Luckily for UK jazz-lovers, my friend and north London neighbour Brian Blain, who has died aged 92, was the very best and most influential kind of fan – a fervently eager listener, but also for decades a campaigner for the music, a promoter, and a shrewd jazz journalist.
He was born in Salford, Greater Manchester, the only child of Norman Blain, an engineer and newsagent, and Beatrice (nee Johnson), who co-ran their shop. In his teens at Stretford grammar school, Brian became fascinated by both jazz and socialist politics – passions that would last for life.
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