About the author

mike gerber

<p>Mike Gerber, born in 1953, is a London-based journalist, and now also a partner in the Vinyl Vanguard record shop &#8211; &#8220;the best shop for jazz vinyl in London&#8221;.</p><p>Gerber left school at 16 and worked in dead-end jobs before taking a history with Spanish degree in his thirties, and then a post-graduate trainee journalist course.</p><p>His career in journalism, as a writer and editor, began in the late 1980s. As well as covering a wide range of industries, his features have appeared in the&#160;<em>Guardian</em>, the&#160;<em>Observer</em>,&#160;<em>Financial Times</em>,&#160;<em>New Statesman</em>, and on various TV station Channel 4 websites, the latter including a thousand-word piece on black music connected to a documentary that the station broadcasted.</p><p>Gerber&#8217;s music journalism includes features in:&#160;<em>Cadence&#160;</em>&#8211; the quarterly journal of improvised music;&#160;in the&#160;<em>IAJRC Journal&#160;</em>of the International Association of Jazz Record Collectors;&#160;in&#160;<em>fRoots</em>&#160;(formerly Folk Roots);&#160;in&#160;<em>Songlines</em>, and additionally in various non-music specific magazines.</p><p>His interest in Jewish connections in jazz dates back to 2000, when he was commissioned to write a feature for the magazine<em>&#160;Jewish Socialist</em>. A book followed,&#160;<em>Jazz Jews</em>, and then a related radio show, Kosher Jam, which Gerber presented on UK Jazz Radio.&#160;</p><p/>