Today, A Wednesday, is an unusual day for a blog.

But due to yesterday being taken up with a need to “rationalise” some storage space which meant triggering some memories that had been encapsulated onto floppy disks (remember them, early memories indeed) I ran out of energy, really perhaps more, the will to live (in the past!).

And then the first part of my evening was taken up with an extraordinary 100 ball cricket match (241 for 2, SunRisers Leeds Men, off 100 balls) it meant that I didn’t get to write the blog ‘till this morning.

Sadly NO JAZZ at Hedsor this week, but next week??!!

ALAN BARNES COMES (AGAIN) TO HEDSOR.

Yes,as part of my celebration of survival we have Alan coming to us at Hedsor. 

Make the date, August 13^th. Usual entry time and fee 8pm start, £12 entry. Which includes the AIRCON!! AND the evening MAY also include a guest appearance of  singer Nanci Zhang!

 

We do of course always have some great jazz for you to listen to at Hedsor. The second and fourth Thursday of every month is set aside for it.

Our future looks bright:-

 

And we have an advanced booking for us all to look forward to.

On November 26^th we have the combined mighty talents of Vasilis Xenopoulos and Nigel Price coming to Hedsor Jazz.

 

One of the joys of survival is that I can go back a long time. To a time when no one had heard of either of these two stars of the British jazz scene.

BUT they played at Hedsor for us, initially in the bar when we used that. Initially it was on a Monday when we ran some guitar led jazz, and James Fenn introduced us to Vasilis.

And then for a Cookham Festival Jazz Night Vasilis introduced us to Nigel.

Today of course jazz festivals are organised around them, but they still find time to play for us at Hedsor Jazz. DONT MISS IT. They may even play requests. A duet of “The One Note Samba” perhaps!

Going back a long time has made me look back at the kind of jazz I started listening to.

I’ll try and write some more on this another time, but for starters an LP I heard in the early 1960’s was “Coast Concert” with Bobby Hackett and his band. It was recorded in 1955 and is timeless, label less, jazz, with that master of the trombone Jack Teagarden joining Bobby alongside Matty Matlock on clarinet.

I’m not sure if it is still available, but it was reissued on CD paired with another similar recording called Jazz Ultimate on Dormouse Records DMI CDX02, artwork below. 

As a matter of no interest at all, I first heard the recording from off of a reel to reel tape machine. They did indeed issue commercial recordings on this once popular recording media.

Good Tuesday everyone.

Sadly no jazz at the Hedsor Bar this week.

But last week was rather special.

It turned out that we had 3 great guests last week. Not only was Nanci Zhang every bit as good as we had expected her to be, but saxophonist Martin Dunston was a really excellent supporting voice on saxophone and flute. I should of course say saxophones, as he not only had his tenor with him, but also his soprano sax as well. Silky tones and really great accompaniment for Nanci, with some great jazz on his solo inputs.

Our third guest was on the bass (“Its All About the Bass”!!). Richard Sadler was taking the place of Al Pirrie, who was on a short break from Hedsor, and Richard showed his excellence as a bass player. He will be back, see below!!

Some pictures of our evening are below.

 

Writing in the word “back” has prompted me to say how great it was to welcome back as part of last week audience, Martin Hart. Martin is recovering from quite a serious illness. He has been the mainstay of most of the jazz at Hedsor over the past 20 years, and it was really good to have him in the audience with us again and also back taking photos, (he is a renowned prize winning exhibition photographer).

His playing career goes back further than Hedsor of course. He was a founder member of John Mayall Blues Breakers!

Martin did have a very photogenic subject to take photos of, Nanci! My “snap” of her above may just give a hint at the photographic possibilities.

Looking ahead comes August. An important month in my diary. I was born in August and Married in August, so I always try and have a special jazz event in August.

OK, ALL our Hedsor Jazz evenings are special, but to have Alan Barnes come and play for us is, in my view, special. I have listened to him and chatted to him and even at one point looked after his very young daughter in a pram in Swanage until his gig finished and she could be collected.

So on August 13^th we will have Alan, plus Richard Sadler on bass (Al is still holidaying), Ken McCarthy on piano and Mike Jeffries on drums.

When Nanci saw our flyer for the next month she did express interest in maybe coming and sitting in with Alan. We will still charge our usual entry fee!! Maybe an exit tax!?

Alan Barnes was a member of the Humphrey Littleton Band for some years earlier in his career. Do go and check out his back catalogue and also have a read of Alan own recollections of his time with Humph.

https://www.alanbarnesjazz.com/post/manage-your-blog-from-your-live-site

That’s about it for now; do encourage others to support live jazz, just as you do yourself of course!

Geoff

A one time member of The 100 Club!

Yes, it IS Tuesday and, YES, you are reading Geoff’s blog on a Hedsor Jazz week!

