Tuesday 11^th March. ALREADY!

And we still have plenty of good jazz things for you to look forward to!

This week at Hedsor Jazz, it’s Lester Brown on trumpet, and James Fenn on guitar. Two long time associates of jazz at Hedsor, with Lester being more recently regular, and James being a longer term associate!.

Lester Brown

James Fenn and Martin Hart

I know many of you now get a synopsis from another Jazz Angel about who is playing in any given week, but I will enlarge on James’s. 

“James Fenn Guitarist  a member of The Filthy Six with a EP ‘Soho Filth, Live from Dean St Studios and Ronnie Scott’s'. He also plays cool jazz guitar”.

Soon after we started running regular Thursday evenings at The Hedsor Social Club I was invited to run another evening there, as the Hedsor Club wanted to increase their footfall.

I was already running a monthly Tuesday evening at The Old Bell in Wooburn, so I elected to do a monthly Monday at Hedsor, but in order not to clash styles we decided to place a guitar emphasis on our Monday nights, and these monthly meetings were led by James Fenn. With Lisa Amato on bass guitar, Nick Maragoni on drums, and usually a guest or two. We had some memorable Mondays, with a young Vasilis Xenopoulos on tenor sax sometimes joining in. On one occasion John Critchinson came on keyboard as well! The pictures below on the cd cover are from those days, now long since past

 

In those days, James was also an associate of saxophonist Dave O’Higgins who came to play at both Hedsor and The Old Bell . James also recorded an EP CD with him as well. 

So James may not be so well known to most of our now Hedsor Jazz regulars, but has an excellent pedigree, and a long association with Hedsor Jazz. Do come on Thursday (13^th, what an auspicious date) to see how nicely James and Lester can play together!! (yes, that was a phrase from my experience of bringing up children!!). 

Last week was one of the sessions we hope to continue on the first Thursday of each month. We have been so astounded by the combination of Stuart Henderson and Alam Nathoo, trumpet and tenor sax respectively, that we are booking them for each first Thursday of the month, just to maximise and share the joy! You wont get to hear better jazz ANYWHERE, so put the dates in your diary now. My photos of the last session are below.

Do keep an eye on this blog (Jazz from Geoff), updates and late alterations are here by most Tuesdays per week.

You can also keep Meta in mega money by looking for Hedsor Jazz on there FaceBook page.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555280143899

  

Time and tide wait for no man so they say, and as Canute tried to disprove. He failed and got wet feet.

So here am I again writing to encourage you that live jazz Hedsor Jazz style is worth all of your time and effort.

And as it is (again) a new month, our first Thursday of the month (March 6^th) has trumpeter Stuart Henderson teamed up again with saxophonist Alam Nathoo. This has proved a very popular pairing this year so far, and we hope to establish it as a regular pattern. With them this week will be Ken McCarthy on keyboard, Al Pirrie on bass and Mike Jeffries on drums.

I have at this point got to mention that prior to last weeks session our drummer Martin Hart had a fall, and although he hasn’t broken anything, he is a bit bruised, and so will not be with us this week. Loss of balance is sadly often a part of the aging process, and some of us have done it before, even when sober!!

Do get well soon Martin, but in the meantime, enjoy your record collection!

Sadly I was unable to get to last weeks Hedsor Jazz for domestic reasons  and therefore don’t have any photos of that to show you. I am assured that it was a great evening. Many kind friends have rubbed it in that I had missed a good night. I will hasten to add that in my view all Hedsor Jazz nights are good, and if you miss one for whatever reason, you ARE going to miss a good one. So pay attention, because below is our listing for March. Please copy it off and put it before the passing publics gaze!

 

Below are a couple of older photos of Al Nicholls that I have taken at past Hedsor sessions.

 

In addition to taking note of who is on at Hedsor Jazz in March, do put into your diary August 14^th, as we have another “special” evening coming to Hedsor Jazz.

