And this is me in the Sunday Times [also £], trying to see the bright side of the Tony Bennett/Lady Gaga collaboration.

The case for the defence is laid out in full in this Jazz Wax post, which argues that Gaga reaches the parts that most performers can’t:

While this partnership between an 88-year-old jazz and pop icon and a 28-year-old phenomenon is the merging of two fascinating recording artists and performers, this is also about jazz’s cultural longevity. And the approach is really quite radical: to preserve jazz, you don’t need to sell it like soap or dress up in suits and ties; you merely have to expose more young people to it through high-profile ambassadors who love it and want to share the passion. The music will do the rest.