Come to my record shop, one of the last outposts

The LondonJazz blog reminds us it will be Record Store day on Saturday. Personally I doubt whether this will at any stage come to rank with the likes of Mother's Day or National No-Snoring day. Still let's hear it for the small shops like mine on Gillett Square indeed - and Honest Jon's, and Ray's and ???.
I find it shocking as to how HMV has gone so far backwards in its making jazz (and recorded music) available in its stores nowadays. HMV Hampstead probably has 200 jazz CDs in its rack. I understand that in Enfield there are probably 200 CDs in total. It's all about games and DVDs there. I hope they don't claim any degree of increased profitability out of selling music in their stores.Watch out Waterstones! Waterstones is no longer the store that it was. Even "sophisticated" Hampstead in inundated by novels by Katie Price, and memoirs by Jonathan Woss. (Waterstones is indeed owned by HMV)

A jazz archive?

Where do we get the old reviews of albums?
The internet and online reviews are the only place now where there are proper long-term archives of album reviews. This raises the importance of the reviews by the likes of Chris Parker on the Vortex web site or Peter Bacon's jazz breakfast to the same status as that of newspapers where there is a proper online archive (e.g. the Guardian). For regular news, then, there are blogs such as Londonjazz, or the pop-oriented ones, like Record of the Day.
Unfortunately, there is now no similar facility for researching the old copies of the main magazines, which therefore become ephemeral. Even though they are regarded as definitive and make substantial investment in articles and reviews (i.e. paying the contributors).In the old days, of course, it was possible to go down to the local library and look up copies of Jazz Journal, say. Now, how, for example, can we get hold of old reviews of Jazzwise and Jazz UK? I suppose there are still a few libraries around, and of course there's the National Jazz Archive in Buckhurst Hill. Then where? You could go down to Streatham (Jazzwise's headquarters), Cardiff (Jazz UK's headquarters), Colindale (the British Library newspapers Reading Room) and, I would expect, the copyright libraries in Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh.
If magazines like Jazzwise don't engage properly with the internet but prefer to fight it, they will go the same way as the major record labels, when they fought Napster etc., about a decade ago.

How to run a jazz club?

Through Seb Scotney, of the LondonJazz blog, pointed out an article about Ronnie Scott's and its present general manager Simon Cooke in the Times recently. Certainly it shows that there is a different mentality that has to run a jazz club in the West End, with high rents and overheads, in contrast with Dalston. Whether it is true to the "spirit" of the music over there is another matter. But perhaps there is no choice? Running a jazz club is a balance between creativity, the musicians and the audiences. They have to feel at home, because that, in my view, generates the buzz that makes a jazz gig special. Given the "looseness" that much jazz has live, it is essential that the ambiance is right. If the club is too prim and proper, then this is lost. "Scruffy", a word used insultingly by Simon Cooke, is not necessarily a negative. As long as it is controlled scruffiness.
The Vortex is having a great period in terms of music and audiences. Over 300 people through the door on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And not with an "easy" range of music - Buffalo Collision (Tim Berne, Hank Roberts, Ethan Iverson, Dave King), Carol Grimes (returning to live performance after a lay-off through injury after 6 months), London Jazz Orchestra doing the music of Pete Hurt and our Vocals@Vortex night. Tonight, weather willing, it's Yaron Herman and Curios.
It's been, and always will be, very much a case of evolution not revolution. A lot of patience, such as a late night celebration with Carol after the gig, meaning that I got home at close to 3 a.m. A lovely crowd of volunteers who believe in the club. The continued involvement of David Mossman, as founder and everything else.
It was so flattering that Rod Youngs, playing for the singers' night, was so thrilled by the night that he gave me a warm embrace on departure, insisting that we get an extension built asap!
By getting this right - and having a patient landlord to ensure that this occurs - the club is ready to survive the slings and arrows of the recession that we are now in.
So is there a correct way to start and run a jazz club? I don't think so. There is certainly no Jazz Club 101 course at business schools. Long may that be the case. Adaptability, flexibility, creativity.