Ray Smith obituary

Owner of Ray's Jazz Shop, a mecca for record collectorsAt a time when the jazz avant garde of the 1960s was further dividing the eternally factional and quarrelsome world of British jazz, Ray Smith became the source from whom London's more adventurous enthusiasts acquired recordings whose limited availability only enhanced their appeal. It was in the basement of Collet's Record Shop at 70 New Oxford Street that Ray, who has died of cancer aged 76, began to dispense the imported albums of Albert ...

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