A BLOG to cover the next couple of weeks, as we have entered the jazz festival season.

Going to jazz festivals used to be a regular part of my summer, with Swanage and Brecon regular parts of each for many years. Swanage still remains for by me, but with my advancing years even the travel to that is becoming a bit of a chore. Having been going for over 25 years one does get to know many jazz fans from different parts of the country and we become a bit like a big jazz family. Chatting over who we have seen and what we think of it is part of jazz festival breakfasts.

If you have never been to a jazz festival do consider it. It can be a very rewarding experience.

However who and what we put on at Hedsor Jazz every week is a bit like a jazz festival. Many of the musicians I expect to see in Swanage we have seen at Hedsor, and some I’m sure will be coming!

We do have listings now for every week for July and August, and they are reproduced below.

We have been seeking better cooperation with the management of Hedsor Bar, and we are going to try out one or two of there suggestions, so please bear with us if the room isn’t as you saw it last time! The idea is to make it less daunting for newcomers to access the room, and to enable late entry without embarrassment. However if we feel that the prime reasons for running Hedsor Jazz aren’t met, we will go back to previous ones, or try a different new one! We want to ensure first class musical presentation and sound so that we can all have a first rate evening out.

 

Last weeks evening out (pictures below) was absolutely first class, with New Orleans singer Nanci Zhang singing for us four times through the evening.  The combined musical abilities of both Alam Nathoo on tenor sax and Tom White on trombone were formidable such that one of our PA loudspeakers collapsed to the floor!!

 

As you will see from the poster art above we have a terrific few weeks ahead of us. Saxophonist and club organiser in his own right Mark Aston will be with us this week, hopefully bringing a guest of his choice.

The following week, pinch yourself, a superstar is coming to Hedsor Jazz. Steve Waterman (https://www.stevewaterman.co.uk/bio) is a professor of Jazz Trumpet at Trinity College of Music in London and visiting Jazz Trumpet specialist at The Royal Northern College Of Music and The Welsh College Of Music And Drama. Not only that but we have joining him Singer Gill Cook. (https://www.gillcook.co.uk/). Steve is featured on one of her albums and I first saw her at an Ealing Jazz Festival singing to hundreds of people. She has sung for me a number of times and on different occasion, and has also been to Hedsor many times. It should be a really great evening of jazz.

Another great trumpet star is coming to Hedsor before the month is out (31^st July). A return visit by Bruce Adams. And he will be partnered with a real friend of Hedsor Jazz saxophonist Duncan Lamont Jr.

All we need to make Hedsor Jazz more perfect is MORE AUDIENCE. Tell you friends and spend just £10 for 2 hours of great jazz. And it is every week!!

Oh, and make sure you keep this blog in your inbox to read next week. I won’t have time to write more and the next blog issue will include my thoughts on this years Swanage Jazz Festival. Take a preview:-

https://swanagejazzfestival.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/SJF-full-programme-2025.pdf

 

 

Good Morning lovers of jazz. The sun does still have his hat on, and it is a bit warm, but never mind, so is some of our jazz.

Hedsor Jazz is still about, and accessible every Thursday. We have a level of fame, which I would love to see represented in our attendance numbers. Never mind, the people who come are quality!!

Last week we had a surprise “guest”, singer in Nanci from New Orleans:-

https://www.offbeat.com/news/healthy-notes-in-harmony-flu-shots-and-jazz-with-nurse-nanci/

Our evening last week was totally splendid, with one member of the audience telling me it was the best first half he had ever heard, and THAT was before we learnt we had a guest from the land of jazz!!

My pictures are below. I think that the band played there socks off, well done.

As my remarks about the front line last blog indicated, the two front liners (Lester Brown and Frank Walden) come from different jazz backgrounds, but their joint collaboration was magic! With Nanci joining in for 3 numbers in the second set, the whole evening stayed at a very high level. It was apparent even when the music stopped that no one wanted to go home!

Can Hedsor Jazz keep it up this week? We really think so, as this first Thursday of the month of July we have saxophonist Alam Nathoo being joined by one of is contemporaries, trombonist Tom White. If you plug in to YouTube you can hear the two of them, plus some other young talents:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWxo36EcXYI

It will take over 13 minutes of your time, but maybe watch whilst consuming a coffee!

Christ Church, Marlow

One other event that involved me, and a few recognisable faces, took place last Sunday. I have been running a series of jazz worship events inspired by the Duke Ellington Concerts of Sacred music, and last Sunday was the third in the series. This was held in Marlow’s Christ Church, which just so happens to house a Bechstein grand piano. This was played by our own Ken McCarthy, and the songs were all performed by Gill Cook, able supported by Martin Dunston on reeds, Martin Hart on drums and Peter Hughes on bass. I said all the linking words, and for an hour we led the congregation though some thought provoking lyrics. We also managed to persuade the Marlow Congregation to sing “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and the Caribbean version of the Lords Prayer!

I think it went down well, and a repeat will be had in Cores End Church on October 26^th

I have been trying to impress on the congregations that many secular tunes have beautiful and meaningful words. One of the tunes played, but not sung this time round was “I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free”, which used to be Barry Normans signature tune to a cinema review program.

However, the words are yet some more that make you think:-

"I wish I knew how It would feel to be free. I wish I could break All the chains holding me. I wish I could say All the things that I should say-- Say 'em loud, say 'em clear For the whole round world to hear. I wish I could share All the love that's in my heart, Remove all the bars That keep us apart. I wish you could know What it means to be me. Then you'd see and agree That every man should be free. I wish I could give All I'm longin' to give. I wish I could live Like I'm longin' to live. I wish I could do All the things that I can do. Though I'm way overdue I'd be starting anew. Well, I wish I could be Like a bird in the sky. How sweet it would be If I found I could fly. I'd soar to the sun And look down at the sea. And I’d sing 'cause I’d know And I’d sing 'cause I’d know And I’d sing 'cause I’d know I’d know how it feels I’d know how it feels to be free".

One song that I have wanted sung for me for 2 or 3 years now Gill did sing for me on Sunday

“I Think its Going to Rain Today”, which  is a great tune, but with lyrics that need an explanation. They are sung by a down and out with a begging bowl and are full of cynicism, but they do provoke you into thinking!

"Broken windows and empty hallways,

A pale dead moon in a sky streaked with grey.

Human kindness is overflowing,

And I think it's gonna rain today.

 

Scarecrows dressed in the latest styles,

The frozen smiles to chase love away.

Human kindness is overflowing,

And I think it's gonna rain today.

 

Lonely, lonely.

Tin can at my feet,

I think I'll kick it down the street.

That's the way to treat a friend.

 

Bright before me the signs implore me:

Help the needy and show them the way.

Human kindness is overflowing,

And I think it's gonna rain today.

 

Lonely, so lonely.

Tin can at my feet,

I think I'll kick it down the street.

That's the way to treat a friend.

Bright before me the signs implore me:

Help the needy and show them the way.

 

Human kindness is overflowing,

And I think it's gonna rain today".

Sometimes popular music does agitate against the comfortable norms!

Pictures from Christ Church courtesy of Tracy Georgiades

Sorry Ken, you were hidden by that Bechstein grand piano