Saxophonist Alan Barnes will be coming to play alongside his fellow Leeds Collage of Music graduate pianist David Newton. It will be just the two of them. They have duetted together occasionally for many years. I saw them doing so again at last years Swanage Jazz Festival, and in their Marquee you could hear a pin drop, such was the attention given to their playing by the audience. Sadly the noise from the other Marquee tried to interfere, but it was such a delight to hear them that they are coming to Hedsor just for us to do it all over again.

 

Don’t stop reading my blog, BUT do point people at our “new” FaceBook page, and help spread the word.

I am no expert on the use and operation of Facebook, but do encourage others to like us (I am told this is the right thing to do) so that we become famous!!

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555280143899 might even get you to the right page.

 

 

A short, but hopefully informative, blog today.

A number of computer items seem to have crashed in the last few days with less reliability built in than the Wright Flyer!! So, I am behind schedule!!

First, coming this week, one of Hedsor Jazz’s Favourites. He has been coming to play with “our” guys since the 1990’s when jazz was being played (yes, on a Thursday) in what was The Cookham Tavern, now Costa’s Coffee!  

He played in the tribute concert at Norden Farm after the death of Keith Vitty in 2002, which was recorded (CD’s still available) and has been coming back over the years. AL Nicholls on tenor sax will be with us, with Ken McCarthy , Al Pirrie and Martin Hart with him. We thought we would give him all the space at the front, with maybe room for dancing at the back!

 

Last weeks session (pictures below) had another old returner, guitarist James Fenn, who has also been playing at Hedsor since the beginning of the century, sharing the limelight with a relative newcomer, tenorist Frank Walden, before Frank sets off on his tour of Germany.

These people enjoy coming to Hedsor Jazz, to play the music they enjoy in company with people who enjoy their music!

We will be putting out flyers for March (artwork below), but we are also trying to be more attractive with our poster art. If you fancy (and are able) displaying one in a public place near you, please do! Again the artwork is below.

 

That’s it for now folks. Do support live jazz wherever it may be found. Marlow Jazz, and Dawkes listing is also below.

 

The weeks fly by, and we are heading towards the third week of February already. I always seem to have more things to do than weeks to do them in, which in many ways is a good thing, as I don’t know what it would be like to be bored!

But I wouldn’t miss who we have coming this Thursday, February 20^th. 

When I wrote last week that guitarist James Fenn might have a dep playing next to him, I was mistaken. Saxophonist Frank Walden is billed and is coming! You can see them together in action in “The Filthy Six” on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8P67sqNu-E.

But at Hedsor Jazz this week our trio led by Ken McCarthy on keyboard  will be behind them.

James Fenn

As I wrote in last weeks blog James was one of the early players at Hedsor Jazz, and we had some entertaining Monday nights back in the early noughties!

Frank has only relatively recently come to be one of our regular saxophonists at Hedsor, and he is shortly to go out on tour, so we are fortunate to catch him before he goes.

Frank Walden

 

Last week (my photos are below) we had an evening with a difference inasmuch as not only did Lester Brown and Mark Aston play some familiar tunes, but we also had an original baroque style composition by Mark himself in the second set. Played as an unaccompanied duet with Lester “Small Piece” was a delight.

Another part of our evening with a difference was provided by singer Paul Cherry, who joined the band for a couple of tunes in the second set. As someone said to me “who needs to go to Ronnie Scott’s?”  At the prices they charge I would say “no one”. Their charges are very definitely out of my league. As an apprentice back in the 1950’s, I could afford to go to London Jazz Clubs and theatres, but not any more. Even the cheap seats are £30, and you will really have to make one drink last the night!

Paul Cherry, "sitting" in last week

 

OK, having quality jazz at The Hedsor Bar does have some drawbacks. Very few people would ever find out there is jazz there, as it doesn’t get many people walking past it, and yes, it is dark, with few (if any) streetlights. It isn’t the most luxurious place to be once inside, but there is a competitively priced bar, the venue is comfortable enough, the toilets are clean and you do have free car parking. AND you do get some really great jazz for your £10 entry.

