Unless something very unusual happens, this will be my last blog before the crossed out Christmas of 2020.

I wonder how often in the past we have  Xmassed rather than Christmassed. I think this year we may have a better idea of what crossing out Christmas may really mean. For many of us, it will be very different with far fewer opportunities for social mixing. And as for the use of the mistletoe, forget it; you cannot possibly use it at a social distance!

Yes I am also sad that we haven’t been able to run our limited edition Hedsor Jazz Christmas Party this year. You may remember that  if it had been at all possible it would have been TONIGHT.

So, I have raided the archives, and I have put all of the music from our Christmas Party held in 2012. Follow my DropBox link, and it will be all yours, with a host of memories of people and times past. I have also put up a PDF file of the CD artwork I have used for my copy. If you get the opportunity do listen back to some sounds form our jazz past via https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uy6sl83i52cgtes/AAAxayIXEWdOH-AAuxL0ef7Pa?dl=0

Pictures from that night are also shown below.

 

 

It has been suggested that it could be possible to have our Christmas party in 2021 on Midsummer’s Night. That would be a Saturday, June 26^th.  Now there’s a thought.

 

Do have a very Happy Christmas time. The year 2021 offers the hope that we will all meet up again, and we will be able to let the good times roll.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

 

One final final comment, The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead will be cutting arts funding (along with a lot of other cuts including waste bin collection and flowers!). Many of us have appreciated Maidenheads Arts Centre, Norden Farm. It has continued to put on live jazz since it opened, and even this year I have been to 2 concerts there. SO can I say thank you to them, and can I suggest that we all take more interest in places that actually risk putting on live music played on real instruments (when we are allowed to of course). I think that this year has made us all realise that meeting and interacting with people has a greater value than any form of electronic performance at home. And that’s from me, a collector of music on …well all past formats! I started with 78rpm records on a wind up gramophone.

 

Even then there was the debate as to the preference of steel or thorn needles!