Tuesday, December 05, 2006



Good December to all our readers. Definitely getting my priorities in the correct order,

News of Mike Wills

Mike has continued to make progress, and is out of intensive care and in to the coronary unit of St. Peters Hospital, Chertsey. He will be having an Angiogram today to establish how damaged his heart is, and what further action needs to be taken. BUT, he is sitting up in bed. At the moment the beverage he desires most is a glass of red wine, but he might have to wait a bit longer before nurse allows it! His tongue still hasn't healed from last Wednesday, and he is struggling to drink high protean drinks at the moment.

Both he and Sam have been overwhelmed by your kindness and supportive response. He has never had so many grown men telling him how much he is loved. Now he knows the level of support he has from all of you guys out there and its blown him away! He will still need your prayers and positive thoughts, as he enters on the next stages of his journey to recovery. So from Mike and Sam a BIG THANK YOU.

Events

Tonight at The Bourne End Community Centre from 8.30 pm onwards Mo and her Centre Jazz are putting on The Dixieland Swing Kings. £4 to get in, which includes a raffle ticket. Don't forget it also includes half time refreshments. A good night out in a comfortable bar with club priced booze.

Wednesday There is now live jazz at The King and Castle in Thames Street, Windsor, with Al Nicholls trio alternating with the trombonist Jeff Williams trio. It starts at the slightly unusual time of 6.30 pm, but it would get you home in time for your bedtime coco as it finishes at 9.30 pm.
6th - Al Nicholls Trio
13th - Al Nicholls Trio
20th Jeff Williams Trio

Thursday, the Hedsor Social Club will have The Clive Burton Quintet, but as yet I don't know who the front line will be. 8.30 pm start. £3 to get in, raffle to get out!

Last weeks session with John Coverdale started off slightly uncertainly due to everyone's distress over Mike, but it developed into a very melodic, and carefully crafted session. Well done chaps.

Sunday The Fifiled Inn still offers food and Jazz on a Sunday night, with Century Jazz, again, due to Mike's absence, I am uncertain of the line-up. 8 pm start, free entry, but please buy a raffle ticket.

Listening at Home

Following on from my mention of Al Nicholls and Jeff Williams above, I've had a listen to there joint CD "Uptown Swing". Those of us who have followed Century Jazz or the Clive Burton Quintet for any length of time will be used to the front line sound of Trombone and Tenor Sax, and this is a good CD of similar sounding music. Slightly more based on the musical repertoire of the Swing Era than Century Jazz's Mulligan modern jazz style, you can hear the sound of trombone and saxophone on tunes like Ellington's "Battle Royal", and the Basie Bands "Blue and Sentimental" or "Corner Pocket" as well as a couple of Al's own compositions. Accompanying the front pairing are Hilary Cameron, a young British pianist who has trained in the Manhattan Music School, bass player with some years of practice John Rees-Jones, and veteran drummer Rex Bennett. Its well worth an audition, so why not contact Al for a copy. Harlem Records HARLCD 006.

I don't want to infer that Al isn't well known , but the other CD I want to refer you too this week is by Louis Armstrong! It comes from the AVID label and is entitled "Blues for Yesterday". In many ways this is an odd coupling together of tracks from the mid to late 40's, mainly with the small group that developed into The Louis Armstrong All-stars. The graphics on the cover would have you believe that its a cheep budged reissue, done to cash in on some old tracks and a name. However it is worthy of much closer scrutiny.It's fully documented for one, and musically wonderful. It contains no less than six tracks from the 1947 "This is Jazz" Broadcast. The line up for that alone is worth the purchase price (as well as Louis there is Wild Bill Davision, George Brunis, Albert Nicholas, Art Hodes, Danny Barker, Pops Foster and Baby Dodds. So overall, the jazz is wonderful. But there is also a great bonus track, which my grandson really enjoyed (he acted it out as a floor show!). From the 1949 Eddie Condon Show we have Louis telling the story of "The Three Little Bears" (Goldilocks to you and me!). Over 12 minutes of pure joy! AVID AMSC 670

Well that's it from me folks, see the blog for the CD artwork

Geoff C
http://jazzfromgeoff.blogspot.com/

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