A Blog a week, helps you work, rest, and ??????? Well I hope it’s not sleep!

This weeks bit of light script is slightly later than usual, I have just come back from a funeral. I know it has been said before, even probably by me, but why is it you learn so much more about a friend when they have departed the friendship! Again it was true today, and what is even sadder is that we had so much more in common than I knew about! It just goes to prove yet again that we must all make the most of this life whilst we have it.

And for a jazz fan that is also true for this weeks gig. We have someone coming to play that I have known for many years, have listened to often, but maybe I should get to know even better.

Our saxophonist guest this week (Thursday 26th September) is Al Nicholls. I first met Al when he played the Cookham Tavern! OK you can still go to that building, but all you’ll get now is Costa Coffee ! Al is a real Jump Jive saxophonist, a really exciting payer, and Jan Burton will love him because he is also Welsh! He was also on the live tribute album to Keith Vitty recorded at Norden farm, and if you don’t have a copy of that, see me after class!

Next to him at the front will be trombone player Nick Mills, on his second visit to Hedsor Jazz. During the interval on his first visit he was amazed to see a flying stag beetle. He then realised that Hedsor was a bit different from Ealing!

If that wasn’t enough to get you to part with £7, we have Esther Ng on bass. Esther is a find for us Hedsor jazz fans, and this will only be her third visit. BUT don’t miss it, because she plays bass like a true percussionist!

As a reminder as to who is in the rest of the band, we have Nigel Fox on keyboards and Martin Hart on drums.

We will celebrate October (on the 3rd) by having “The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet” in our midst again. Yes, Mike Wills will be joining us again on reeds, with Lester brown on trumpet and our bass player will be Peter Hughes (hot from his gig with Cookham’s Fabulous Shirtlifter’s…ask him about THE experience)!

Last weeks gig had Lester on Trumpet with Kelvin Christiane on reeds,and our bass player was Terry Davis. A good, free flowing jazz evening, where I thought we had some fine tunes and solos. Kelvin's partner Lesley also sang for us in the second set.

I am always in a quandary to know "should I record it", (usually for my own amusement , but I always pass on any recording I make to the those actually playing). Sadly this time I didn't.

All in all  it was a very pleasant way to pass the time until the next Brexit headline causes the anger to rise again! (No I didn't rush home and tune in to the news)!

Photos from last week are below.

Some weeks ago I pulled out of the collection of CD’s that get taken to (and very occasionally, sold, at Hedsor) a CD that had obviously been overlooked by the browsers. A very ordinary cover design, a bass player humping a bass over a bridge. The Cover told me that this was Gerald Cannon’s Combinations! So whilst I was working in my garage, I put it on! What a bass player he is. This is his first recording in 14 years and was released in 2017.

Until I became friends with the late Ken Rankine I didn’t pay much attention to bass players, well I played trumpet in the era of the tea chest bass. I will hasten to add however that I played in that era, but not in a band with one! But becoming a friend of Ken’s opened my ears a bit more as to what a bass player can do for a jazz ensemble. From then on, I listened more carefully to some of the recordings I had, and began to sort the wheat from the chaff. No it definitely isn’t polite to talk during a bass solo! And during everyone else’s playing, they (the bass player) is adding to the content all of the time. Key, emphasis, timing, there is a lot more to it than the space to talk to your beer mate!

So I was delighted to listen to the various ensembles, the combinations, made up from different musicians who had played with Gerald in the past. I would rate this CD now as one of the best of recent years. On 3 of the tracks the pianist is Kenny Barron. Oh, and if you really want to hear how entertaining a jazz bass can be, listen to the 5 minute solo (yes, 5 MINUTES) on “Darn that Dream”. No you cant now buy my copy of this CD, but you can seek out your own from Woodneck Records  8 88295 56035 7. Oh, the sleeve notes are by Ron Carter by the way.

Enough, I must go and lie down to get ready for dinner!

