He was involved in developing, recording and marketing jazz, blues, folk and world music in the UK, from the 1950s to the 1980s.
Bertram Dobell opened a stationer's shop in London in 1869, and began selling second-hand books, establishing his first antiquarian bookshop on Charing Cross Road in 1887.
[1] After his death, his premises on Charing Cross Road were taken over by his sons, Percy and Arthur Dobell.
By the time he returned to work for his father and uncle after the war, he had become a keen collector of jazz records, and in 1946 he persuaded his father that he should begin to sell collectable and imported jazz records at the family bookshop at 77 Charing Cross Road.
A 1963 album by Dick Fariña and Eric von Schmidt, released on the offshoot Folklore label, featured "Blind Boy Grunt", alias Bob Dylan, on harmonica.