Dave Brubeck, as anyone who has looked at his record jackets knows, is a tall handsome intellectual-looking American with wavy hair and horn-rimmed glasses. He is perhaps the most famous modern jazz pianist in the world, and one who is taken seriously by serious music critics. At the moment he and the rest of his quartet are in Britain on the first leg of a tour, urged on him by the State Department, which includes Germany, Scandinavia, Persia and Iraq.

Before his concert in the Free Trade Hall (sold out days beforehand), Mr Brubeck had tea in the lounge of Manchester’s largest hotel. The palm court orchestra was playing, and Mr Brubeck sat back and ate cool tea-cake, very friendly and relaxed. He was born 37 years ago near San Francisco. He started improvising on the piano when he was 4 or 5, and the first record he ever bought was one of Fats Waller’s. He has earned his living playing the piano, jazz and near-jazz, virtually all his life.

He studied composition under Darius Milhaud at Pacific College, graduated in 1942, and spent the next four years in the Army. It was in the Army that he met Paul Desmond, who later brought his alto-sax into Brubeck’s group. Out of the Army in 1946, he founded an octet, which struggled through four years; then came the quartet and with it success. Now one particularly famous note the quartet once played is transmitted round the world each day: the Voice of America has adopted the resounding crack on the bass drum with which Brubeck’s recording of “Take the A Train” starts as the introduction to its signature tune.

“My whole idea in jazz ,” he said, “is superimposing rhythm on rhythm, and harmony on harmony.” He thought the jazz musicians who had influenced him most were Art Tatum and Duke Ellington. Did he agree with the many people who had found a strong flavour of Debussy in his music, particularly in his piano solos? He shrugged his shoulders, and said he thought he had been more influenced by Stravinsky. “I was crazy about Stravinsky - still am.”

The tea-cakes were finished, the palm court orchestra sawed relentlessly on. Would he like to see the palm court orchestra replaced by a jazz group? Mr Brubeck smiled a charming, very relaxed smile. “No, I don’t think so. Not while you’re eating. It might give you indigestion.”