Jazz from Geoff,
The Blog
Tuesday, 14 July
2020
Another week has gone by, and so has another Tuesday
(almost) so I thought I would at least start on my blog text before sundown!
First of all I must mention that WE (see list below) had
a meeting at the Hedsor Club last Thursday to talk “things” over with Sarah
Bason, the club steward. As you may know, Hedsor Club is now open again as a
bar, and it seems pretty well organised from a covid safely point of view. If
you remember, going back a few weeks, I did say what the new arrangements would
be, and, yes, they are all in place with good social distancing of seats and
tables, one in one out toileting, alcohol hand gel, open doors and windows etc.
all visibly in place. Currently apart
from the bar no other activities are taking place inside the club, although
some sport activity was visible in the grounds (children’s footy by the look of
it is taking place).
Obviously all at the club are learning how to cope with
all of this new normal (I learnt that Rebellion IPA is still as good as I had
remembered it!) but the virus is still out there and it will be a while before
we even start on a new way of going about our live jazz sessions. Our
conversation covered a number of aspects of how it might be, but it is too soon
to say who, how and when we can start again.
One very positive thing came out of our meeting. Jazz
Angels pay the rent for the room a year at a time in advance. The club has
offered to extend that into the future, so our rent isn’t lost to us. Hedsor
Club, we were assured, is in good financial fettle, owning outright its own
building and grounds, so it hasn’t been loosing too much during the shutdown
period and didn’t require our financial support to keep going when closed (we
had discussed this possibility). Club Membership was briefly touched on, and it
would be a good sign of individual commitment to Hedsor Club if more of Hedsor
Jazz attendees did become club members.
Currently NO live music is allowed anywhere, no matter if
it is a string quartet, rock or jazz and
until that situation becomes clearer, we are no nearer to getting back to
having live (or recorded!) Thursday Sessions as in days of old. However, the
club do want us back, and we will probably be one of the first music activities
allowed indoors when that can be.
It was a real joy to meet each other again after such a
long gap, and those in attendance at our meeting were John Dutton, Martin Hart,
Mike Jeffries, Tracy Georgiades, Sarah Bason and myself.
Now on to things
to watch or listen to.
That live Duke Ellington concert I drew your attention to
last week has competition! There IS on YouTube a similar concert
given by The Count Basie Orchestra in Copenhagen on 18th April
1972
It will occupy you for 2 ¼ hours!
I was fortunate enough to see both The Duke Ellington and
the Count Basie orchestras back in the day. I do count that as one of the privileges
of being born before WW2. But I’m so glad that these videos are out there for
us to watch TODAY!
Last weekend should have been, would have been, The
Swanage Jazz Festival, something I have been going to for well over 25 years,
every year without a break, until this covid year.
We were all very sad when it looked like The Swanage Jazz
Festival was going to close when Fred Lindup and his team finally retired 3
years ago. We were all heartened when Nigel Price took it on for the following
year. A new team took it on for 2019 and I know that that same team in Swanage had
a program ready for this year, but it was not to be. Their plans have been transferred
to 2021 and I will reproduce the email from the new chair of this group,
together with a link to a very short video of some of 2019’s performances.
I still think that the sound quality obtained from
performances in the Methodist Church comes across as dire!
Come back Marquees!
Also the Sarah Bolter Session with saxophonist guest Derek
Nash, held round the back of a pub, was one of the best things in last years the
festival.
Maybe I should just say “Come Back Pub Jazz”!
So, here is that email from Paul Kelly:-
|
No comments:
Post a Comment