Another drab Tuesday. Drab is a “nice” word that hides the dull. One thing I hope we don’t do at Hedsor Jazz is drab and dull.

We have had a couple of extremely un-drab (?) Thursday evening’s this year already, and this coming Thursday we have arranged for a definitely un-dull and different evening to enliven your Hedsor Jazz experience.

Last week (pictures below) was an evening of sunshine and smiles (well in musical terms anyway). Duncan Lamont Jr telling us all about the music that was being played, as well as playing it and Pete Rudeforth adding to the well know tunes with two of his own. Pete is a sunshine character, and together with his superb trumpet playing, gave an overall glow of joy to our evening. We will bring them back again before too long, as the level of jazz joy was worth turning out for, and must be presented again.

 

 

BUT we are aiming to present a different evening of joy this coming Thursday, but this time with added nostalgia!

We are going to present an evening celebrating the music of the early years of jazz. “Jazz in Tradition”. And to do this we are inviting one of our local musicians to come to Hedsor Jazz. Richard Kellaway led for many years Cookham’s Traditional Jazz Band, the Fabulous Shirtlifters. He is a fine reed player and we had hoped when planning this evening that we could have had him alongside the late Mike Wills, with whom he played on many occasions. But sadly that won’t be possible this side of the Pearly Gates. So he will be joined by another of our regular musicians, trumpeter Lester Brown. AND, as we are almost a family at Hedsor Jazz, we have asked Lester to bring his dad along too. Phil Brown is a trombone player, playing in that same traditional style that Richard is used to. So do come and see the result of “Jazz in Tradition”, our title for the evening, this Thursday (January 23^rd) at 8pm.

Lester at Hedsor 2024

 

Richard Kellaway, Shirtlifter!

 

Lester and his Dad Phil

Looking towards the end of the month, if you have yet to wake from the slumbers of the seasons festivities, January 30^th should start a greater awareness of life! On trumpet, that stunning and exciting player, Bruce Adams is coming to rouse us all. And to ensure he doesn’t get too carried away, he will be accompanied by another regular guest at Hedsor, saxophonist Frank Waldon. And all of this stimulation is yours for only £10 per head.

Bruce Adams and Frank Walden

 

Hedsor Jazz is EVERY WEEK on Thursdays, and had been presenting high quality jazz for over 20 years. If you have been recently and enjoyed your evening do come again, and bring a friend. We are one of the very few jazz “clubs” that play every week and with the quality of players in the “Best in Britain” class. They enjoy coming to play for us, but we need an audience to enable this to carry on into the future.

 

We will be there at the Hedsor Bar, Hedsor Rd, Bourne End, Bucks. SL8 5ES this Thursday, so I look forward to seeing you there.

 

Geoff C