Like most things these days, we are all adjusting to a new “norm”, and the new norm for my blog is LATE!

I have an excuse, we had a final pickup of the computers for Ghana yesterday (brought forward of course due to the new lockdown) and getting that done has rather preoccupied me.

It is of course Thursday! I have a vague recollection that I used to go and listen to some jazz on a Thursday! One day we will be able to do that again.

We would be planning a Hedsor Jazz Christmas event for Thursday 17^th about now, but you might like to put that date in your diary anyway, unless you already have another festive event happening. We may be able to pull of a quick limited edition covid safe event, but it is only an “if” at the moment. I feel that in this covid year we are being pulled through with different “hopes”. Coloured lights at the end of a tunnel, which strangely, doesn’t seem to have an end to it!

So, just to make the page look pretty, some pictures of Hedsor Jazz's Christmas in Past Years

 A listen I have indulged in this week is a fairly old CD by singer Norma Winstone called “Manhattan in the Rain.” It has one of my favourite reed plays on it, Tony Coe, and it is a superb exploration of voice, words and reed skills. If you get the chance to sample it on one of the multi media streaming devices around try for track 6, “People will say we are in Love”. A superb solo from Tony, and another from keyboard player Steve Gray. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HAPs9bFXXk

It was recorded in 1998, which somehow now seems to be just yesterday. I can still remember how I heard it first, on a Jazz Club Radio Program from Ireland. It is a simple trio accompaniment to Norma, with Chris Lawrence as the bass player. I still think it is one of the best Norma Winstone records around.

 

Well, I’m off to play with my toys now. Do let me know, via octogeoff@outlook.com what you are doing to occupy lockdown No 2, and if you have found gems to share with the rest of us.

 A Quick PS, 

check out the links to The United Nations Jazz Day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGAbp1Ro_q0

There is more to hear from Dimitri and his friends!

 Jazz from Geoff, THE BLOG, you will appreciate, is late this week.

Late is becoming the new normal.  It is very sad to say BUT with no gig at Hedsor to advertise for the last few months, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find things to write about. No photos to colour the page with either, so this week I was really casting around for things to lift our spirits.

In a way, I have failed. One of the things this corona virus period has given us though is time at home, and I have been playing things from my collection that maybe I haven’t played in a while. In doing that this week I came a cross a recording, made at Hedsor, that you won’t have!!

Back in 2008 I ran a series of monthly Monday jazz events in the bar at Hedsor (in its scruffier days) that were concentrated on jazz led by guitar. In this I had the help of, amongst others, guitarist James Fenn. 

It was James who introduced me to Vasilis Xenopoulos, and on May 19^th 2008 Vasilis came with a Greek friend called Dimitri. Now, I don’t know his second name, and it was whilst trying to find who it might be that I came across Dimitri Vassilakis on you tube

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

Do take a look and a listen, as you will find a 20 minute exploration of the structure of jazz, which is quite fun, but sadly hasn’t got enough real musical content. It IS however very well done. I will try and find more from this musician, as he sounds pretty good, and comes across well as an educator.

I don’t think that this was the Dimitri who came to Hedsor in 2008. But that session in 2008 was recorded by me onto a mini disk, and I saved the music onto CD. Playing it this week, I realise that over the years those of us who were at Hedsor Jazz in its early years had some excellent jazz to listen to. I am taking a risk now, as I am going to put those recordings into DropBox without asking permission of the players, but will take it down if they really object. I don’t think they need to be bashful of the content, as it is all pretty good jazz. James Fenn on guitar, Lisa Amato on bass guitar, Nick Maragoni on drums, Vasilis Xenopoulos on Tenor sax, and the aforementioned Dimitri on alto sax. Like I said, no photos, and no cd cover, but if you want to have a listen go to

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/eoadexsaqz1se3s/AACcNnGwUs_CJSAh5bC0TgVKa?dl=0

Were YOU there? 

Do make comment via octogeoff@outlook.com

My memories of that bar were the long settle seats. You really did settle in to the ground when you sat down, but at least all the seats in the bar were comfortable enough to sit on (or even in) without bringing your own cushion!

The photo below was taken in the bar in 2011, but the décor and the seating were the same, if not the band!!

I'm sure you can name all of these!!

Geoff’s Blog, again possibly a little late again this week, but ALWAYS of the same high quality!! After all it does have an inbuilt delete button on the device you get it on!

