Good Morning Jazz Lovers. 

 I think if you look out of your window, you will probably see that it is raining again! It does dampen the mood somewhat, especially when you remember that this week we don’t have one of those great “Hedsor Jazz” sessions to look forward to. 

 It does however remind me of what a great tune, with interesting lyrics, “I Think it’s Going to Rain Today” is. 

 So far January has helped Hedsor Jazz’s financial situation, and with the generosity of some attendees at Hedsor not asking for change for the offered £ notes, and with a slight increase in attendance we haven’t lost money. And the music has been as good, if not better, than ever. 

 Coming to us in February and it will be just as good musically, and with your attendance, we will be no worse off financially!! 

On Feb 12th we will have that Scottish wonder trumpet player Bruce Adams blowing in front with guitarist Mark Rideout adding to the trio at the back! 

Later in the month we will see a return of two of Hedsor Jazz’s favourite players, Lester Brown on trumpet and Alam Nathoo on tenor sax. Both sessions will be backed by our regular trio with Ken McCarthy on keyboard. 

 For the last 2 sessions at Hedsor we have experimented a bit with the sound system, adding in a loudspeaker to feedback the music to the band so that they can hear themselves. Previously to achieve this the PA speakers had been partially diverted to enable the band to hear themselves through them, although they were really designed for the audience. Do let us know if you have noticed the difference. The band have! 

Usually at most Hedsor Jazz sessions I take some photos to illustrate this blog. I have been using a Fuji digital camera for some years, but last week, the memory card failed to “initilaise”, so I had to use my mobile phone camera instead for a few shots. Being a compromise, the phone isn’t as versatile a camera as the Fuji and in addition last week the club had some problems with the lighting, so I thought the results would be difficult to use. However, the wonders of modern phones shone through the dark, and a couple of colourful shots are below.

On the no Jazz at Hedsor Nights I have taken the opportunity of playing some of my recoded jazz selection and I thought I would go back to some of the music I listened to at the start of my journey. In those days some of the best British jazz musicians were alive and well, and in those days I also listened to traditional jazz as well. Nostalgia brought forth from my collection a recording made of “The Al Fairweather /Sandy Brown Allstars” coupled on a Radio Luxembourg recording with the Humphrey Lyttleton Band, with that great (late) saxophonist Tony Coe. Broadcast in 1962 I have lived long enough to say that I saw both bands for real. They were so good.

 

Later in the week I dug out one of the recording sessions that used the skill of Tony Coe to add lustre to a singer plus piano recording. 

Louise Gibbs and Brian Priestley used Tony Coe as a special guest to enhance a recording session celebrating the music of Duke Ellington. On it Tony uses tenor and soprano sax and clarinet and does just that, he enhances this cd of the music of the Duke. It was recorded in 1999 on a label often used to get small group jazz to the public, 33 records. 

For anyone wanting the words to the Dukes music with a terrific jazz accompaniment, go and find 33jazz048.

It may be that the 33 part of the label harked back to the speed of a record, but I did noticed that the record companied address was 33 Guildford Street! 

 PS I have had broadband probs with this posting. My apologies for how it may appear.

 Geoff