Good Morning Jazz lovers.

A short message this morning just to keep you all blogged!

Hedsor Jazz now has one of the inevitable long breaks caused by the result of dropping down from jazz every week at The Hedsor Bar to jazz on the second and fourth Thursday of every month.

Why?

Well April is a five Thursday month!! Our next jazz night at Hedsor is on May 14^th when we will team up with Lester Brown and James Fenn. OK, after the long gap it will be a bit like a Big Breakfast, music for the starving. But with Lester on trumpet and the occasional vocal (well he does use his voice) and guitarist James (who doesn’t, well, not yet anyway) it should be a very entertaining evening.

Lester and James in March 2025

 

Last Thursday we really didn’t know what to expect. A Father and son combination where we had only heard the father before.

But our session with Mark Ridout on guitar and Tom Ridout on saxophone, with guest keyboard player Nigel Fox, plus Al Pirrie on bass and Mike Jeffries on drums we had an astounding evening of wonderful jazz. The opening tunes for each set were spine tingling. 

The first tune of the evening was an original by Tom called “Up For The Kettle”, and we in the audience new straight away that we were in for a very special evening.

Could they better that?

Well, to start off the second set they played “All Blues” by Miles Davis. MAGIC.

My ordinary pictures are below!

 

Due to the long intermission at Hedsor I thought I would write again a bit about something from my record collection.

One of the stars of the British Jazz Scene during my lifetime has been the clarinettist Sandy Brown.

He had a unique sound that was always identifiable. He came from a traditional jazz background, but was truly a mainstream and innovaltive player. 

I have seen him play live and listened to him on LP since the mid 1950’s.

One of his first LP releases was on the Pye label and was significant not only for him and his band, (which included another unique voice in trumpeter Al Fairweather), but a significant record for British Jazz called “McJazz”.

In that album he recorded a tune he had composed celebrating the Birth of the country of Ghana in 1957 and he called it “Go Ghana”. 

Yes, somewhere in my loft is that LP, but more immediately playable is a Lake CD called “McJazz and Friends”, which has all of this release, plus a number of others that were released on the Tempo label around the time of the “McJazz” release. It is all wonderful music. 

Sadly Sandy Brown died in 1975 whilst sitting in his favourite chair watching a Scotland rugby match at home on TV.

His legacy is still vibrant, and I suggest you go and buy this CD! The first 7 tracks are from that famous LP!

McJazz and Friends, Lake LAC58

 

 A Small Error

Mark Ridout has been with us this year!! He was with us alongside Bruce Adams on February 12th!! How could I (how did I!) forget? I was even there and took some photos!!

Geoff C

Another Tuesday Blog from Geoff

But this time with some great Thursday Jazz to look forward too, and with a very special Sunday Morning Jazz Worship coming this Sunday also on the horizon!

For Hedsor Jazz this Thursday, April 23^rd we are delighted that we have a return to Hedsor of a really great guitarist, Mark Ridout.

I don’t think we have had Mark at Hedsor since 2024 when on both his visits that year he played alongside saxophonist Frank Walden. This time he is coming with his son, Tom Ridout, another saxophonist. Nothing like keeping it in the family!

On his previous visits Mark astonished us by his skill and ability to generate exciting solos, so I’m looking forward to the first of this years visits with eager anticipation.

Do look son Tom up https://tomridoutmusic.com/  

Yet again Hedsor Jazz will have an award winning musician to entertain us. One day (if we gain some sponsorship money) we will put on an evening with more than one award winning jazz musician.

Hedsor Regulars will know that we already do some of this in a little jazz venue like Hedsor Jazz! You only have to look at our bill of fare to realise we have masters of music and award winners with us every year.

 

Mark Ridout

 

For our first gig in May we welcome the return of Lester Brown on trumpet, this time teamed up with another guitarist who has been associated with Hedsor Jazz as long as I have, James Fenn! SO put May 14^th firmly into your diary.

Just to keep you aware of some of our future dates, below is a current gig list. Please print and display if and where you can. Many thanks.

 

Sunday April 26^th Cores End Church have invited us to lead a jazz orientated service. So from 10.30 am you will be able to hear singer Gill Cook, saxophonist Martin Dunsdon, pianist Ken McCarthy, bass player Peter Hughes and drummer Mike Jeffries. Together they will perform some interesting songs including “Everything Must Change”, “I Think its Going to Rain Today”, and “You Must Believe in Spring”. It’s free entry for “Jazz goes to Church”. Don’t look at me because the idea came from Duke Ellington, who in 1966 initiated the first of his “Concerts of Sacred Music”. OK that was done in a cathedral with a full 16 piece orchestra, a choir and a tap dancer! None of those will be at Cores End on Sunday! (to my knowledge!).

