The music industry generally has little use for the term "over-exposure". One of its unwritten rules is that every commercial horse must be flogged until it is distinctly unwell, if not actually dead.

Bruce Lundvall is a refreshing exception. The president of EMI Music's Jazz Classics division in the US, who this week was named personality of the year at the annual Midem trade fair in Cannes, may have thought he had experienced most of what the music industry could throw at him in his colourfully distinguished 44-year career.