Ray's Jazz Shop

I've just got back from Ray's Jazz Shop, where I went to get a CD for Little Bruv's birthday.
I was talking to the Man at the Counter, and asking him if Steve Beresford still books people to play in the cafe at Foyle's- apparently he doesn't any more as nobody got paid for it.
We were talking about the short sets people used to play there- I got there 20 minutes late once and missed the entire thing.
But the Man at the Counter told me that when jazz artists are promoting an album they sometimes play very short sets indeed- Evan Parker played a ten minute set once!

I like Ray's Jazz Shop as it's calm and hasn't got too many CDs. Those it has are unusual.
I am bound to dislike about 75% of them due to my prejudice against most forms of jazz, but those I do like I really, really like.

I have fun imagining what Ray is/was like.
A portly, late middle-aged gentleman, with a jazz beard, horn rimmed spectacles on a chrome bobbly chain and a worn-out Hawaiian shirt, baggy dark brown cords and folksy sandals, with socks with a toe poking out of a hole on one side. His fingers on one hand are yellow from the roll-ups he used to smoke, and his teeth are a little brown from drinking French red wine.
He always has a 78 rpm record in one hand, which he is filing in his collection, and when he remembers to eat, he eats sushi. He is divorced from his wife, who lives in Hampstead and works in a charity shop (family money) and he regularly falls in love with Japanese girls who are not the slightest bit interested in him. He used to play tenor sax rather well, but gave up after a hurtful experience in New York.
Am I right Ray?

You may be interested in why there is no review of the gig last night. It was hilarious in a macabre way, and may crop up on the blog as an anonymous gig later in the year!