 

Gill Cook and Peter Hughes at Christ Church Marlow

Do let others know by sending a link to this blog to your friends

 

Photos and more next week,

 

Geoff C

No Jazz at Hedsor this week.

But the past week has been memorable.

Last Thursday singer Jennie Howe with partner and trumpeter Simon Gardner so enjoyed there time at Hedsor Jazz that they have already asked to come again! Watch this space, BUT they are already on our Christmas list!

Jennie gave voice to some well know songs, linking them together with her Irish lilt and she finishing the evening all off with “Route 66”. It’s a tune not played that often at Hedsor, but many years ago at Norden Farm in the tribute concert to the late Keith Vitty, it was the last song of that evening too! 

My pictures are below.

 

On Sunday last, at a strange time for a jazz event (5.30pm) Christ Church Marlow hosted a concert to raise money for Ukraine. As you may recall both Christ Church in Marlow and Maidenhead URC have joined together in fund raising and have sent out over 80 lorry loads of aid for the people of Ukraine since the war there started 4 years ago. On Sunday, the Ukrainian Solidarity Jazz band played from the heart, and raised another £1000 for that cause. The music (not all jazz! Some of it was Ukrainian folk music) was superb. From a jazz supporters perspective a number of things stood out. The house piano (a Beckstein!) was played by Maff Potts, and he and the piano were excellent. He is someone I hadn’t come across before, but will look out for in the future.

For jazz songs the singer was Fleur Stevenson and she was also excellent. The musicians did draw the audience together at the end with a couple of surprise end tunes. “Route 66” being one! So I heard it twice in a week! This performance was very bluesy and with a rocking vocal that even included a harmonica. As a finale they all joined together in “I Wish I Knew How it Would feel to be Free”. It was a great evening of entertainment and I think it did give real joy to the audience.

The church’s half time refreshments, all included in your £10 ticket price, were also very generous and included a free glass of wine as well as nibbles. A few pics from my phone are below.

 

The performers are listed below:-

Fleur Stevenson, Steve Foster, Maff Potts, Steve Kershaw, Robert Otwinowski, Ben Robins, and Kirilo Avilov.

 

It was one of those evening you could go to out of a willingness to support a good cause and to be part of a social event. BUT by the end you knew that you have enjoyed a great evening out. Those two finale numbers had the church audience yelling for more!! Well done Marlow.

Coming to Hedsor Jazz next time (April 23^rd) we have a superb guitarist, Mark Ridout. Previously he has come alongside saxophonist Frank Walden. This time it is a purely family affair, as he will be playing alongside his son, saxophonist Tom Ridout. Make sure that day is in your diary.

 

If you have only ever heard of Hedsor Jazz but have never been, you wont realise what quality music we have been listening to. Do look at our upcoming gigs (poster below) and try us out. For those of you who are regular attendees you know already what quality jazz we produce. Thank you for your support. We could do with a few more in our audience, so do encourage your friends to give us a try.

It could change there approach to Thursday nights forever!

 

Thinking of Jazz in Church I am running another of my “Jazz goes to Church” mornings on Sunday 26^th April at Cores End United Reformed Church from 10.30 am. Check the venue via Post Code SL8 5HZ.

Playing secular songs that make you think, (especially on a Sunday morning) will be Ken McCarthy, Gill Cook, Martin Dunsdon, Peter Hughes and Mike Jeffries.

If you are free, why not come along, it is after all, FREE!

Geoff C

  

Todays Blog comes after a bank holiday, in a week where we do have real jazz at Hedsor, AND today the sun is shinning!! 

The music for the jazz at Hedsor this week comes from singer/actress Jenny Howe (who wowed the audience at our Christmas concert) who will be accompanied by her partner, trumpeter Simon Gardner. As usual, our trio of Ken McCarthy, Al Pirrie and Mike Jeffries will be behind them all the way. 

I also have heard it rumoured that Duncan Lamont (with us 2 weeks ago) may well come and join in as well! A trio of friends in front of our trio!!

A very entertaining evening is therefore in prospect this Thursday April 9^th. Usual start time of 8pm, usual cash entry charge of £12

Pictures from a previous outing to Hedsor Jazz by Jenny and Co. Are below.

 

Two weeks ago we had another combination of singer and trumpet player AND Duncan Lamont, only this time the singer and trumpeter were the same person. Karl Charity sang, and for one tune played a trumpet. A suave evening of entertainment in a very cabaret style.

My pictures of that evening are below.

 

This weekend there is another opportunity to support live jazz AND support aid to Ukraine as well.

Christ Church Marlow is giving a performance by The Ukraine Solidarity Jazz Band on Sunday at 5.30pm. See the link https://www.christchurch-marlow.org.uk/music-in-christ-church and the clip from their web page reproduced below

 

That’s 2 good reasons for you to go out Sunday evening. In one move you can support live jazz and  Ukraine as well!! You will also be supporting an organisation that promotes live music. And none of it will be any sort of chore!

