Eggheads BBC 2 last night

[elmo]

Question - Giant steps was a classic album from the year 1959, who recorded it

John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis

Answer (Barry) don't know, its too early for John Coltrane seems about the right time for Charles Mingus so Charles Mingus........Doh

I like quizzes but it always surprises that whenever there is a question on Jazz they nearly always get it wrong no matter how informed the contestants seem to be on nearly every other subject. Contestants recently on Mastermind, Only connect, Pointless and Round Britain quiz have all fallen foul of jazziness.

Question - Which underrated pianist helped establish the basis for Modern Jazz piano with his friends Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell

Russ Conway, Elmo Hope, Ron Coltrane, Liberace

Contestant - Don't know, Russ Conway and Ron Coltrane were later, never heard of Elmo Hope but Thelonious is a funny name and so is Liberace so answer is Liberace........groan

elmo

[Pabmusic]

Question - Giant steps was a classic album from the year 1959, who recorded it

John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis

Answer (Barry) don't know, its too early for John Coltrane seems about the right time for Charles Mingus so Charles Mingus........Doh...

The biggest problem is that we find it difficult to say "I don't know". Therefore, we struggle to guess, and pretend we're authoritative ("...its too early for John Coltrane…" - which seems as if he's an expert on the subject). We don't even use "I think…" very much.

[Don Petter]

Both teams are obviously encouraged to pontificate, even if they do know the answer right away. If they didn't the programme would only last ten minutes.


Also, to be fair, the knowledge of classical music among contestants seems just as bad as that of their jazz. (An obvious example would be in 'University Challenge'.)

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

When Tony Palmer did his "History of Popular Music" series the BBC PR dept asked him if he could fix some promotional interviews with Lester Young..."when he's next on tour"

BN.

[Serial_Apologist]

Question - Which underrated pianist helped establish the basis for Modern Jazz piano with his friends Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell

Russ Conway, Elmo Hope, Ron Coltrane, Liberace

Contestant - Don't know, Russ Conway and Ron Coltrane were later, never heard of Elmo Hope but Thelonious is a funny name and so is Liberace so answer is Liberace........groan

elmo

- deserving of an Oscar!

[Serial_Apologist]

(An obvious example would be in 'University Challenge'.)

That's right. In fact the moment I gave up on UC was when I realised that the only answers I was getting right were on the classical music questions.

[burning dog]