So why not turn out and help us keep live jazz alive? In these challenging times our friendly atmosphere coupled with our wonderful musicians may make all the difference to your week.

A SAD FOOTNOTE

One of the guys who used to make quiet a difficult journey to get to Hedsor Jazz, (not every week, but over many years), coming part by train, and part on his bike, has recently passed away. Will Paine died suddenly in December. We didn’t learn about this until this week, and sadly, the funeral has already taken place. 

He was a keen open mike singer and now he can do so with a better class of choir!

 It’s Tuesday again, another blog day, and quite frankly, Doris Day could well be singing

 Oh, the weather outside is frightful

But the fire is so delightful

And since we've no place to go

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

 BUT we are spared the snow, however dreary the weather actually is. I believe there is “a sun up in the sky”...but I don’t seem to have seen it for weeks.

However,         “when everything seems against us, Hedsor Jazz is here to help us!!”

And what better way to brighten our day (one short of St Valentine’s) is a Thursday evening of JAZZ on February 13th.

And this week at Hedsor Jazz we have two familiar faces in the front line. On trumpet Lester Brown, recovering from last month’s trad night, and Mark Aston on trombone, probably simply recovering!! We anticipate Ken McCarthy will be right behind them, and so will be Al Pirrie on bass and Martin Hart on drums. Pictured below is the last time Lester and Mark collaborated at Hedsor.

 

This past week has been a good week for jazz in our area. Dawkes, the music shop in Maidenhead, has been promoting live music in their new “Performance Space”, since it opened in the Autumn of 24 and on Sunday afternoon they had Stuart Henderson with Ollie Weston playing the music of “Blue Note”. A couple of my photos from the afternoon are below:-

Both of them have been front liners at Hedsor Jazz in the past fortnight, and Tonight Feb 11th,(YES a Tuesday night) two other Hedsor performers will be playing at Dawkes, saxophonists Jonathan Lewis and Martin Dunston, see poster below:-

 

Last Thursday we had our own very special evening of bop, and yet again the Hedsor Roar was heard, as Stuart Henderson and Alam Nathoo again collaborated. A wonderful evening and my pictures of the evening are below.

 

We have often wondered how Alam keeps so well in practice as he isn’t a full time musician anymore, but in talking with John Dawkes on Sunday we discovered at least one of Alam secrets . He uses one of Dawkes practice studios! Much better than waking a young family member up at home!!

Do keep an eye on Dawkes, they are beginning to use their new performance area much more and it is a very smart place to be..

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/dawkesmusic

Coming to Hedsor Jazz NEXT WEEK February 20th, we will have James Fenn, a guitarist who was one of the founders of jazz at Hedsor.

When it was The Hedsor Social Club we ran some Monday evenings of guitar led jazz under his leadership, and on one of those occasions we met Vasilis Xenopoulos for the first time, and we also had pianist John Critchinson play as a dep!! However next week, we will have a guest to join James, and it may well be another dep, watch his space.

Well that’s about it for now folks. Don’t forget that live jazz needs a live audience. It’s what gives the exciting bits the roar!

PS I have used blogspot for around 20 years, and I still don't understand why sometimes the background to the text changes colour. I don't do it!!

Good Morning blog readers. We have escaped January, and have reached into February, and a whole new month of Thursdays, with excellent jazz for you to listen to every week.

At Hedsor Jazz we are trying to establish variety and consistency!! Consistent quality, and a pattern of performers, so this coming Thursday, 6^th Feb, we have, as the first Thursday of the month (as in January) the bringing together of two huge talents. Stuart Henderson and Alam Nathoo, trumpet and saxophone respectively.

Over recent months we have found that bringing these two together more than doubles the enjoyment of listening to them singly. There ability to feed off of each others thoughtful, but high speed, improvisations, is almost uncanny and tremendously exciting. 

Joining them this month will be Stuart Barker on bass. 

So do come and hear them for yourselves. Photos of them at Hedsor in January are below.