The blog is a little earlier than usual this week, as tomorrow I have the exciting prospect of being kitted out (wired up) with a 24 hour ECG monitor! One then has to “carry on as normal”, which may not be quite as “normal” as normal!

Wires were a little controversial at last weeks Hedsor Jazz session. The connection from Nigel’s keyboard to our PA came under threat from various feet, and in the end had to be protected by a chair!

Last week was a very melodic and joyful session (apart from Nigel’s concerns on his “connections”). Max Brittain and Alan Grahame produced a relaxed Modern sound (it was Modern in the 1950’s) which gained good applause.

Also getting her fair share of praise was bassist Esther Ng. A really wonderful find. I had not heard her before and the good reports of her visit in July were no exaggeration. She was a genuine part of the percussive effect during her solos, often matching Alan’s use of percussion as an accompaniment. I knew she has a medical background, but she is a genuine PhD, specialising in epigenetics. She also plays keyboard and violin! COOOOOR! I look forward to seeing her at Hedsor Jazz again on September 26th.

My pictures from the night are below:

One of our other “fav” bass players, Steve Riddle, has again had a bit more of a problem! Just as he thought he was going to be able to do gigs again now he has a car, he has found that his bass is damaged and in need of serious repair. Let’s hope he can manage to get it all done soon.

Next Thursday we have “our” Lester Brown on trumpet with saxophonist Kelvin Christiane on reeds, and our bass player will be Terry Davis. Nigel Fox will be on keys and Martin Hart will be on drums. So don’t miss out, come along, bring a few friends, and we can have a ball! All for just £7.

Last week I came across an unusual CD. Recently we have had Duke Ellington more in the foreground. In August we had Sarah Moule expounding “The Genius of Duke Ellington” and in one of the last weeks of the proms we had a performance of Ellington’s “Concert of Sacred Music”.

Then I found another cd of Ellington music, again a “Tribute to Ellington” (the cd title) BUT performed by one of classical music’s famed conductors. The man playing the piano, with his picture on the front cover is…Daniel Barenboim!

He is with a very competent bunch of musicians as you would expect, but Jazz Musician!

Dianne Reeves provides the vocals, and the clarinet solos are by Don Byron.

It was a shock to see it, and I listened with some apprehension, as I had never heard that Mr Barenboim was a jazz player at all. But he does very well, and even plays a solo piano piece at the end called “Fast and Furious”.

It was issued at the end of 1999, and has taken this long to reach my awareness, but it IS worth seeking out. It’s on the TelDec label as 3984-25252-2

See you all on Thursday, but which time I will be WIRELESS!

Good Tuesday to all who Jazz.

Coming to Hedsor Jazz this week we have 3 good reasons for you to come and spend your £7 on our entry fee.

1. On Vibes our dear friend Alan Grahame
2. On guitar our dear friend Max Brittain
3. On bass our new friend Esther Ng

They will have the support of Nigel Fox on keyboard and Martin Hart on drums. It should be a really tuneful and melodic evening. Both Alan and Max have spent a lifetime in the music industry and are both expert in their respective crafts.

Esther I missed on her first visit to Hedsor Jazz, but I am assured she is well worth the evening away from the TV. Apparently she is a worker in the Health Industry, and has been playing the bass for over 7 years. I heard the word “amazing” being used about her and her performance on her first visit to Hedsor in July.

Last week we had with us for the first time in a number of months what we call “The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet”. It was really good to have Lester Brown and Mike Wills back in front of our rhythm section again, which last week also had a bass player new to Hedsor. He will be back, as we enjoyed his playing, AND he enjoyed being with us. So look out for ROGER DAVIS in future blogs.

The band brought a number of quite tricky arrangements with them last week, and it looked challenging. However, talking with Nigel afterwards he relished this challenge, as sometimes  he gets bored with playing the same tunes repeatedly on the various gigs he plays in a week.

My photos from last week are below.

