“The Sun Has Got His Hat On” and he appears to have had it on for a few days now, and with the promise of a few days more too.

Mind you, it is an old tune, and I don’t think I have heard it played since the 1960’s!

Hedsor Jazz did have some great tunes played last Thursday. There are always some each week that one is glad to hear again. Stuart Henderson’s choice in playing “Moon Alley” by Tom Harrell brought great solos from both himself on trumpet and from Martin Dunston on tenor sax. I think everyone enjoyed the evening, certainly the players did. Sadly we only had a small audience, and we do need to do better.

I really, genuinely, feel sorry for those jazz lovers who are missing the superb music we put on at The Hedsor Bar each week. Those of us who get there on a regular basis know we are witnessing something pretty special each Thursday.

My photos from last week are below.

Coming this week (April 10^th) to entertain (or entrance?) us will be Lester Brown on trumpet and Mark Aston on reeds, backed by Ken McCarthy on keyboard Peter Hughes on bass and Martin Hart on drums. Having Peter with us again will give us an opportunity to see if his experiment with the addition of headphones into his bass amplifier circuit has helped with his hearing loss. If you recall when he was with us last he was experimenting with this idea and I thought he played very well. It really is a bitter pill to be a musician and to loose the ability to hear those you play with.

 

Whilst writing about Peter I must say that coming after Easter there is a conflict of interests. On Tuesday 22^nd April Peter is playing in the Big Band that rehearses in Cookham Rise Methodist Church. They are putting on a concert to raise money for charitable causes.

But also on the same night, Marlow Jazz are having another Cookham musician playing for them, Vasilis Xenopoulos is playing alongside Mark Nightingale. I’ll put up posters for both gigs and you can make your choice. I can only support one!

Marlow web https://www.marlowjazzclub.com/

My introduction and journey through jazz didn’t start with bop or modern jazz. And although I now get a great deal of joy listening to the early exponents of that jazz style I didn’t find or enjoy it at the time. In the 1950’s I was exploring revivalist jazz, transitioning to swing and mainstream by the end of the decade. Therefore I never really listened a great deal to Miles Davis until I heard “Echoes of Spain”. More recently I have appreciated what he and his colleagues were doing and recently I have come across a cd that isn’t under his name, but does have him as a very frontline “sidesman”. Under the leadership of Cannonball Adderley “Somethin Else” is a gem. Recorded in 1958 this 5 piece ensemble is something I’m glad I have found. Miles is playing without flamboyance, but with great creativity. Listen for his solo on “One for Daddy”, putting together a sequence that doesn’t lead to swamping the band or the listener, and leaving some space for Cannonball to add his mark (and glitter) to the tune as well. Out of the five musicians in this recording 4 of them became, or were already bandleaders!

 

I picked up my copy of this recording in a charity shop, and it is in mint condition!

YOU can pick up a listen to superjazz as well, just turn out for live jazz, not only at Hedsor Jazz, (other products are available) but preferably there as well!

TTFN (for those too young for ITMA, look it up).

Geoff