HE was literally a walking jazz encyclopaedia.

Former Southern Daily Echo music critic John Edgar Mann reviewed concerts by jazz greats such as Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Count Basie.

Souvenir concert programmes of the American jazz icons’ tour of Britain in the mid and late fifties were part of John’s prized jazz collection.

John, who died more than two years ago aged 83, became well known for his jazz reviews in the Daily Echo which always carried his trademark initials JEM.

Daily Echo:

He spent many hours listening to jazz at Eastleigh’s Concorde and his links with the club stretched back to the 1950s.

As well as jazz, he was a leading authority on the blues and cinema.

In the late 50s John was also an enthusiastic member of Gutta Percha’s Elastic Band which did a famous gig at Winchester Prison. John cleverly improvised by playing on a milk bottle.

Legendary Now his prized programmes from those legendary Armstrong, Ellington and Basie shows in the fifties and early sixties are to play a major role in the National Jazz Archive based at Loughton, Essex.

Costing the princely sum of two shillings, the programmes feature John’s review jottings.

In the Duke of Ellington’s performance notes there was a section where the audience could jot down the playlist.

Popular jazz standard and the Ellington orchestra’s signature tune, Take The A Train was the show opener.

John’s other programmes, which will now be cemented in jazz history, are from concerts by Jack Teagarden, Earl Hines All Stars, Jimmy Rushing, the Humphrey Lyttelton Band, Jazz at The Philharmonic with Ella Fitzgerald and Coleman Hawkins and the Roy Eldridge Quintet.

There are also some photographs of Louis Arm-strong taken at Earl’s Court in 1956.

The National Jazz Archive holds the UK’s finest collection of written, printed and visual material on jazz, blues and related music from the 1920s to the present day.

It was founded in 1988 by trumpeter and bandleader Digby Fairweather, a regular performer at The Concorde.

The archive’s vision is to ensure that the rich, tangible cultural heritage of jazz is safeguarded for future generations of enthusiasts, professionals and researchers.

Digby said he was delighted that John Mann’s concert programmes were now part of the National Jazz Archive.

He said: “This is central to the material we are looking for and the artistes in these concerts were giants who walked the earth.”

Digby recalled that he first met John when he and his band made their debut at The Concorde in 1976.

He said: “John was a firm friend of jazz. He was very well informed with a good knowledge and ear for music.”

Since it was launched in 1957 by jazz aficionado Cole Mathieson The Concorde, which moved to its present home in Stoneham Lane, Eastleigh in 1970, has become an international jazz mecca.

Cole is delighted that many of John E Mann’s jazz memorabilia and work had been donated to the National Jazz Archive.

He said: “John had a great love of jazz and blues. He was very knowledgeable on the subject. He knew its history, the musicians and its many styles so could write with great authority.”

The Concorde boss believed that John helped keep jazz much to the fore in Southampton during his time with the Southern Daily Echo.