Only received this this morning, 30.4.2020
and haven't yet had time to try out the links, but
https://mailchi.mp/marsdenjazzfestival/where-to-watch-live-jazz-this-international-jazz-day-2020?e=9a9ffcdf98
holds a lot of promise.
Geoff C
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Jazz from Geoff
28.4.2020
Another Tuesday, another blog for you to read.
This one does contain some sad news.
Long time Hedsor Jazz supporter and Jazz Angel John Jordan
died of Coronavirus 19 last Wednesday, April 23rd. He had previously
attended Wexham Park A&E for his known heart condition, but sadly on
returning home he became unwell and was transferred back to Wexham Park
hospital where he died a few days later.
I am sure all of you would like to express our sympathy
and sadness at their loss to wife Joan and daughter Mandy. Normally I would let
you all know when the funeral would be, but in these difficult times that event
will be limited to only 10 people anyway. I will pass on the date when I get it
for you to think of him at that appropriate time.
We do live in very difficult times, but I do intend to
keep nagging on about jazz, and to keep providing links to the music that you
can listen to or add to your own collection with via the pages of this blog.
One of our Hedsor regulars has emailed me to say what he
has been doing with his socially distancing time since we last met. What he
wrote is:-
Geoff
I've been binging on the latest Harry Bosch series on
Prime and tonight got to episode 10. Harry (or his creator Michael Connelly)
clearly likes jazz as Harry was playing this on his old fashioned vinyl player.
As you know Pepper was another troubled character but the music is still
wonderful.
Jim
He had previously mailed me about the death of Lee
Konitz:-
Did you miss the passing of Lee Konitz on
15 April from the virus in New York. I’ve spent some time this last week
listening to some of his stuff and while I was never a great fan there is some
good stuff on You Tube. He was also a bit of a comedian in front of the
audience and it looks as if he wouldn’t stop talking sometimes.
Now some new avenues for you to research.
I have been re investigating some of the earlier forms
of jazz, mainly triggered by my mention of Jelly Roll Morton and my purchase of
the JATP 10 CD set from the 40’s and 50’s the other week.
I know I linked to Jelly Roll’s version of Buddy Bolden’s
Blues from the 1938 library of congress recordings he made with folk historian
Alan Lomax, but he did make some more recordings with and without fellow jazz
musicians before he died (in 1941). He made 25 more titles for the General
record label, mostly all issued on 78’s and about a year after he
recorded (for Alan Lomax) the library of congress recordings.
These last recordings have all now been gathered
together on one CD called “The Last Sessions” and they can be found on “Commodor”
CMD 14032. You may have to search for it as my copy was issued in 1997. You will
find a slightly different version of Buddy Boldens Blues here with references
to both a notorious law enforcement man (Judge Fogerty), who made miscreants
sweep New Orleans streets as a punishment, and a reference to Bolden’s trombone
player Frankie Dusen. If only we could hear today what that band sounded like!
Jelly Roll Morton was only 51 when he died. He suffered
for a long time before with a version of Asthma which was thought to have been
caused by a violent attack on him made in a nightclub, where he was stabbed in
the head and chest. The asthma weakened his heart (according to his wife) and
he died of his heart condition. His condition may have been assisted by his
previous lifestyle, I’m sure being the piano player in a brothel may have had
its health risks.
He was without
doubt a remarkable musician, and one has to wonder what might have been jazz
musics outcome if he had lived into a more modern era. These last recordings of
his solo piano do reflect some of that brothel style (I am told!). However the
group tracks on this CD do not adequately reflect the kind of music he was
making in 1926 Chicago with his famous Red Hot Peppers, but they are a great
piece of history.
More modern history can be found back in 2018 when The
Clive Burton Celebration Quintet played us some New Tunes at Hedsor Jazz. These
were recorded on my mobile phone, in glorious mono, and you can revel in the
nostalgic memory of that evening by visiting and downloading the files from my
DropBox folder
When you get to track 11, you will realize that there is
an error in the label for the titles on the sleeve, but you can never have
perfection! Just enjoy the music, because that’s pretty good.
So until I write some more, be good, stay safe, wash
your hands, and we will meet again.
PS, Once again I have no idea why blogger.com changes the background colour sometimes without editorial direction!
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Jazz from
Geoff
Tuesday, 21 April
2020
As I said in last weeks blog I did succumb to the
temptation of the 10 CD set of “Jazz at the Philharmonic”, so this week I
haven’t felt tempted to add anything new to my collection. Maybe you have?
Don’t forget to tell me via my email address for this blog
together with any
thoughts you may have had on your new purchase.
With this issue I will again point you at some stuff you
might like to look at and to listen to via YouTube.