First of all, an email message from one of Hedsor Jazz’s favourite guests.

Vasilis Xenopoulos wrote in this week with the following:-

Dear Friends,

Apologies for the radio silence all these months but as you can understand not a lot happened during the lockdown period. Finally, there is some activity again in the music scene and I will be appearing in several venues around the country mainly with the Nigel Price Organ trio who they're currently on tour. We have already done 7 appearances this month already in the West Country and the North. 
For the London based jazz fans, I'm very excited to announce that I will be at Ronnie Scott's jazz club this Thursday 22/10 with Nigel Price and next week 31/10 at 606 jazz club with an exciting new band called 5-Way-Split. 

In these strange times we're living your support is more valuable than ever as we're trying to rebuild our music scene back from its ruins. I hope finally get to see some familiar faces soon! If you want a full list of dates please click here. 
https://vasilisxenopoulos.com/new-events

Many thanks 

Vasilis 

One day, we will be able to send you all an email telling you that Vasilis is playing again at Hedsor, but until then, do at least follow him on the electronic device of your choice

As I mentioned in a recent blog, I still buy CD’s. I really do find a sense of ownership and a more direct connection to the music if I can actually hold something that contains it, rather than just the right to listen to it! And so it was that this week I got to listen to a Chris Barber CD again!

A very recent purchase, as it was only released in October, is a Chris Barber recording from 1963. Alan Gilmour was the sound engineer for Nottingham Jazz Club, and he used to record the sessions for his own use through the PA. Alan died in 2003, and his family has gifted the tapes he left behind (over 1000 hours worth) to Lake Records. This is their first release, and the first of a recording of Chris Barber in a real club atmosphere. You may recall that there have been many recordings released of The Barber Band recorded live during prestigious concerts, going as far back to1954 (an LP containing bits of the National Jazz federation’s Festival Hall Concert), when they were formed, 

but I don’t think there have been any recoded in a live jazz club, and thanks to Alan Gilmour and Lake Records, now there is!

It is a double album, so you get most of the evenings music, including an extended set by Ottilie Patterson. What a joy to hear her again, vibrant, slightly husky, and as sexy and as driving a singer as I remembered her.

In the days of early courtship and marriage my wife June often used to accompany me to jazz events, and neither of us have ever forgotten an evening in Hammersmith Town Hall where Ottilie came out in front of the Barber band in a long black dress, and started to sing and dance in front of the band. It wasn’t long before, and with a gasp from the audience, she lifted her long skirt to show long bright red leather boots! Wow, it was 1959!

This new CD release is well worth having, not just for Ottilie, but for all of the vitality it shows that the band could have in 1963. With Ian Wheeler on clarinet and alto sax, it was “just” the 6 piece Barber band, but already showing the signs of things to come. Still much to cheer the Trad fan of the day, but also some Ellington and some Rhythm and Blues along the way.  Lake LACD 363

Despite my purchasing continuity, the enabling of me to hold the music purchased (a contradiction in terms surely), I do subscribe to Amazon Prime and one or two other music streaming services. I must say that they do often tempt me to actually purchasing something solid, but they are a good way of testing it out and/or finding something new to like. 

One of my favourite pianists over recent years has been Scot Brian Kellock. He can often be found both live and on cd alongside fellow Scottish saxophonist Tommy Smith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsaScfdvGhM  click the link!

I managed to catch Brian “live” at a Swanage Jazz festival gig some years ago. He is tremendously inventive, and sometimes, to the annoyance of other musicians on the stage with him, carries his solos on a bit, usually to the excitement of the crowd.

The CD’s of note I have of him are with Smith and the Scottish Jazz Orchestra, playing some great Ellington, “In the Spirit of the Duke”

 

Another that I have loved has Brian playing alongside singer Catherine Legardh on “Love Still Wears a Smile”, and also with her on “Gorgeous Creatures”.

But, thanks to my subscription to Amazon Prime I have discovered a solo album entitled “Bidin My Time” and it says that the label it is on is brian kellock!! Do try it (and him) out. All his recordings are well engineered, and are producing a great piano sound. On this his 2020 release he plays a variety of styles, but it is truly jazz piano of the highest quality. Seek it out via https://briankellock.bandcamp.com/releases

Well that is enough from me for now, I can smell the coffee. In the meantime until we meet again, enjoy your jazz wherever you find it!