 

Last week we had two tenors for a ..... tenor!!

Tenorist Frank Walden was to have partnered the trumpet of Bruce Adams, but sadly Bruce had to postpone his visit as he is having his cataracts operated on and wont be able to blow that trumpet in anyway for a few weeks. That is something he usually does in a spectacular fashion, and when fully recovered we will invite him back to Hedsor Jazz to demonstrate just how well he does it!!

But last week Frank was paired with another tenor player, Ollie Weston. This turned out to be a fantastic joining together, which produced a few catalytic reactions! Everyone played past there best. Ollie is a wonderful find. For his solo feature he played “Isfahan” from Duke Ellington’s “Far East Suite”, one of my favourite saxophone improvisations. I had only listened to a recording of Alan Barnes playing that the day before. And Ollie did it superbly, as the applause at the end showed.

It wasn’t just the two at the front that excelled. Ken McCarthy was back from his holiday break and fresher than ever. Al Pirrie on bass and Martin Hart on drums seemed inspired as well.  In the second set, as part of a series of “breaks”, Al and Martin traded 5’s, with Martin playing his drum skins with his hands. This, not just for a couple of 5’s, but for series of 5 bars! Something Hedsor had not seen before. This produced a relatively new phenomenon, the Hedsor Roar!

Such was the adventure of our evening that everyone was inspired! One of our audience said that the whole evening reminded him of nights at The Bull’s Head at Barnes!

Pictures of the evening are below:-

 

I for one need evenings like that, as earlier in the day I had attended the funeral of a neighbour and friend that I had know since 1969. Yesterday I attended the funeral of a friend I had known since 1963. So for me our Thursday evenings are a great encouragement. If music, (even jazz music I hear you mutter) is the food of love, play on.

We are planning jazz events at Hedsor into the future, so do keep any eye on this blog. We can’t always keep to our advertised program (as we couldn’t last week) but we do promise you quality live jazz and enjoyable company at Hedsor.

So perhaps we will see you, and a friend, at Hedsor on Thursday. I look forward to it. 

 Another week has gone by, with many of us singing “Stormy Weather”, and with a mild feeling of surprise we have almost finished with JANUARY. Yes, 2025 has got past its starting line.

From a Hedsor Jazz point of view, I think it has gone pretty well. Our first meeting was freezing cold, but slowly we have warmed up our audience, and our experience last week of the more traditional forms of jazz was nicely filled with an appreciative audience. I think most enjoyed the change of tunes, and thank you Richard (Kellaway) for bringing almost your entire collection of reed instruments to add to the trumpet and a trombone of Lester and Phil Brown! May I ask where your baritone sax was? Can I also commend pianist Andrew Clancy, a distinctive variation on boogie and stride styles.

A fun evening, and my pictures are below.

 

Coming this week, January 30^th,we were looking forward to a session with trumpeter Bruce Adams. BUT for the very good reason that he is having his cataracts attended to and won’t be able to play his trumpet for a month he has had to cancel his return visit. He was to be paired with saxophonist Frank Walden and we have invited Frank to bring with him a newcomer to us at Hedsor Jazz, saxophonist Ollie Weston. Do check out his web page https://www.ollieweston.com/ and to have a listen click on https://www.ollieweston.com/musicvideo

 

We don’t often pair on the front line two similar musical instruments. Once upon a time I could have called this session “Two Tenors for a Fiver” as at one time our entry fee was £5, but this week it will have to be “Two Tenors for a Tenor!!

Frank Walden

 

Coming next month (February 6^th) we have a return of that fabulous pairing of trumpeter Stuart Henderson and saxophonist Alam Nathoo. How fortunate can Hedsor Jazz be to be able to put on in two consecutive months this pair. Individually  excellent, together fantastic. Modern Jazz at its best. Musical entertainment beyond price (but you still only pay £10).

Just tell your friends, if needs be buy them a train ticket. They must hear this!

 

Below is our poster for February, please print it off if you can and put it in a public place.

See you Thursday.

 

Geoff