No more Ray's Jazz Cafe

Yesterday was a sad day for me. I went to one of my favourite places in London and found that it had gone. At least in the form that I loved.

Ray's Jazz cafe was a CD and Cafe located on the first floor of Foyle's Bookshop, Charing Cross Road, London. Whenever I descended the stairs from the street the smell of roasted coffee greeted me like an old friend. After passing through the grey double doors into the cafe the wonderful warm sound of jazz hit my ears. The combination of both of these delights seemed to transport me to heaven on earth.

Ray's was an independent record shop selling Jazz, Blues and World music. It was a great place to browse and look for discs that the mainstream shops like HMV did not stock. It sold jazz books and magazines, in was a place that if you looked carefully you always thought you might rub shoulders with a jazz great.

But sadly yesterday all I found was a larger cafe selling coffee but without the music. Signs on the walls directed me to the third floor for the CD's where, I found CD's but no coffee. The record store had been turned into a grey lifeless Cd's store. No warmth, no music playing and no place for me.

I left and will never return.

The Brill Building

This is the Brill Building at 1619 Broadway, Manhattan.

It's musical connection is with the music publishers that

had offices here during the 1940's. 50's and 60's.

Songs that were published here were played by 'Big Bands' such as

Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and the Dorsey Brothers.

Strawberry Fields

This is the memorial to John Lennon. It is situated in Central Park, New York. Close to where he lived which can be seen above.

B.B.Kings, Times Square

BB Kings blues bar and grill Times Square, NYC

It looks too touristy for me.

Ray's Jazz Cafe

Ray's Jazz Cafe is on the First floor of Foyle's bookshop Charing Cross Road, London.

It's a great place to have coffee and browse the jazz, blues, roots Cd's. It also has jazz gigs periodically.

Hank's Guitar Shop

Situated in London's Denmark Street, this is a wonderful place to buy an acoustic guitar.

There are hundreds to choose from and the staff are very helpful.

Denmark Street, London

The centre of London's music trade.

Macari's music shop

Macari's at 92-94 Charing Cross road, London.

A large new and secondhand musical instrument shop.

Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club

London's premier jazz venue in Frith Street

Henry Purcell

The area around Westminster Abbey, London has a connection with English Baroque composer Henry Purcell. He was born on 10 September 1659 into a family of musicians. His father sang in the Chapel Royal and sang at the coronation of King Charles II. Most of Henry’s brothers were also employed as musicians at some point in their lives.

After his father’s death, Henry became a chorister. He attended Westminster school which is situated next to Westminster Abbey. Not much is known about his early life. He did compose as a young boy but the earliest manuscript that exists that was written by him is dated 1670. In 1676 he became organist for the abbey and continued to compose sacred music. He died at the aged of thirty six in 1695 and was buried next to the organ in Westminster Abbey.

On the corner of Victoria Street and Broadway, SW1 stands a monument to Purcell sculpted by Glyn Williams erected in 1994. Nearby are Westminster Abbey and school. Within the school is Dean’s Yard where Purcell is said to have died.

Ralph Vaughan Williams

On Saturday (24th) I spent the day wandering around Dorking in Surrey on a self devised Ralph Vaughn Williams discovery tour. Unfortunately there was little to see. There is a statue outside the Dorking Halls but it seemed out of the way due to its location at one end of the high street. There is also a plaque in the porch of St Martin’s church where RVW conducted many a concert. But that was about it. I did find a leaflet that gave other connected locations such as the White Horse hotel (concerts) and the Oddfellows building (rehearsals) but the museum had nothing neither did any of the local book shops. I was told to try the library but it was closed. We did drive to Leith Hill Place to see his old house but it was difficult to see from the road and is not open for visitors. His other address known as ‘White Gates’ off Woodcott road has now been demolished. I did think I was going to see more but maybe the people of Dorking do not view him with any tourist potential. I did manage to get a couple of Naxos CD’s of his music and spent the afternoon listening to such gems as The Lark Ascending and Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis. As I lay on my hotel bed listening to this wonderful English music I could only feel a little sad that we are not celebrating one of our composers more in the very town that he lived. But should we? Maybe if there were rows of RVW tea shops and souvenir emporiums I would complain about the commercialism. Perhaps we should just be satisfied with his musical legacy and not crave worthless memorabilia and biographies by the score.