 

Jazz from Geoff, The Blog

 

The Blog is late again this week. I have actually been OUT 2 days in a row! Old friends and what were once familiar faces. How we have all slipped into the routines of shutdown, whatever level we are or will be in.

I sat down last night and played the last recording I made at Hedsor Jazz. March 5^th 2020. Do YOU remember that night? There was only one more to come a week later, but March 5^th was the last that I recorded, and it now seems so strange that then we were all used to going out to Hedsor on a Thursday evening, meeting familiar faces and as well as having the amazing social contact that we took for granted, listening to amazing jazz, which we also took for granted.

On March 5^th we listened to Ian Smith and Ollie Wilby. We talked with them in the interval; we shook hands with them at the end of the evening. We enjoyed the banter with others as they left. “Thanks Geoff for doing the tables and PA, see you next week”. The sort of evening and evening end that we had enjoyed every week for umpteen years at Hedsor Jazz. Almost every Thursday evening this century in fact.

 But in this past 7 months that normality has died. In that 7 months we too have all changed and, I for one, don’t want the Hedsor Jazz habit to be allowed to die too, which is why I have attempted to write something every week in order to keep the memory of our previous normality alive.

This hasn’t been helped by computer hackers. My address book was got at by, I am told, a Russian. I have had to think hard about how to email again to let you know about my weekly typing's, and I have still to solve that puzzle. More than one antivirus program has scanned my PC, and they all tell me it isn’t infected, and that I am protected. But do please be aware, all of you who read this will now be known by someone else.

On the music front this week I have seen no new live jazz. Scour the internet, use some of the links I have put out in this blog in previous weeks  and you can see live jazz broadcasts that you can stream for a price and there are also many streams and films from the past can be had for free via YouTube, which is great.

I understand that the musicians need to keep in practice and also to gain some income, but sitting in front of a screen listening through relatively small loudspeakers is nothing like the live vibe of club or concert. Even the glass of beer isn’t quite as good, even though Rebellion Beer have been brilliant in keeping me supplied!

No I haven’t an answer, or date to give you a hope of a return to live interaction (I was tempted to say “live social intercourse” but thought that might be misconceived!!). We are almost back were we were in March. Covid 19 isn’t going away, and I don’t want to risk lives by offering the temptation of live jazz. What I am going to do this week is put the whole of our last concert at Hedsor up on DropBox and let you all grab it for your self, and for you to have that funny nostalgia feeling for yourselves.

 

DropBox link for Hedsor Jazz March 5^th 2020

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ohtymbe5ik6xgx9/AAAbYLm16CEOpLLhOm9lc4NJa?dl=0

 

More blog natter next week, but whatever you do, stay safe.

 

Don’t forget to make contact with me use octogeoff@outlook.com

 

 Tuesday, and a blog day. Just about on time this week.

BUT

 “I think its going to rain today”

“Broken windows and empty hallways

A pale dead moon in the sky streaked with grey

Human kindness is overflowing

And I think it's going to rain today”

It's a great tune by Randy Newman which I first heard in about 1966 from an LP by The Chris Barber Band. It was on an LP on the Marmalade label back in those trendy times. 

I did have 2 copies of this LP, and on a radio program offered one as a quiz prize. Some weeks after the show, I discovered that the LP was worth at least £25!! DAM! It last sold on eBay for £75!

I reproduce above the LP Cover. You will notice that this copy isn’t on Marmalade, but Polydor!! SO, Marmalade is probably worth more now, and I do still have one copy!! 

The damp weather of the last few days has prompted a bit more looking and listening than the previously warmer days, and I have found a true treasure source of jazz because of it.

Initially I was looking for music for another project. The German ACT label has some interesting artists signed to it, and one of them is Swedish trombonist and singer Nils Landgren. I have actually seen him play (and dance!) with The London Philharmonic Orchestra. In the first half of the concert he played a trombone concerto with them. In the second he played jazz with some of the orchestra members accompanying him.  I must say were well up for it!

I knew I had heard a recent CD where he played with other Swedish musicians, and I found it and added what I want in to the project. 

However, there was a song on the CD that captivated me. A song by a Swedish lady called Ida Sand, who plays piano as well as sings. So I YouTubed her, and found the resource mentioned above. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC08F0Rbl03DBZLOi0UZXE_Q?reload=9

Started in 1990 the “Jazz Baltica” festival is now organised by Nils Landgren in the Baltic port of Lubeck in Germany. The link above will give you access to hours of great jazz music from that festival with concerts not just from this year, but many past years as wells.

