Slowly, slowly we are loosing summer, and this year it hardly seems to have started. No longer is there a brightness in the sky at 9pm.
But looking on the bright side of life (!), our Thursday evenings of Jazz at Hedsor, in the Hedsor Bar, do not require sunshine. The sunshine is provided by the excellence of the jazz, and the smiles on the audiences faces as they revel in the music.
Well, that was the case last week anyway, as Alan Barnes put on a master show of jazz music entertainment. He had put together an evening of jazz tunes, with information and humour, calling the tunes with little time for “what shall we play next” and I think only one arrangement was handed out for the rhythm section to read! And all too soon it was 10.30pm. A truly great evening. OK, not with the audience of thousands who were at the same time enjoying the sounds and sights of a Wembley Stadium musical (?) evening by one Taylor Swift, but a great night out was had by all that came to Hedsor for less than the cost of a journey to Wembley.
Stepping in at short notice last week was Martin Picket on keyboard in place of an indisposed Ken McCarthy. He did magnificently well, and I know he also enjoyed the occasion. I am also pleased to say that I have spoken with Ken McCarthy since, and he is much recovered and hopes to be with us this Thursday.
So who have we coming this week? Trumpeter Lester Brown will have beside him saxophonist Frank Walden. Now Frank may well have experienced the likes of a Wembley Stadium audience. He used to be part of Amy Whitehouse’s band.
Below I have put in a first draft of our September program, and I would draw you attention especially to our evening on September 19th.
Mike Wills death was a sad shock to all of us who knew him. We had kind of got used to him recovering from his pacemaker restarts, and his sudden death in his sleep a few days after his most recent reset was not expected by any of us. I spoke with him just after he had returned home and he was looking forward to getting back to us at Hedsor, and was still apologising for letting us down. So on September 19th we are having a special evening were musicians and friends can spend time together in memory and tribute to this special musician. Do make sure you can get to the evening. Not only will we have the musicians booked (see poster), I am sure there will be others and I understand there will be a finger buffet that evening as well (our treasurer will be in Spain!).
There will be much more music to tell you of before Christmas, but we are going to have our Hedsor Jazz Christmas party on December 19th. We are hoping that Duncan Lamont Jr and Sarah Jane Eveleigh will be contributing to the music that night, so again make a mark in your diary.
That’s about it for now, but do support live jazz, not just at Hedsor (it could be your priority!) but wherever promoters are brave enough to put it on.
Check out
https://mailchi.mp/jazzinreading.com/pangbourne-jazz-club-april-2018-jim-6414303?e=9ec6209932
https://www.marlowjazz.co.uk/WEBSITE2024SEPT.pdf
TTFN
Geoff
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