Good
Morning England. We are still caught between Bank Holidays, with one more to
come in May, but I have yet still to celebrate Christmas with some of my family
that live in Stratford upon Avon!! Strangely enough this will take place NEXT
TUESDAY!! So today’s blog will have to be sufficient for two weeks.
BUT for us jazz lovers who frequent Hedsor Jazz what a couple of weeks!
This Thursday, May 22nd, we have a happy return to Hedsor of that Scottish trumpet ace Bruce Adams. He will share front line duties with a member of the Glen Miller Orchestra, saxophonist Martin Dunston, and it should be a really memorable night. Pictures of their previous Hedsor appearances are below.
THEN the following Thursday May 29th we have an evening with that world famous guitarist Nigel Price.
Nigel
has been to Hedsor many times in the past, and it will be great to have him
back with us again.
Last weeks session with Frank Walden and Ollie Weston produced a superb evening of classic bop. Two tenors for a tenor and what a wonderful noise they made. There was also an interesting comparison to be made between last weeks session and the week before where we remembered VE Day. On May 8th Ken McCarthy reminisced about playing Buckingham Palace with singer Vera Lynn. Last week Frank reminisced about touring with Amy Winehouse, and the band went on to play “Love is a Losing Game”, one of the songs she wrote. Two different generations of singer who once were young!
Some of my photos from last week are below.
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| Stuart Barker |
Two names to look forward to in June include that talented guitarist James Fenn (of The Filthy Six fame, who will be at Glastonbury this year) will play Hedsor for us on June 5th, and trumpeter Pete Rudeforth, a band leader in his own right who will be with us on June 19th. He was one of the last trumpeters in the late Chris Barbers 12 piece band, but do check out Pete’s own band via this link. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=347348893674336
James Fenn
Last time Pete was with us at the end of the evening I was discussing with him some tunes written by trombonist J. C. Higginbotham (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._C._Higginbotham) when he played with the Luis Russell Orchestra in the 1920’s and 30’s. These included a tune called “Give Me Your Telephone Number” and another called “Swing Out”.
Pete did say that he would write some
arrangements for these two forgotten, but catchy, tunes to play for us at Hedsor!
We will just have to wait and see.
Pete Rudeforth
And if you do fancy a weekend seaside break
with great jazz in the foreground, do take a look at the Swanage Jazz Festival https://swanagejazzfestival.co.uk/
That’s it for now folks, next blog will be
in JUNE
1 comment:
Hi Geoff, it seems a mighty long time since I last contacted you and quite a bit of water has passed under the bridge in the meantime. Some time back, you very kindly sent me a couple of CDs of the band of the late Keith Vitty (i.e. Century Jazz at the Cookham Tavern from 1999 & Century Jazz at the Cookham Dean Jazz Festival from 1997). Both have long been assimilated into my collection but I have few details of the one from 1999, in particular the track listing. I also assume that the band personnel was the same as I don't know exactly when Keith passed. Having been esconsed in the West Country for 25 years now, I am fortunate in having a choice of jazz venues within reach if not close by. One in particular is the Arts Centre at Ilminster, which hosts a number of jazz events throughout the year, pianist Mike Denham being one of the regular visitors, most recently with Steve Graham & Julia Titus with their 'Tribute to Bessie Smith'. I was privileged to get to see the Craig Milverton Trio there last Friday in their tribute to the late Oscar Peterson. Craig had CDs on sale and I bought a couple, one of which is of his earlier band with Ian Ellis, Tom Hill & Nick Millward from 2005. I don't know if you have had Craig perform at Hedsor but he would suit your audience very well. He can be contacted via his website here :- https://www.craigmilverton.co.uk/. Hopefully I will one day get to one of your Hedsor gigs but travelling over that sort of distance is not something I undertake without a lot of preparation. At the age of 82 I have to plan well ahead for anything like that. I do, however, get over to Wiveliscombe, where I do, about a once a month, a jazz radio show for '10 Radio', the local community radio station. I am one of five presenters, each with our own 'bag', as the saying goes. The show goes out live on a Tuesday evening between 8 & 10 p.m. and can be accessed via t'internet here :- https://10radio.org/. You may well find some of the presenters' playlists of interest. For myself, I tend to listen in to 'The Victorian Jazz Club' which broadcasts from Clayton in Victoria (Australia). Probably a bit outside your remit as they are more into the classic/traditional styles. They do, however, run a weekly live jazz event which is well supported, just a pity it's so far away. I also listen in via the internet to 'WAMU' which broadcasts from Washington in the U.S.A. - another two hour show. One of their recent broadcasts featured the complete, unedited, Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall Concert of 1938 with the addition of a commentary by the presenter. All in all, plenty to keep me occupied in my dotage. I will also mention the Jazz Sessions that used to take place at the 'Firefly' in Bourne end many years back. I went to few of those and I was curious to know if you were in any way involved in those. Anyway, I have just spotted the time, which means I must have my lunch and prepare to adjourn to the 'Bell Inn' this afternoon for my usual Monday 'gargle'. Keep up the good work - hopefully I will catch up at Hedsor one of these days
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