This years product does seem slightly strange, as it is audience free, and views of the camera people wearing covid masks adds an eerie feel to it all.

The music is however of a very high quality. The sight gives access to many performers (including Ida Sand), and a variety of jazz styles. And it is in depth. No 5 minute bits, but complete concerts. It does have advert breaks, which is how you can watch it for free.

Swedish Jazz has been on my radar ever since I first borrowed an LP from the Maidenhead library of “Jazz at the Pawnshop” by saxophonist Arne Domnerus, who died in 2008.

Recorded in 1976 it had long been used as a Hi Fi demo LP. It is a live recording (differing from the mainly silent dead ones) from a jazz club/café called “The Pawn Shop”.  It has a quintet playing top quality mainstream to bop jazz  music and it introduced me to the quality of Swedish Jazz  including vibes player Lars Erstrand. So back before the day of CD I went out and purchased my own copy of the LP.

Since the days of Long Playing Vinyl, all of the music recorded at that club event in 1976 has now been released on 3 CD’s on the Proprius Music label, (yes, its based in Stockholm). They are illustrated in miniature in the clip about Arne above. Innovatively the CD’s are called “Jazz at the Pawnshop 1”, Jazz at the Pawnshop 2” and Jazz at the Pawnshop 3”. Proprius PRCD 7778, PRCD 9044 and PRCD 9058

So this week try some Baltic with your chips!

The song that captivated me was “Now the Time is Here” which includes the words, “be kind, be patient, let someone be your friend”. 

In these very difficult and different times we all need to do that.

Enjoy today, tomorrow it may still be raining!

 

 

 Jazz from Geoff

As the weeks and months go by it is harder to find something to write about in this space. There are things to see on your screen at home, and I will continue to let you know what I have found.

But live and local jazz?

It now seams very unlikely that live jazz will resume at Hedsor in the near future. The risks seem to me to outweigh the benefits. The safety requirement and the control of that safety isn’t just down to the management of The Hedsor Club. I think they have done all that they could to ensure the building is as virally secure as it could be. But to manage people coming in, to ensure only 25 are in the audience, that the audience remain in their respective bubbles, that no bubble exceeds 6 people,  that the separate bubbles stay apart from other bubbles AND that all drinks are ordered and delivered from your table AND that we have to be out of the building by 10pm makes the promoters responsibility a bit hard to swallow. So, be patient, it is all a waiting game, and one day, as the saying goes, all our Christmases will come at once!

I will congratulate Norden Farm, Maidenheads Centre for the Arts,  for their efforts in running an evening of live (and of streamed) jazz last Friday.

It was all a bit scary in as much as almost the entire Norden Farm management team met me at the door, and that my bubble had an allocated table so that we could order drinks before the show and during the interval. Yes, not only did I have a seat in the theatre, but at table for personal use in the bar and dinning area!

But to see Norden Farm with only 30 visitors was kind of ghost like. Norden Farm had done an excellent job of spacing and sanitisation. They had bitten the bullet, and Alan Barnes, I know, was grateful to play to an audience of 30, almost a record for this year. And we were all indoors!!

The band of Alan, who played alto, baritone and clarinet (because it was clarinet practice day, it being a Friday!), Alex Hutton on grand piano, Andy Cleyndert on bass and Clark Tracey on drums were excellent,  as you would expect. Once or twice with less familiar material they sounded a little unsure of what they were collectively doing but on the whole we got a full 2 hours of very good jazz music.

Sitting listening wearing a covid mask was a little uncomfortable, but during the interval at my bubbles allocated table you could take your mask off. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to down my half of IPA!

To hear quality live jazz again, from people most of us have listened to over many  years, (except of course this year of AD 2020), was a true delight.

http://www.woodvillerecords.com/Andrew%20Cleyndert.htm

I have added in a link to Andy Cleyndert, because it illustrates a CD I have been playing recently. The Jay and Kai tribute CD listed at the top of the Woodville page is very well worth seeking out. The first time I played it I played it all through in one go, something I don’t do that often. An excellent CD, and yes, I do still buy them.

When CD’s started to replace LP’s I felt there was a law of diminishing returns. Click and scratch free music, but much smaller artwork and sleeve notes. Let’s face it, some LP covers were great works of art. To now replace CD’s with music streamed via Prime or Spotify, (there are other streaming services!!) with no notes to read at all and no feeling of ownership is, for me, a step too far backwards. Those media do give you a chance to sample music you haven’t heard before, but without a solid purchase the experience has become cheapened too an unacceptable level.

