Boogie, blues and big band the first loves of perhaps England's most cosmopolitan musician and broadcaster adopt an authentic London accent on the best album of Jools Holland's career, Hop The Wag, writes Paul Sexton.

Recorded almost completely live in five days flat at Jools' Helicon Mountain studio in Greenwich, Hop The Wag bulges with more goodies than a nipper's stocking on Christmas Eve. Not to mention a memorable guest appearance by an old geezer from Jools' local.

Anyone who's ever heard the unique tinkle of the Holland ivories knows that his American musical influences are as wide as the Mississippi, and they're on full display again here, but this is a record with a London postcode stamped onto it, right down to the title.

'Hop The Wag' is a phrase from Jools' south London schooldays meaning to bunk off school. "A lot of people don't know what it means," he says. "I remember being caught in a park one day when I should have been at school and a bloke saying 'Oi, you 'Coppin the wag?'

"It made me think of when Squeeze had a record called Argy Bargy. Also it does sound like a traditional dance or something."

That works too, because as Holland and his orchestral army have again been proving nightly on their epic 33-date UK tour (which arrives at the Apollo Oxford on Sunday), this music starts a party every time. "The audience do get up, they frenzy, they go mad. Once they start, it's like an unstoppable train. I'm pleased to say there's a lot of people who want to come and experience our boogie."

The album comes roaring down the track from the get-go with a massive version of the seminal pre-rock 'n' roll number The Honeydripper, inspired by Jools' discovery in Nashville of a 78rpm disc of Joe Liggins' 1945 version.

Then it's Bloodsucker Blues, written with his brothers, the twins Chris and Richard Holland, on which the band-leader comes over like a new millennium version of his swampland hero of the keys, Dr John. Meanwhile Difford's lyrics feature on Blue Guitar and T-Bag Scuffle.

"Some people play with a shuffle, some people play ska," says Jools, "but we put them together and end up with a scuffle. And Chris is known as T-Bag."

Sam Brown sings on no fewer than six titles, including a terrific ska'd-up version of the Dorothy Fields/Jerome Kern standard. The Way You Look Tonight. She's also the vocal focus of the Rhythm & Blues Orchestra roadshow.

"Sam is with us all the time, and she always leaves them crying or dancing, which is all you can ask for. She's really amazing."

Jay Kay sings on another nostalgic number, I'm In The Mood For Love (a second Fields co-write, this time with Jimmy McHugh), which again gets the ska flavour courtesy of the band's horn section, featuring the venerable former Specials trombonist Rico Rodriguez. "It's caught the Jamaican feel," enthuses Holland.

"Jay's mum was a big band singer, and he used to be

taken out on tour with her when he was small. She always liked that song and said 'you should do it'." The track is already a top ten hit in South Africa "I can't believe it, I'm waiting to be invited out," says Jools.

Also central to Hop The Wag is the gripping tale of Loutette, on which Jools may have discovered a new star septuagenarian retired docker

Norman Wassberg, who happens to drink in his local.

"We were hoping to do something with Ian Dury, but unfortunately he was too ill. I was talking to Norman and I suddenly thought 'hang on, he's the bloke'. He has the sort of voice that has that resonance.

Famed for their live performances, the Rhythm & Blues Orchestra's irresistible spirit oozes from Hop The Wag like never before, and Jools couldn't be happier.

"I'm really pleased with it, I think the album has captured what we are, and that's all you can do. It's hard to capture sometimes, it's a bit like trying to catch lightning in a bottle, but somehow it seems to have worked out. The aliveness of what we do is caught in the grooves, or whatever it is now the silicon of the CD."

Whether it's on Later, on his BBC Radio 2 show or on the road, Jools Holland and great music are inseparable, and the team spirit in the Rhythm & Blues Orchestra makes it one of his true loves.

"The good thing is there's a lot of us," he reflects. "Wherever we go, we seem to outnumber everybody. As long as it's not the audience, we're alright."