Mat Short is passionate about jazz which is an important part of the Tapas y Stray's experience. Last week I met up with Mat at Strays on Middlegate in Newark and he elucidated on his personal jazz journey;

" My first jazz CD was a gift from my mum who remembered that my dad had loved MJQ so she handed over 'the best of' and that's where it all began.

I never really got into MJQ but it was the beginning of my journey and I'm grateful to both my parents for that! My first real jazz cd was Duke Ellington - Live at the Bluenote Paris, 1959. I was 22 and that was it.

I started buying as much as I could, following a path directed by liner notes and credits. From Ellington I got into Ben Webster and Johnny Hodges. I then got into Oscar Peterson which led to Herb Ellis, and Ray Brown which then led to Mundell Lowe, Ella Fitzgerald and Andre Previn. Somehow, Charles Mingus got in there and as far as I'm concerned, he sits in a genre of his own!

Art Blakey led to Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan which then drew me to Miles Davis. Miles took me all over the place but most importantly for me I discovered Bill Evans through the work he did with Miles, Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley - starts getting a bit crazy eh?

Anyway, I digress. This journey was wonderful but also quite expensive and some 400 albums later, I have the beginnings of a limited jazz library.

So Ian and I thought it would be good to stock some of our favourite Jazz on CD in the bookshop and of course, we play Jazz all day in both the bookshop and coffee bar.

The list is just skimming the surface and is purely the opinion of Ian and myself (Jazz buffs may disagree with our choices  - hey, feel free to suggest your ideas or get your own website!)
Of course, if you hear something you like when you're in the shop, feel free to collar either one of us and we'll be glad to talk jazz and help you on your jazz journey."

Now Mat doesn't expect you to buy any of these recommendations without listening so please feel free to ask for a listen next time you're in the bookshop. And if they haven't got them in stock for any reason, Mat has over 5000 tracks on the music system in the coffee bar...Wow!