An Original Jay and Kai LP

Alex Hutton (https://jazzinlondon.live/alex-hutton/) is an interesting pianist, a true character. Exciting, sometimes not to the advantage of the tune being played, he is still a musician to go and listen to. He plays with a passion, sometimes even with a frenzy, and although he may knock your socks off, he keeps his on. He does however take his shoes off to play, but I have yet to see his toes play the piano keys.

Norden Farms sound for this concert, (perhaps because it was being streamed), was of a very high order.

So, well done Norden Farm. Like my mum told me in order to be polite, I did write and thank them for their hospitality!!    https://norden.farm/

 

 

 

A better than never late, but late, blog this week. I was enjoying the sunshine too much!

But the weather and the pandemic now seem to be clawing us back into the winter of our discontent. The hopes of summer, of restarting Live Jazz at Hedsor, or anywhere else indoors, are now fading into a winter with not only no live music, but it looks like no live Christmas either.

It has made me realise how important some of our fairly casual friendships are. Seeing people at Hedsor Jazz every week meant a variety of contact. No, not close friendships, but a steady companionship. Most of us don’t know where the people we always chatted to on a Thursday actually live, and certainly we hadn’t shared visits in homes with many of the “Hedsor faithful” as our treasurer likes to calls us. But I’m sure we are all missing that light friendship between us all engendered by our liking for a certain kind of music. One day we will all meet up again, and wont that be fun!

Well we can still share what we can find of that jazz music that is accessible, do check out the links I put up later down the blog.

It hasn’t gone unnoticed by some of you that Ronnie Scott’s was open again last week. I’m going to quote from an email I had from one of my friends who had to be there for his job!!

The Ronnie Scott’s gig on Friday was fun, but I was a bit surprised no one in the audience - or the staff - had to wear a mask. It was a bit busier than I’d expected as well - they’re allowing 110 people in, which is 50 per cent capacity.  The streets outside were packed - restaurant tables everywhere.

Here’s the Ahmad Jamal TV clip that I mentioned. I think it’s from the same show you saw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA9GhIyP_zI&feature=youtu.be

It really is no surprise that with crowded London night life as he experienced, the virus is on the increase.

So his link to Ahmad Jamal, dated as 1959, does seem to be from the same broadcast as in one of last weeks blog links. Some of the bystanders are in the same places!

I have discovered this week on YouTube an in depth series of recordings by an American pianist and a British clarinet player of the works of Jelly Roll Morton. As you may recall, Mr Jelly claimed to have invented Jazz (which he didn’t) but one way or another he did record or write a lot of Jazz tunes before his death in 1941. (I was 3!!). He was certainly in “on the ground floor” listening when very young in places he shouldn’t have been in to some of the early jazz creators, and eventually playing piano himself in some of those same naughty places!

He became one of the names that jazz history is founded on. So, to find on YouTube a collection calling itself the “Complete Morton Project” was an irresistible click! The pianist is Andrew Oliver, and the reedman David Horniblow. The videos were recorded in London in 2018.The sound is pretty good, and it is always interesting to see the inside of someone’s home. Everyone tends to forget the bits visible behind the person being filmed. It has become one  2020’s covid joys to see the interviews for what there is in the background, and here and there in this series of duets, you can see the odd box of , is it “Laithwaites”, visible, and of course a quick scan can be made of the bookcase.

Seriously though, it is a pretty special attempt to play through the Morton repertoire, and I do believe it looks like it was all being done from memory. Ether that or they hid the scores very well.

So go to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4NF-ejj1Y434jiGQ5q5z8A and select a few at a time to finish off your evening of TV repeats.

Now it is time for afternoon tea, so TTFN

Geoff C

Don’t forget comment on the blog and jazz in general can be made to 

octogeoff@gmail.com

Go one, you know you want too.

 

It’s that Blog again!

 Following on from last week, where I “cogitated” about the restart of live jazz music at Hedsor Club, I must say that I couldn’t have timed it any worse! The next day the government cast the spell of 6 for meeting people.

BUT to increase ones dilemma, Norden Farm IS still seemingly going ahead with its program, including Alan Barnes for September 25^th.

