Music: From Batavia

Since scholarly Frenchman Hugues Panassié (Le Jazz Hot) went seeking the kingdom of swing in the U. S. (1938), other foreign pilgrims have followed him. Latest is a diminutive, 21-year-old Javanese named Harry Lim, editor in chief of the Batavia, Dutch East Indies magazine Swing (Officieel Orgaan van the Batavia Rhythm Club), circulation 800. Critic Lim, whose favorite band leader is Duke Ellington, visited Manhattan, listened reverently in hotspots, bought about 1,500 jazz records to take home with him. Critic Lim did not like jitterbugs. They seemed like irreverent, undignified drunkards. “If,” said he, “we in Batavia were ever so lucky as to hear a concert by Duke Ellington or Tommy Dorsey, we would study it, sit and revel in the sound of it, but we would not shake our fingers at it nor cut the carpet with our shoes. . . .”