Last week I distributed round Hedsor Club our gig list for September and October. If you haven’t got one and would like to print one off, I will put it as a pdf file in my DropBox folder. Here is the link you will need.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1gqkz6nrdwvh6pa/HEDSOR%20JAZZ%20gigs%20sept%20oct.pdf?dl=0

Copy and paste this into your internet search engine and it should allow you to download the file.

OK, time for more stimulants! Well, coffee is isn’t it?

TTFN

Geoff

Doesn’t time fly by when your having fun? Blog day already, and I have nearly missed it.

However there are things one doesn’t want to miss, like the last post (GPO of course, not the one with epitaphs)! My eldest granddaughter started teaching at a school in Birmingham this week, so we have  had to catch a couple of posts in order to wish her well, and to send a “welcome to your new home” kind of thing. SO here is another, the tradition of writing my blog on a Tuesday, before Tuesday becomes Wednesday!

Last weeks session at Hedsor Jazz, with Stuart Henderson and Kelvin Christiane was another of Hedsor Jazz’s sessions that you could describe as “faultless”. I never cease to be amazed at the quality of the jazz that we now regularly get at Hedsor. Stuart is a star still climbing into the firmament, but he does shine brightly. Kelvin is another of those relatively local musicians who has a tremendous reputation, but not nearly enough fame.

Stuart remarked towards the end of last weeks session that the tune they were about to play had been written by a musician who left the business to become an accountant! Yes, I knew one too. He gave up being a concert pianist to do the accounts with Lord Stokes!! When I last saw him ten years ago I asked him what he was doing now. “Looking after the financial interests of certain African countries” was his reply. Must beat hell out of a Rachmaninov Piano Concerto!

Well Stuart and Kelvin worked wonders for us last week, accompanied by the Hedsor “usual suspects”. My pictures of them are below.

Coming to us this week (September 5th) we have “The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet”. Yes, Mike Wills is mobile again so we have our read section back, and alongside him our new(ish!) brass player, Lester Brown. Martin Hart will be on drums, Nigel Fox on keys, and a different Davis on the bass, this time Roger Davis.

Hedsor Jazz has been at The Hedsor Club since 2002. We have seen many changes, both of personnel, and of the premises themselves. We used to meet in the bar, which was very cosy, but had limited seating, some of it very orange, and last week Clive’s Jan gave me a 10 year old photo of me sitting in that bar. Behind me on the very mock Tudor bar can be seen the CD’s For Sale, something we still do. Now CD’s are not such a valuable asset as once they were. Nowadays many people like to stream their music. Personally I still love to actually own the material I want to listen to, whether it is LP, Cassette tape, or CD. I also like to listen to Jazz Record requests on Radio 3 on a Saturday afternoon. One gets to hear music one hasn’t heard before, as well as some you have in your own collection, and I think there is a feeling of community about it all.

Of course, none of the above mentioned means of listening beat hearing music live. Each session different from the last one or the next one. I can now report that we will be carrying on with Jazz at the Hedsor Club through the rest of 2019 and throughout 2020. Jazz Angels (who underwrite the jazz at Hedsor), met with Hedsor ’s management recently and agreed a forward plan. We are very much wanted at Hedsor. There are always “but’s”, and everyone’s costs do go up, but we do have an assurance that our presence at the Hedsor Club is very much wanted. So do support our efforts, no matter who is playing. If you want a special musician  to come and play at Hedsor, maybe someone we haven’t had before, and you are prepared to sponsor that musician, then please speak to either John Dutton, Martin Hart or myself, and we will see what we can do.

In the meantime just come and enjoy the music, the free car park, the club facilities and the ambience of our special Thursday nights. Oh, I haven’t mentioned the raffle. Yes we still have a fun free raffle, but only for as long as you bring the prizes yourselves!

Michael, keeper of the raffle

A CORRECTION!!