I have also been informed that there is a rather nice, all be it, out door gig, at The Four Horseshoes pub at Sherfield on Lodden, RG27 0EX, with Peter Bingham on tenor sax., John Clarke on guitar and Marianne Windham as his  guest bass player. This is on Sunday September 27th and seems to run from 12 until 4pm, and you can book in for food by ringing 01256 882296

THEN I read in The London Jazz News the following article:- 

https://londonjazznews.com/2020/06/30/reflections-on-unlocking-live-music-by-tony-dudley-evans/

I can see that with tightly controlled virus measures, some small gigs can take place. Again for me there is a BUT. The virus IS gaining ground again, not being inhibited by schools and universities back in action.

Neither does there seem to be any swift enough measures in place at the moment to control or identify anyone carrying the disease. Without those measures its multiplication could have been foreseen!  So with hand on heart (yes, even MY heart) I couldn’t encourage others to gather indoors in a group bigger than six. My own GP surgery is struggling to keep pace with anyone wanting any sort of GP contact. I would like to have a conversation with a GP who has actually met me before, but even a telephoned appointment made yesterday is still a month away!!

SO, on to perhaps brighter things.

It is a great thing that we can have entertainment brought in to our homes via PC and TV. Recent advances in technology even mean that we can have both on the same screen, and YouTube can carry live music, and long since past music from the jazz greats. Just take a look at this from 1958

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DmtPvFa_W8

 

Pity it is only about 8 minutes long. But do watch it, even if you can’t identify all the players. It’s a great capsule from, well, my past anyway. OK, you tried the identity check? In fact they were

Charlie Shavers, trumpet; J C Higginbotham, trombone; Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, tenor sax; Pee Wee Russell, clarinet; Harry Sheppard, vibraphone; Willie "The Lion" Smith, piano; Dickie Thompson, guitar; Vinnie Burke, acoustic double bass; Sonny Greer, drums

On YouTube other great clips surround them. 

But if you want a full hour of the same quality go to

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Ok2Gjf1T4

 

This is a classic bit of early black and white television the music from which has also been issued on cd. The TV is more “real”, the CD was recorded back in a studio after the broadcast! Do watch out for the tenderness displayed by Billy Holiday to Lester Young

But for now (great song), I need to eat!!

If you would like to give me feedback (no pun intended, I'm having a sandwich!) please email via

octogeoff@outlook.com

 

TTFN

 

Geoff C

 

Jazz from Geoff

 

First of all, The Alan Barnes gig at Norden Farm that I mentioned last week. It was book able, and I have!

As far as I know 3 of the Hedsor faithful will be going, which includes ME. It is being held in the main theatre, not in the bar style of more recent years. Social distancing rules apply, and face masks must be worn. Do check out their website for more info.

https://norden.farm/events/alan-barnes-saxes-18

Alan Barnes and Greg Abate at The Swanage Jazz Festival 2017

Next, the Angels have had another meeting!

With our treasurer braving a return to Spain we thought we would gather for a quick coffee and an hour of discussing the possibilities of a return to live music at Hedsor Jazz before he went. I hasten to add that NO firm decisions have been or can yet be made, but we do think it is possible, but with a number of criteria in place. Social distancing of course, a maximum of 25 in the audience (at the moment this is all that will be allowed). The musicians will have to bring their own microphones and we would need to collect the contact details of all who are there for infection tracing purposes. From a building operators perspective I do think that Hedsor Club has covered as much of the safety criteria as is possible.

Yesterday we discussed the possibility of running some sort of Christmas event on the date we had set aside for it this year (17^th December).

A Hedsor Jazz Christmas Audience in 2015

It was felt that if the doors and windows still had to be left open (as Hedsor Club have to do at the moment) then it would probably be unacceptably cold by then, so that is something we will have to see. We would also need to run a trial (as described in previous blogs), possibly on October 29^th, the nearest Thursday to Halloween! Many of the 25 of the audience have already signed up for this! I don’t think we can charge for this, but we can request a donation! We will pay the musicians who come to play!

There are a lot of uncertainties, but there are possibilities. We can check your temperature on entry (thank you Mr. Swaffield) and alcohol hand cleansers are in place at Hedsor. If we provide food at Christmas we would have to ensure orderly queuing! IF we can manage a well know star performer to come to our proposed Christmas gig, as has been our norm, then we may well have to pay more for our tickets than before. Tracy, our revenue collector, will take cash, but the Hedsor Bar will only accept contact less payment (touch card, smart phone).