In Next weeks blog I will write again about the records listened to in my past. The formulative years of listening.

As last time, “but for now....”

 

But do check out the words of the song!

 

Geoff 

A little reminder for today’s blog is that there is no live jazz at The Hedsor Bar this Thursday.

Since the beginning of the year when we decided that we would run jazz at Hedsor only twice a month (on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month) I have been pondering on what to interest my blog readers with in the weeks when no live jazz is on.

Over recent years the blog fell into a pattern of what it was like, with photos to prove it, last week, and what it will be like (again with photos to hope with) for next week.

With now a week between each live jazz event, I have fallen into the habit of showing the last events photos twice!

Well, last weeks event will have its photos published NEXT WEEK. As will the “hopefully to come” pictures to entice you to the next event! 

Looking back over the years I can see that I used to write more often about recorded jazz than I have done recently. I thought it might be an idea to do that again a bit more often, so for this week I am going to write a bit about my early listening years with two released cd’s that can back that up.

My early listening years (after the period of “The Teddy Bears Picnic” on 78 records via a wind up Gramophone) was via a pre war valve radio (which was probably a fire hazard), that was used in my bedroom at the top of an Edwardian House in Hammersmith. 

Following the program “The Man in Black”, a series of spine tingling mystery stories brought to you BY The Man in Black (Valentine Dyall) at about 9pm on the “Home Service”, came “Kenny Bakers Dozen”. This was a superb jazz program broadcast live until about 10 pm. It was led by extrovert trumpet player Kenny Baker. His band was largely made up of big band musicians who played a semi arranged form of modern jazz. This program ran from 1952 until 1958. It was a great introduction to the modern jazz repertoire and it gave a good grounding in the form of music that ran in parallel with the form of traditional jazz that was just about to sweep the country, TRAD!

A great example of the music played can be found on a Vocalion CD CDNJT 5305 ”Kenny Baker Presents”, recordings made in thhe 1950's with musicians like trombonist George Chisholm, drummer Eric Delaney, and Saxophonist Harry Klein. It was a great grounding in “modern” jazz music, although I still also followed revivalist jazz. This did morph into Trad eventually and for a few years in the early 60's was "popular"! Go and listen to the difference between Humphrey Lyttelton’s band of the time and Chris Barbers recordings.

 

In the days of the 78rpm record, my listening had been mostly confined to the music of Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings, albeit now driven by electricity.         

These dribbled into the UK market as single 78’s. They were studio recordings made around 1925 to 1929.

They were recordings not made by a working band stepping of the road into a recording studio they happened to be passing, but by a band pianist Lil Harding put together purely for recording purposes. She was convinced that Louis (her husband at the time) was going places, and wanted to ensure she was part of the journey! 

Fortunately electric recording techniques were just coming in and the recordings became classics. Tunes like “Muskrat Ramble”, “Cornet Chop Suey”, “Big Butter and Egg Man” all became famous and were famously replicated by the trad jazz players of the 1950’s and 60's.

I’m sure many trad jazz players at the time didn’t understand those titles either, which meant that the audience couldn’t possibly have done! For example, the song “Big Butter and Egg Man” referred to a rich farmer at the time, and how beneficial it would be to be married to one! “I want a Big Butter and Egg Man”!

There is a great 4 cd release around of the complete Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings for you to investigate. Columbia Legacy Jazz C4K 63527

Just to wet your apetite we dont have either Louis Armstrong or Kenny Baker coming for our next gig at Hedsor, but we do have a trumpet player, Simon Gardner.

A Late in the day blog

But one in a week that does have LIVE JAZZ at The Hedsor Bar THIS THURSDAY.

The reason for the late bit is over the past weekend we travelled to Stratford on Avon for my Great Granddaughters christening! And being as she is a great granddaughter, there was a greater family to mix with, so we stayed over in “The Swan’s Nest Hotel”, right on the waterside. We also had a late Sunday Roast in “The Garrick”, all of which can be highly recommended.

Today we met up with some friends we made first in 1963, so it has been a long lunch!

This Thursday at Hedsor Jazz we have that great saxophonist Duncan Lamont Jr playing in front of “our” rhythm section of Ken McCarthy, Al Pirrie and Mike Jeffries. BUT he is also going to play alongside a gifted musician who hasn’t been to Hedsor before, singer/trumpeter Karl Charity. 

So we expect you all to come! After all with a £12 cash entry and free car parking there is nothing stopping you!

For our last Hedsor Jazz session we had the privilege of that Master of Music Vasilis Xenopoulos play for us. A superb session that was further enhanced by having Alam Nathoo join Vasilis on saxophone for 3 tunes in the second set.