This week, August 29th, the saxophonist partnering Stuart Henderson will NOT be Tolly, but multi saxophone player Kelvin Christiane. 

Kelvin on a previous Hedsor visit

Kelvin and Stuart

I was probably living in the past, or maybe in the future! Kelvin is another long time supporter of Hedsor Jazz and another busy man who runs his own big band and jazz club. Do come along and see if he emulates Roland Kirk!

I write this as the temperature goes past 80 Deg C on my (old) room thermometer. I am late writing today, as we have just had our boiler serviced. Some kind of contradiction there!

BUT there was another sort of “contra” at Hedsor Jazz last week! A contra alto clarinet!

Last weeks session featured “our” trumpeter Lester Brown, with a fairly frequent friend, saxophonist Mark Aston. After half time Mark produced a very strange looking instrument (as you will see from my photos). It was a clarinet, but it blew deeper notes than a bass clarinet, and was called a contra alto clarinet.

Very fortunately, during the one tune it was played on, Lester took a short video of Mark playing it, and this will be included in this blog posting.

The rest of the band deserve having their photo published too, so here they are

There may well be a different kind of temperature this coming Thursday, August 29th as our guests this week are Stuart Henderson on trumpet and “Tolly” on saxophone. Another of Hedsor’s sessions not to be missed!

We are fortunate in getting Stuart to come to Hedsor fairly often, but his companion this week is also a very busy man and it is a delight to get him to play with his long time associate Stuart. Do look up his CV (and his full name) via this link:-

https://dirtybootsalbum.com/anatoliy-vyacheslavov

Mind you Stuart is busy man too, with his lead role in “The Remix” big band, and numerous club appearances. Another good friend of Hedsor Jazz.

This session on August 29th is being SPONSORED. If YOU would like to put your money (where your mouth is?) into paying for a session of your choice, then do speak to John Dutton or Martin Hart, or even me, and we can see what we can do to arrange YOUR session.

Our first gig for September (5th) features “OUR” band, The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet, with Lester Brown and MIKE WILLS. Don’t miss this one either!

Are you aware by the way that if you actually become a member of The Hedsor Club, you will get a reduced bar bill, do check it out.

As the temperature is now climbing (yes the boiler has now been tested!), I will finish for this week. Perhaps you can remember to record BBC 4 on Friday 6th September for Duke Ellington’s Concert of Sacred Music. A rare chance to hear this work. If any musician would like to put together an ensemble to perform this locally, I do have the score!!

The Jazz at Hedsor Jazz this week brings back our very own Lester Brown on trumpet alongside Mark Aston on various saxophones. This is a very practised (and comfortable) combination as they have played for us a number of times before as a duo in front of our rhythm section, and they also play together in “another” band. Yes, it is a more traditional sound (but not “trad jazz”) and enhances the variety of jazz sounds that Hedsor Jazz provides you with.

This week our backing keyboard player will be Ken McCarthy (who has been heard to say “I don’t play trad”)!

Last week (pictures below) demonstrated yet again the versatility of not only Hedsor Jazz, but of the musicians themselves, no matter what their age. Al Nicholls used to play for the band as a dep back in the days of Keith Vitty in “The Cookham Tavern” (no, don’t go looking for it, it is now Costa’s in Cookham). THAT was in the late 20th century! The other Al on our bill last week was a true veteran of British Jazz, Alan Grahame. They both played there socks of for us last week, Alan on vib’s and various percussive instruments and Al playing that fiery sax sound he and his band “Blue Harlem” are renowned for.

The Bass Player was Terry Davis

 

When packing up (and a vibraphone takes a lot of packing up) Alan said “I’m sorry for the odd senior moment, but that’s to be expected at my age”! Truly remarkable for a man for whom we celebrated a life in jazz 5 years ago at Hedsor when he was only 90!