Will it be worth it? Largely that all depends on YOU.

I know that the virus hasn’t gone away. I know that most of our audience is “of a certain age”. Therefore it all has a risk level. I think an evening of jazz at the Hedsor Club looks a lot safer than Brighton beach on a bank holiday.  As I write this approximately 2 people per day die from Covid 19. 50 people per day from Cancer. I have also recently experienced dining out in 3 different places, and my experience in the bar at Hedsor was equal to the best of my dining experiences, and a lot better than one up-market place in South Bucks that was NOT socially distancing seemingly AT ALL!

If it is felt by all of you that it is worth our while organising this ticketed event, we are happy to do so. Do PLEASE LET ME KNOW via Octogeoff@outlook.com what your view on this is.

I wont write more now, but do mull this all over, and perhaps later in the week I will point you all at more jazz that is online or available via electronic means, to be enjoyed in the rich environment of your own home!

Almost Jazz from Geoff!!

Another August Bank Holiday gone bye and it was the last bank holiday before Christmas too!!

Yes, it’s that dreaded C word again. But sadly this year has been so altered by Coronavirus 19 that bank holidays don’t seem to be so important this year as so many people have been “distancing” for most of it. Christmas may be the next bright spot on the calendar.

This year most live musical events have just not happened. My usual break for Swanage hasn’t happened as there was no jazz festival, and therefore no visit to friends on Portland, which was always a pleasant bye product of a trip to Dorset.

So perhaps the next thing to look forward to IS Christmas. However I feel Christmas 2020 may not be such a joyous meeting of friends and family as it was in 2019. A Christmas Party? How big is your bubble? Christmas Shopping? Thanks be for Amazon! 

But I do need some more shoes; daily exercise does have side effects!

This week I don’t think there are a lot of jazz items to talk about. There is still plenty of music to catch up with via the internet one way or another (check back on previous blogs for links to what I have already recommended), but the camaraderie of actually meeting people and watching performance, knowing you can go and tell the performer how good they were at the end of the evening just cannot be there at the moment. “Project Fear” was well sown, and with good reason. Now we are all caught in the dilemma of staying free from a virus we can’t see and encouraging our economy back into some form of plus for effects we CAN see! So “rock” and “hard place” come to mind.

It is an irony that most jazz fans now seem to be of pensionable age, and most musicians are of working age and do need to earn a living.

Ian Wallis emailed last week to advise that Maidenheads Norden Farm ARE running a live jazz evening, BUT it may just be a streamed event. DO take a look at

https://norden.farm/events/alan-barnes-saxes-18

and let me know how you get on if you try to book. Again do so by emailing via the octogeoff@outlook.com link please.

Those of you who have read past blogs know that I suffered a flood in my garage a few weeks ago. Sadly I had 2 boxes of jazz LP’s stored waiting delivery to charitable outlets. One box was plastic, the other cardboard. Guess which one was on the floor, yes your right, the cardboard one. I have now spent a number of days separating out the very damp box of LP’s into drying cardboard and drying vinyl. Obviously all of the cardboard sleeves are damaged, but mostly they are still readable but no longer works of art. BUT the LP’s themselves are all OK. They are now dry and clean and flat. So if anyone would like to have them, then they are yours if you come and collect. Contact via octogeoff@outlook.com They are all modern jazz, and there is some wonderful stuff within. Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughn, Weather Report (which could have shouted louder to warn of the impending flood), Stan Kenton etc etc.

There are also some to play along with to enable you to practice your instrument in different keys!

Most jazz album recording dates spread from 1950 to 1980. If you have the turntable, I have the plastic (OK Vinyl). Sample of the damaged artwork below.

Finally!!

I have managed a listen to a couple of CD’s as well as some of the recently washed LP’s this week and one of them has a commonality with the great washed! Having a recording vintage the same as some of the LP’s anyway, one of my earliest Scott Hamilton CD’s (purchased when I attended The Brecon Jazz Festival) is “Tenorshoes”. With Scott on this one, recorded in 1979 with Dave McKenna on piano, Phil Flanigan bass and Jeff Hamilton on drums. It is an excellent reminder of the kind of music we took for granted in the days of old!! Yes, you could talk to these very talented American jazz musicians there too and they in their turn were very pleased to talk to us British jazz fans. The tune list is probably also from days of old too. “The Shadow of Your Smile”, “The Nearness of You”, “My Foolish Heart” all have a fresh sounding Scott playing melodic yet swinging jazz, ably supported by his trio.

