SK How do you choose music for your show?

HC It has evolved over a long time. Looking at who knew who back then, I started to work out the links and the friendships; in that way I started to get of a feeling for the period, which I think it is really important. My last concert, Fascinating Rhythm, is set at a rent party in Harlem, one of those late night cutting sessions where James P, Eubie Blake and Willie 'The Lion' Smith would play.

I tell you a danger with classical technique, sometimes it can sound too clean.

SK You play music that belongs in recital rooms and music that belongs in brothels, so it could be said that you play God's music and the devil's music; is your approach to each different?

HC I tell you a danger with classical technique, sometimes it can sound too clean. What I have to try and remember when I am playing Fats Waller, for example, is that my fingers are really fat; he played with a really cushioned sound. So I try to get into the different physiques of these guys. Eubie Blake had very big hands and very long fingers, so his sound was very loose; Fats was much more 'down' on the keys so the sound was weightier. And Gershwin, of course, was so flashy; that's when classical technique is great - his music has the most in common with the technique I learned.