regrets, included on Ella's album The Cole Porter Songbook Volume One, was brilliant. There will be more of her in subsequent Sunday offerings from Michael Parkinson but, in the meantime, buy her CD. I can recommend it.

Quite outstanding, too, is another CD, this time from Canadian Michael Bubl, about whom Parkinson, and just about every other knowledgeable jazz critic on Planet Earth, is going into raptures.

Although still in his early 20s, Bubl sings some of the finest standards -- including Fever, For Once In My Life, Summer Wind, The Way You Look Tonight and Come Fly With Me -- with the assurance and vocal dexterity of Sinatra, Mel Torme, Sammy Davis Jnr, et al. An astonishing performance from a young man about whom we are going to hear very much more. I have no doubt that Michael Parkinson will continue to advance the careers of people like Michael Bubl, Jamie Cullum and Clare Teal through the medium of his radio and television shows. If there was such a thing as the Count Basie Award for Outstanding Contribution to Jazz, then he surely would be a worthy recipient.

There only one smudge on Mr Parkinson's otherwise platinum-plated credentials. He's a Yorkshireman. Still, nobody's perfect.

Pete King, the man generally acknowledged as Europe's finest modern jazz alto saxophonist, will headline at The Rhythm Station in Rawtenstall next Tuesday with the resident Tommy Melville Quartet.

King has worked with some of the world's top jazzers and I strongly recommend you make the effort to see him.