Re: Al.
I do hope by now that you have all purchased from him the CD of him alongside Jo Fooks. Produced on the “Harlem Records” label it is a worthwhile addition to anyone’s jazz library. With them both on tenor saxes we have Ted Beament on piano, Val Manix on bass and Buster Birch on drums. Jo of course was one of the mainstays of the later Humphrey Lyttleton Band (as was Ted Beament). Sadly Jo was out of the jazz scene for over 16 months from 2013 as she very unfortunately became afflicted with Bell’s Palsy. This new release with Al more than demonstrates that she is well and truly back to top form. The CD is called “Just You Just Me, and is on harlcd12. Try www.alnicholls.co.uk if you want another copy.

One final point this week, just in case I forget to mention it in September, but on September 6th there will be a broadcast recording on BBC4 of a late night Prom featuring the music of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts. The actual Prom is on 29th August, please see

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e5mz3d  for more detail.

NOW it’s back to my day job of being retired. For those young enough to worry about this, it does not mean you’re a retread!

POSTSCRIPT

We did beat them to it, but we called it "The Genius of Duke Ellington":-

21 August at the 606 Club, Sarah Moule will be performing music by Ellington and Strayhorn, with Simon Wallace, Dave Bitelli and Mick Hutton

But if you want to see it all again, now you know where to go, courtesy of The LondonJazz News!

Do remember that Hedsor Jazz gives you free parking and club bar prices, which are even cheaper if you join Hedsor Club!

Another Thursday rushes toward us at the speed of…….OK, it is minute by minute and hour by hour, but  the last few weeks have all been a bit of a blur. However, I intend to get into focus for this coming Thursday because it has 2 great friends coming to play Hedsor Jazz for us this week. Al Nicholls on tenor sax, and Alan Grahame on vibes, along with Martin Hart on drums (as always), Nigel Fox on keyboard and I think it will be Terry Davis on bass. I don’t think that any of the Hedsor Faithful need any words added to either the names of Al of Alan to encourage you to come out. They are already “legends”! (BUT they do exist)!

Whilst I ponder the word “bass”, have any of you caught up with the YouTube video of “Post Modern Jukebox” and their version of “All About the Bass”? No, then go do so. It is musically (and visually) very enjoyable!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLnZ1NQm2uk

Last week I was missing from the throng of Hedsor Jazz as they listened to Duncan Lamont Jnr with Andy Gibson on trumpet, but our sound engineer Geoff Swaffield did take some photos for me, and they are below.

I have had time this week to reflect on August 1st’s session with Sarah Moule and “The Genius of Duke Ellington” and it has certainly made me revisit my collection of Ellington recordings. Not all of his music was issued on records. He made many recordings of his orchestra in rehearsal and for his own use. Neither have all of his tunes have become well known or are even played today. Some of these Duke Ellington private recordings have made there way into the public domain and I did look out some recorded in the 1966-67 playing year. Duke was asked to write the music for a play called “The Jaywalker” written by former film star Barbara Waring (later Lady Conlife). It was due to be performed in Coventry Cathedral in 1997, and he recorded his music for it on March 23rd. I don’t know if this play ever actually got perfomed, but the music, or at least some of the tunes for it, have now found there way onto a storyville cd (101 8390).

Below is an enlarged view of the cover, with ALL of the tune titles!

On this cd are also other bits of music recorded, at the Duke’s own expense, for his own reasons, which have, by and large, never before been heard. There is even an example of how a tune may have been rehearsed, including vocal direction and humming from the orchestra (“Tin Soldier“). The orchestra is as of the period, with some of the great names still very evidently playing in it. Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Paul Gonsalves, Lawrence Brown are all evident. It is well worth seeking out, even if just for its interest value. The only tune on it that I have ever heard before is “Blood Count”, but there are some excellent tune titles…”Chromatic Love Affair”, “The B.O. of Traffic”, and 25 seconds of “Cross Climax”. Maybe he had heard of the Coventry Climax range of engines! Yes, OK, I had a Hillman Imp!

TTFN