Scott was at the 2019 Swanage Jazz Festival, but sadly wasn’t enabled to play at his best by being coupled with a lady pianist/singer who really thought SHE was the star. Back in the day when Swanage Jazz used the Victoria Club, he was able to shine, alongside a lady who has shone for us many times at Hedsor Jazz, Tina May!

Just to prove that Hedsor Jazz has run some wonderful memorable sessions, this one from my collection has Tina May alongside the late Duncan Lamont at our Christmas party in 2017. 

And below is a general view of the band and some of the audience

We WILL RETURN, but until then, STAY SAFE. 

 Sad News

One of Britain's Jazz Greats, saxophonist Peter King, has just passed away. 

See more via

https://londonjazznews.com/2020/08/24/rip-peter-king-1940-2020/

 Just an addendum.

In case the names of Sundays performers have slipped your mind or you couldn't identify them from the photos!

On Reeds Mike Wills

On Keyboard Ken McCarthy 

On Bass, Roger Davis

On Drums and announcements as ever Martin Hart

It was a real treat to see, hear and talk with them again. 

 

Jazz from Geoff...THE BLOG 

I have to tell you, that in the last 2 days, I have actually seen and heard some LIVE JAZZ!

Great Hampton Cricket Club isn’t a well know jazz venue, and it IS seemingly in the middle of nowhere, so it IS socially distant! But on Sunday afternoon it missed all the showers and hosted some live jazz performed by what looked like one of the versions of “The Clive Burton Celebration Quartet”.

It was so refreshing to hear the Hedsor style of jazz again, and to meet a few of the Hedsor Jazz faithful once again. It was organised by The Speen Committee for the support of local Hospices. I guess around 100 people came, and as we were asked to donate £10 each for our afternoon, I guess they have raised a good sum of money for these charitable causes.

 Photos from  Mrs Wilkins, Mr Swaffield, and myself .

There is still very little more to say about live jazz at Hedsor. We still wait and see if and when the government think it can be allowed, and if a yes is heard, then we will run a trial as required by the government to test our ability to meet all the rules.

It will of course still need an audience who are prepared to come INDOORS to listen to live jazz.

Now on to “other things”.

My garage is, as of today, back in operation as a workshop following from the flood. Hooray! When working in there, I have the ability to listen to all kinds of music on all kinds of media, and today I rediscovered a tape with some Roy Williams on it. 

My collection of tapes, and some LP’s were some of the items affected by the water, and I have been going through the driest bits of the tapes out there, and the Roy Williams is a gem. Recorded in 1980 with The Eddie Thompson Trio it was first issued (in the form I have it on tape) as an LP. 

I have now researched my CD collection and discovered that it was reissued on CD (with some missing tracks) alongside another with those missing tracks and a few more. It/they are a wonderful exploration of Roy’s trombone ability. I have lost count of the number of times I have listened to Roy live. He has played Hedsor a number of times, and it is very sad that a stroke has curtailed his playing. But these 1980 recordings are well worth seeking out to remind you of the great player he was, with Alex Welsh, Humphrey Lyttleton and John Barnes to name just some of the musicians I saw him with, as well as of course Clive Burton and The Quintet.. Artwork for each below. They are HEP CD 2007 and HEP CD 2015.

 

Prior to my listen to Roy Williams I played a compilation of music that I made initially for the late Harriet Wilson from her collection of 45’s. No, not of jazz, but of the sort of music she liked as a teenager. “Right Said Fred”, “Hole in the Ground”, Je T’aime,..Moi Non Plus” (which I think was band from the BBC as someone was getting breathless!!), and “Lady Godiva” are all included, plus some Beatles tracks. A wide variety that excluded jazz completely. Yet, I remembered them, and the Bernard Cribbins ones are classics of their type. So a bit of nostalgia, which WAS then followed by the Roy Williams from the first CD above.

For those of you who have downloaded recordings via my DropBox account in the past please be aware that I have had to change my password as someone has started sending out a link to a PDF file that isn’t open able that purports to come form me. This isn’t associated with me, and to be safe (from maybe a different sort of virus) if you have received a message like that please delete it and do an antivirus scan.

Again, if you do wish to comment or communicate with me over this blog or Hedsor Jazz please use the email address below.

 

Octogeoff@outlook.com