Two tenors for your £12! What an exchange rate! That session just enhanced the reputation of Hedsor Jazz as being a first class jazz music venue.

Pictures below. For the music, you just have to be part of the audience!

 

For those of you reading this who haven’t actually listened to Alam yet, let me copy a bit from 2009’s London Jazz News.

Trinity College of Music describe the Isabelle Bond Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Performance 2009 as the “pinnacle of the College’s competition calendar”. The competition was held at St John’s, Smith Square on September 16th. And it was won by jazz saxophonist Alam Nathoo, a postgrad at Trinity, previously at Guildhall, and a member of Tomorrows Warriors Jazz Orchestra. He has Tanzanian roots. Hongera!

Here’s the interesting bit:

-none of the jurors was a jazz specialist
-both Simon Purcell (Head of jazz at Trinity) and the college’s press officer whom I spoke to were convinced this is the first time this top prize has gone to a jazz musician.
-Simon Purcell told me “He’s a very fine saxophone player, what more can I say. And he won this prize against other artists of international reputation.”

Since then he has taken on the business of business, being managing director of his late fathers company. For us at Hedsor Jazz it means we get this prize winner whenever he fancies walking to us from his home in Bourne End!

He will be with us again on July 9th when he will play alongside trumpeter Steve Waterman.

Vasilis had asked to play alongside Alam. They had never met before, but they WILL meet (at Hedsor Jazz) AGAIN! WATCH THIS SPACE.

But for now let me say....

Goodnight!

PS look up the highlighted words and you will see the lyrics of a Jamie Cullum song!

Good Morning Jazz Fans

And is that bright orb shining though my window actually THE SUN??

My weekly blog/chat is a day late this week, but it is still in time to remind you that Hedsor Jazz now runs on the second and fourth Thursday of each month, not weekly as last year. This is sad, but it has meant that we are able to carry on bringing you the best of British jazz.

And to prove the point our next jazz at Hedsor is on March 26^th, when we will have saxophone star Duncan Lamont Jr teamed together with trumpet player and vocal star Karl Charity. Do check out his web site

https://www.karlcharity.co.uk/

Duncan has brought us some great jazz players with him in his previous visits to Hedsor Jazz, and this looks like being another. Come along, it is only £12 to get in (OK, it has to be cash I’m afraid), and there is club priced drinks and free car parking to add to the friendly atmosphere.

Last week I had an email from Christ Church, Marlow, to tell me that a special evening of jazz has been arranged at their church on Sunday April 12^th at 5.30pm. Yes a Sunday evening of jazz! That’s Sunday 12 April from 5.30pm to 8pm.

“It is to raise funds to enable us to continue to support the people of Ukraine. Tickets will be available on the door and cost £10, including a free glass of wine/soft drink.”

DO check out the link below:-

https://mailchi.mp/4b1120f876f2/ukraine-solidarity-jazz-band-fundraising-concert-12-april?e=c1c15773dd

I enquired who the band would be comprised of and the reply was:-

The following were all members of the band in September 2025:

Katrina Likhtman, Fleur Stevenson, Steve Foster - vocals,  Robert Otwinowski - guitar, Matt Potts -  piano, Steve Kershaw -  bass,  Ben Robins – drums,  Kyrill Avilov – saxophone

So put that in your diary, its in mine!

Last week was a Hedsor Jazz Thursday and a few snaps of it are below.

 

It turned out to be a very special night as not only did we have Vasilis Xenopoulos play every tune, but in the second set he was joined by someone he had not met before but had wanted to play alongside ever since he had moved to Cookham.  He had been told by his London based colleagues of another local, and wonderful, saxophonist living locally, Alam Nathoo.

As you and I know, Alam does sometimes walk from his home to come and play at Hedsor Jazz, he has a great fan bass at Hedsor. So after a few phone calls made earlier in the week, in the second set (after discussing during the interval not only what tunes they would play, but what grade reeds they both use!) Alam was invited to join Vasilis “on stage”.

WOW, if you were one of the audience then make sure you write that day in your diary as an “I was there” entry. Total jazz magic happened.

I’m sure we will be able to persuade them to both come and do it again, but for your diary we have already booked Alam to play alongside trumpeter Steve Waterman on July 9^th .

Vasilis was keen to tell me that Alam doesn’t need any trumpet player next to him. He’s right, he doesn’t, but it’s a bit like your schooldays and your home chemistry set, explosive things may happen! So put that date in your diary too.

That’s about it for today. Next week I’ll get back to writing about a cd or two from my collection. I almost did that today, but it’s one you cant buy!! Not unless the BBC release a recording made in 1998 of a broadcast that celebrated Humphrey Lyttelton’s 50 years as a band leader! I dug it out to play last night!

 

TTFN

 

Geoff