A FEW weeks ago the society's president, Mr. Jim Rimmer, gave a talk on jazz in Nazi occupied Europe. On Monday he followed this up with a look at jazz behind the Iron Curtain and punningly titled his recital 'Red Hot Jazz'.

The supplier of the music for this talk he told us came from a friend living in East Germany, who scours the junk shops there for old vinyl L.P.s.

In 1976 Wild Bill Davison visited Poland and with the backing of a local enthusiastic rhythm section belted out a very forceful After You've Gone.

From the Duke Ellington Band's visit to Warsaw we heard Sophisticated Lady, Caravan and Satin Doll with some nice work from Harry Carney and the Duke himself.

Taken at a brisk pace Little Rock Getaway was played by the Friwi Sternberg Quintet from East Berlin and they were followed by the Leningrad Dixieland Band, in Dresden in 1979, playing a very lively At The Jazz Band Ball with a good trumpet solo from Vladimir Woroncin.

Backed by the Gustav Brom Orchestra, trumpeter Maynard Ferguson reached the heights with his version of Maria. Polish pianist Jerzy Herman gave an Errol Garner-like interpretation of Tenderly and then Albert Nicholas's clarinet dominated Royal Garden Blues, which he recorded in Prague in 1972.

Jim then shifted the scene to Moscow where we heard the Dave Brubeck outfit playing Some Day My Prince Will Come and Unsquare Dance with the brio we expect from them. Also from Russia came Swanee from a local group, who made a splendid job of the Gershwin tune.

Pianist Ralph Sutton recorded Open Ears in Prague and there was a lovely warm cornet solo from Lubas Zajicek. Back in Leningrad altoist Richie Cole was an absolute tour de force on How High the Moon. With the Stan Kenton Orchestra we expect power and loud batches of sound and Stan did not disappoint us when he played Stompin' At The Savoy and Malaguena while visiting Warsaw.

Also from the same city we heard Woody Herman's band play Fanfare For The Common Man, with an outstanding solo from Frank Tiberi on tenor, and the Jimmy Rowles Quartet take I Found A New Baby at a medium tempo with fine work from trumpeter Ian Allen as well as Rowles himself.

Tenor player Lembit Saarsula is from Estonia, but he played first class jazz on But Not for Me; while the Kurt Egelhagen band from West Berlin occasionally went over the wall to the eastern sector to play rousing versions of such tunes as Jumpin' at the Woodside.

The Polish bop group Melomania made an interesting job of Denzil Best's Move, but even more enjoyable was the Russian female vocalist Tatevik Oganesyan's interpretation of Perdido.

East Berlin organist Theo Schumann built up a real head of steam on Charlie Parker's Billie's Bounce and the Czechoslovakian Karel Krautgartner big band had some nice scoring for the trombones on 31 Degrees Above Zero.

Jim rounded up his fascinating look at jazz behind the Iron Curtain by playing a number, Meadowlands, from the famous concert that Benny Goodman gave in Moscow in 1962.

Jim told us there was still much good music that he had not had time to play and gave a strong hint that there will be a future recital on jazz in the former communist Europe. HI