Those of you who looked for this page yesterday would have been disappointed. It was one of those days when my regular Tuesday blog wasn’t! This week it is a Wednesday blog, not because I lazed my way through a bank holiday (I’m Looking forward to Christmas!), but because yesterday I attended the funeral of “our” reed player, Mike Wills.

Below are the outer and inner pages from his funeral service in South Oxfordshire.

 It was both a sad and a happy occasion, one that I’m sure Mike would have appreciated. It was sad because we have all lost someone we have know for many years, someone whom we have listened to and appreciated for many years, and someone who has been taken from us without the usual anticipation, (he died in his sleep at home), so  none of us had the  preparation that might have been.

 

But it was also a joyous occasion, both at the crematorium (the first time I have been to a funeral at a crematorium where we sat on sofa style seats!) but at the crowded pub wake afterwards, where so many who knew him shared not only memories of Mike, but also our experience of jazz, the common thread amongst all of us there. We at Hedsor will pay our own tribute to “our” reedman, Mike Wills, on September 19^th. I hope many of you will be able to join us there for that.

Jazz. So many styles and so many ways of playing it. And so many ways of listening to it. But certainly one of the ways of sharing is to listen to it together, which is one of the things that Hedsor Jazz is quite good at. We have provided the means of doing so for over 20 years, many of those occasions being with Mike himself playing.

For the time being the life of Hedsor Jazz does go on. We have a full program right up until Christmas and it is our intention (Hedsor Bar cooperating!) to carry on after that. For me it is always a delight to look around during the interval at the usually smiling faces there at Hedsor. Not so many these days, but our jazz and our atmosphere seem to be something that once discovered, does meet a variety of needs.

 

So Tomorrow, Thursday August 29^th, we have coming to Hedsor saxophonist Mark Aston partnered by guitarist Alex Colett. Our regular rhythm section will sit behind them!! So please come and sit in front of them. Musical performance is an amalgam of musicians and audience. Without the audience it becomes just a rehearsal! And life IS more than a rehearsal!

Do look out for other places that also run live jazz. Check out Marlow Jazz Club, and the jazz offering at the Bourne End Community Centre (November 5^th will have the fireworks of Alam Nathoo!). And Dawkes in Maidenhead will have Vasilis Xenopoulos and Paul Edis on September 8^th (a Sunday afternoon for those less enamoured of driving at night, its a 3pm gig).

Before I go, last week we had Lester Brown not only swapping choruses with Frank Walden, but also combing together in the second half to harmonise on the tune of “Greensleeves”, supposedly written by Henry VIII himself!

My pictures from the evening are below.