I have also uploaded to DropBox a Hedsor Jazz concert
from 2018 with Duncan Lamont Jr and Stuart Henderson that I recorded on my
mobile phone, so do check out
The first YouTube link this week might look a bit odd, as
it has a reference to Sandy Brown. BUT it carries a very nice tribute to Clive
Burton, together with a clip of Clive and the band playing “The Night has a Thousand
Eyes”, again with Zane on keyboard and filmed at “The Fifield Inn”, the
regular Sunday night spot for the band.
OK, I also get quoted from an old blog report! Is that
fame?
I must admit I have been wondering not just when we can
all get back to having such wonderful live jazz together at Hedsor again, but
how we can do it.
You may remember that when we first stopped live jazz at The
Hedsor Club because of the virus we said we would possibly resume on Thursday 23rd April?
Now we know from experience that sadly this
cannot happen.
Maybe though when some of the restrictions are lifted we could possibly
produce a video of an evening, a bit like the way I have recorded CD’s of
concerts in the past, so that those who don’t want to risk possible exposure to
that virus (before a vaccine has been
developed to protect all of us?) can become a virtual audience. Again, please
post your ideas and suggestions to Octogeoff@outlook.com
One of the joys I have had from YouTube these past few
weeks has been the amount of music you can hear from “Tuba Skinny”, a New
Orleans band still playing in New Orleans very much in the style handed down
from earlier inhabitants of that town.
Do check it out. I know it isn’t the kind of jazz we were
used to listening to at Hedsor, but do take a good listen to them, and at there
ability to play. The young lady on the cornet makes it look SO easy, when it
certainly isn’t, I still have my trumpet from the days when I used to play some
of the same tunes and know how hard it can be. Then again the understanding
they all have of each tune, of each other and the way the tune should be
played. Your thoughts on their music on a postcard please. Or you could simply
use that email address.
One last picture below
You may be able to blame a lot of the development of jazz
on his man, who died in a lunatic asylum in 1931.
His name was Buddy Bolden. He never recorded, although
the early recording process was available to his band. He said he didn’t want
other people to copy his solos! So none of us have ever heard what he sounded
like. However, a fragment of one of his solos does exist in musical memory. It
is generally thought that the main theme of the tune “Buddy Bolden’s Blues” was
one of his solos!
Sometimes you can be too careful!
Another of the early
exponents of jazz was Jelly Roll Morton, piano player and band leader (look up
his “Red Hot Peppers”). He wasn’t so shy of recording, and before he died in 1941
he laid down some solo piano tracks for the US Library of Congress and on one
of those recordings you can hear him sing “Buddy Bolden’s Blues”.
OK this is the last last picture this week!!
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Jazz from Geoff
Sadly not information about upcoming jazz at Hedsor Jazz,
but still, something to while away the Jazz Hour you may still like to give
yourselves in this unusual time in our lives. One that we just didn’t see
coming in January. Who knew that when we first wrote 2020 on an email or
greetings card that it would turn out to be such a time of isolation. And a sad
time where we have all become aware that this invisible enemy is an
indiscriminate killer without moral or conscience.
I think most of us feel that it is the inability to share
time with friends and family that is the worst of the new every day. I think we
will all learn again what a joy it is to actually share a common interest in
someone else’s company. How we had taken for granted the simple pleasure of
going with a mate to sink a pint of beer in a pub!
However I do want to try and give you something new to
listen to, and something to watch as well. Not really new, but sound and vision
from times past that you may not have listened to before
First a link to about 6 minutes of music from 2008. The
Clive Burton Quintet at The Fifield Inn on a Sunday evening. The quintet is in
one of its first manifestations, with Zane Cronje on keyboard.
I think last week I overloaded your attention span and
gave you too many links, so I am cutting back this week. I will share however a
bit more Clive Burton Quintet, this time one of the recordings I made in June
2017. Below you will find a link to a DropBox folder for an evening of the
Quintet with added guitarist Jezz Cook. 2 one hour recordings plus the artwork
for a CD cover if you want to keep it.
Last week I reference my listening of “Jazz at the
Philharmonic” CD’s. In the end I succumbed to my own temptation, and purchased
the 10 CD box set.
Wonderful music. I have only managed to play a couple of
the CD’s so far, but have been impressed particularly by the recordings of
Lester Young. You tend to forget how good he was in the 50’s before his
lifestyle caught up with him.
These legendary musicians may not have had the university
education and grooming that many jazz musicians have now, but they had
identifiable character. In the jam sessions that JATP were you can easily tell
Lester Young from Coleman Hawkins for example. If you listen to trumpeter Buck
Clayton or trumpeter Jo Newman, you can tell which was which by their signature
sound. Each musician had something to say, and no matter what their lifestyles were,
they conveyed their view of the tune, of the language of the times that they
were living in, as only each one of them could.
 |
| Buck Clayton |
 |
| Jo Newman |
 |
| Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins |
not the best sound quality, or the best visual quality either, but who cares, the music is terrific!
