I DON'T know how many of you caught the televised concert by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra from the Royal Albert Hall on Monday night.

The programme didn't start until 11.15pm and ran until 12.30am, a period when only insomniacs, the jobless and terminally-bored people are watching late night TV in preference to counting sheep.

And that's a pity because this programme included some of the best big band jazz music I have ever heard, and that statement comes from a man who genuinely believed the world ended with the demise of Ellington, Basie, Kenton and Heath.

It featured the trumpet genius Wynton Marsalis, whose command of his instrument is so utterly awe-inspiring as to be considered not of this world. I used to get the feeling when watching or listening to the great Buddy Rich that he must have been dropped on to Planet Earth by some rogue inter-galactic space ship commander, determined to humiliate every member of the human race who fancied him or herself as a drummer. Either that or he'd been born with two pairs of hands!

Perhaps Mr Marsalis was transported here in the same space craft. If so, it must have been rather crowded as every one of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra was a master of his instrument. The barometer of anyone's talent is how they compare when lined-up with musicians of outstanding ability. Anyone above average can look and sound good alongside a bunch of enthusiastic but not particularly talented players.

The measure of Wynton's brilliance can be gauged by the fact that in a band composed entirely of world-class musicians, he stood out as a phenomenal talent.

His version of Cherokee, with only drum accompaniment, was played at a furious pace and with enough notes to choke an elephant. Sensational. Utterly sensational. Small wonder that the Royal Albert Hall audience rose to their feet and wildly cheered the man and his band.

Word about this concert had spread via the bush telegraph in Bolton and I can only hope that some of you reading this will have caught it, too. The reaction in our house was a stunned silence, broken only by the sound of a number of trumpet players smashing their instruments. Rather like the reaction to many of Mr Rich's concerts. I lost at least two drumkits that way!

Anyway, it will be interesting to hear what Digby Fairweather (isn't that a great name?) thought of the Albert Hall concert and how he evaluates Wynton Marsalis against the other great trumpeters, past and present.

Interesting because Mr Fairweather is himself a world-rated trumpeter and visitors to The Rhythm Station at Rawtenstall next Tuesday will have the pleasure of listening to a man chosen to replace the late Kenny Baker in Don Lusher's band 'Best Of British'.

That was a prestigious appointment, one which confirmed Digby's standing among the elite of British jazz musicians.