Hedsor Jazz Notes

Just a few word this week. First , we do have a plan for Thursday night. Our guest for March 1^st is guitarist Terry Hutchins. He has been to Hedsor a couple of times before, and I hope he will be accompanied by Mike Wills and the rhythm section.

I also have a list of forthcoming guests, which I will add in at the foot of this blog.

However hope may be required for this weeks gig. We all by now will have seen the forecast for blizzard conditions for Thursday and Friday and it is very much down to the musicians and if they want to travel. So DO WATCH THIS SPACE. If the gig has to be cancelled, I will blog it out as soon as I can.

Many of you I know read Jazz Journal, and those of you who were with us last Thursday will be aware that Simon Spillett wrote a beautiful appreciation of Clive Burton in this months magazine. I don’t feel that I want to bridge copyright by copying his article into my blog, but do try and get to see a copy of it.

Clive himself would be amused that the only photo they published of Clive playing came from the all day Jazz festival we ran at St Piran’s school a couple of years ago. No, he wasn’t playing any old trombone (even his own) but a red plastic one being provided by Dawkes Instruments for school use. Their publicity shot was the photo used!

Last week we all experienced the new bar at Hedsor. All very wood! New tills and a few new pumps as well.

We also experienced our invited guest, Sue Greeway, who joined Mike Wills on a selection of saxophones, soprano to tenor, sometimes two tenors at a time (OK one each, although I have seen one person playing two at a time!). BUT we also had a surprise (to me) deputy pianist. Alan Berry joined us for only I think the third time at Hedsor since we started in 2002. He was the regular pianist with The Lennie Best Quartet who were regular at The Bell in Maidenhead in the 1970’s. He appears on the Dick Morrissey CD released last year from my 40 years of tape storage in the loft!

So great music was had by all. Yes, we are still sorting out the cables for the new lights, but the lighting effect is now rather good.

OK who is coming soon?

March 8^th our guest will be Kelvin Christiane

March 15^th will be another outing for the Clive Burton Celebration Quintet, with trumpeter Lester Brown.

March 22^nd Our Cancer Research fundraising night. Singer Sarah Moule is our named guest, and we were going to be joined my Alan Grahame, but sadly he wont now be able to join us. In his place it will be saxophonist Duncan Lamont junior. The regular quintet will also be in attendance. Tickets at £10 each can be purchased from Dee on a Thursday, or The Stationery Depot in Cookham during shop hours. The evening will include a light buffet, and we will start at 8pm.

March 29^th we have a welcome return of saxophonist Simon Spillett.

April 5^th we will be joined by saxophonist and teller of bad jokes Frank Griffith