Do send feedback on both the jazz you listen to and how
you are coping with lock down life to my email address :- Octogeoff@outlook.com
I will have more music to share with you in the weeks to
come. Stay safe, don’t forget to clap for the NHS on Thursdays. Its a different
kind of Thursday night out!
Tuesday, April 07, 2020
Jazz from Geoff
IF you are anything like me, you are becoming accustomed
to managing self isolation and social distancing!
You have probably found a new routine that works for you.
Maybe you are discovering new programs to watch on TV. Maybe you are catching
up with some old ones that you didn’t get to see back in the day, I know I am.
However have you forgotten yet what Live Jazz feels like?
At the Clive Burton Quintet's 20th Anniversary Party I took a few photos. Below is one which goes to prove that you can improve on the lighting and the curtains in the Hedsor Hall! It was taken by me at that party in 2016!
This past week I have looked over some of my record collection and found
a number that were recorded in front of an audience. The Eddie Condon ones were
broadcasts, but always recorded in front of an audience. BBC Jazz Club
broadcasts were also usually recorded in front of a studio audience, and I can
remember many visits to the BBC Maida Vale Studios in Delaware Road to watch
and listen to Jazz Club recordings being made, often with Peter Clayton as the
compare. Some of these are now available on the Upbeat label, and I will write
about those at a later date.
This week I have been listening to some slightly earlier
recordings made in front of a very live audience. I have been doing this via a
box set from Proper Box called “Jazz at the PHILHARMONIC, the first 10 Years”,
a 4 CD set with a good booklet.
(Properbox 82). The recordings aren’t studio perfect, but the music is vibrant,
and sometimes really groundbreaking, with obvious excitement caused by the
music for the live audience.
A 1946 concert has 4 great choruses on “Sweet Georgia
Brown” by Charlie Parker. He had been late turning up for the concert as he had
been on a search for a drug fix to get him through the event! The audience
noticed his arrival (after about a minute into the tune) in the wings, and then after
the piano solo 4 blistering choruses by Parker follow!
The 4cd box set is a small sample of what was recorded
during the lifetime of JATP, See https://www.discogs.com/Jazz-At-The-Philharmonic-The-First-Ten-Years/release/5691242
for this set.
A much larger set produced by “The Intense Media” called
“Milestones of Legends at the Philharmonic”
can be found at
where 10 cds provide the coverage!
Some excellent music can be found of course for free,
especially if you investigate YouTube, Amazon Prime, or Spotify.
One I found that is available is by the pianist John Bunch who was on many recording, but only as a
leader I think on 3. You can find “John’s Bunch” from 1975 via YouTube at https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mhIgCiSajdhoUm8ibmErhhOvx3QoTKraw
where he is joined by Al Cohn and Urbie Green. 11 tracks
that include 2 alternative takes.
I have had this ever since the CD came out. It was originally issued in the 1970's on LP, but in the 2000's on CD with the 2 alternative takes..
One final link this week in my efforts to keep you
amused during this time of being away from it all.
On YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6INbe5lC3LI
you will find a very nice, previously unreleased track by the Humphrey Lyttelton band.
The tune is called“South” and has some nice photos and sketches to keep
your eyes occupied during the 5 minutes of so of the tune. BUT can you identify
all the people in the pictures?
Just to start you off in the cut above(!) you will see John Pickard trombone, Humph trumpet and Bruce turner alto sax.
If you would like to tell me who they all are in the 5 minutes video,
and would be prepared for me to share your notes and any other comments you would like to make about your
well being, inspirational jazz tracks from your past and/or any greetings on
others in “our” jazz fraternity, please email me at Octogeoff@hotmail.com I am reserving this email address for just that purpose!
These are difficult times we are living through. We will
come out from this invisible cloud into “broad sunlit jazzlands” to paraphrase
a WW2 speech! Those lands may be slightly different to those we can remember.
Until then we must satisfy ourselves with a few little
comforts, and our history of recorded jazz is certainly one of those. We must also be prepared to restart Live Jazz. The meeting and greeting and the applauding on a Thursday, not only our essential workers , but also applauding our musicians. We took it all so much for granted didn't we?
More of my recordings from Hedsor Jazz next week.
In the
meantime do search back on recent issues of this blog for links to my DropBox
folders where I have already shared some of my Hedsor Jazz recordings. Because
I will have to take them down soon in order to put new ones up. You have been warned!
Take care
TTFN
Geoff
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