And what a week it will be. Coming back to sing for us on Thursday July 23rd, all the way from the U.S.A., is NANCI ZHANG. She will be accompanied at the front by saxophonist Martin Dunston, and as our regular bass player Al Pirrie has decided to take a holiday, another bass player used to having a lady singer fronting the band, Richard Sadler, has been drafted in in his place. Ken McCarthy on keyboard and Mike Jeffries on drums complete the ensemble.

Try not to miss this, no football, no tennis, and cricket? are going to preoccupy your time, so why not come out and really enjoy an evening of song.

Nanci was with us last year and we are all delighted that she wants to come back.

We have future plans. Yet to be booked, but we know they want to come, are Vasils Xenopoulos and Nigel Price together, we are trying to negotiate a suitable date. Both played for Hedsor Jazz in there progress to top billing, now they are top billings it is harder to get them, but they still do want to come.

Take a look at the program below for August and September. You may have heard of one or two of the musicians before as well!

 

Last Saturday Marlow celebrated the life of Michael Eagleton with a concert in Court Gardens House given by “Five Way Split”, I listed it in my last blog.

 

The music was superb, the room acoustics dreadful! I must remember never to put on music in that room ever! As Vasilis said after the show, “its the sign of a good band that they can play well in a room with dreadful acoustics.” I can assure you that they are a very good band!

 

I can understand the choice of venue, it is a very smart room to sit in, but for a musical event it had drawbacks.. The room layout around big tables mean that a lot of people had a sideways view of the band, and pre-allocated seating meant that you couldn’t sit with your friends. 

A sideways view of some of the band is below. See last weeks blog for the poster.

 

Michael is sad loss to the world of jazz. I first got to know him in 1971and in the years that followed I did occasionally join him for one or two of his radio shows, broadcast from a hut in the Longridge Activity Centre on The Thames.

He also ran a record shop in Marlow selling not only records (LP’s in those days), but some Hi Fi as well, in a upstairs room above the shop. He was a generous man, now much missed.

Don’t forget that to keep live jazz alive, you have to come and see it LIVE, wherever it is performed.

But ESPECIALLY at Hedsor! 

Sadly NO JAZZ at Hedsor this week,

BUT in Marlow on Saturday 18^th July tribute will be paid by Vasilis Xenopoulos and Five Way Spilt to the late Michael Eagleton who provided many of us with many hours of fine jazz over the last 50 years. See advert and links below.

 

Our last session at The Hedsor Bar was another that can only honestly be called “OUTSTANDING”

Trumpeter Steve Waterman had not played with saxophonist Alam Nathoo before, but that teaming was an outstanding success. Steve wrote afterwards 

” Thank you so much for the gig last night. As always it was a great pleasure to play with Ken, Al and Mike, and I was absolutely thrilled to be working alongside Alum who is a wonderful player”. 

At Hedsor we are well aware of Alam’s wonderful playing, and he is fortunately able to come and play for us quite often.

You Missed it? Well it was a hot night! (We sat in the cool of Hedsor Bars Aircon!) and there was a lot of tennis on, as well as other distractions like cricket and football. But sometimes the magic happens with the music and is only for you if your there!

Some photos of the night are below.

Our next gig at Hedsor is on Thursday July 23^rd and I am delighted to say that we have a singer from America coming to entertain us again.

NANCI ZHANG will be with saxophonist Martin Dunston, Richard Sadler on bass, Ken McCARTHY on Keyboards and Mike Jeffries on drums

So as it is still very lemonade weather, I will call it “A Sunny Afternoon”! and go for a lie down!!

See you in Marlow on Saturday evening.

This week at Hedsor Jazz

SUPERJAZZ and AIR CONDITIONING

Yes this Thursday, July 9^th at the Hedsor Bar there will be some superb live jazz.

Trumpeter Steve Waterman, one of Britain’s top trumpeters, and well known on the international jazz stage, is coming (again) to play at Hedsor. This time (yes, he has been before) we are teaming him with a jazz musician, who due to family commitments, could not continue in his award winning career, saxophonist Alam Nathoo. Alam  lives near enough to The Hedsor Bar to be able to walk to us, and he is a very special jazz musician. His technique and understanding of a tunes musical structure are truly wonderful, and I’m sure our jazz evening will be very special with the fusion of these two players. Our regular rhythm section will be backing them.

The weather is very warm again BUT The Hedsor Bar has air conditioning! What more do you want for your £12 entry fee (in cash please, we don’t want to pay a bank even more for giving them our money to look after) and with club bar prices it should be more than enough to encourage you to come.

Photos of both of these star players from previous Hedsor gigs are below.

 

 

Looking ahead to July 23^rd we have a return visit of New Orleans singer Nanci Zhang. Nanci has sung for us before on her visits to the UK, but this time we are featuring her, and she will be the star of our evening. That is as long as saxophonist Martin Dunston doesn’t mind being a mere mortal for this night! Also guesting with us will be the renowned bass player Richard Sadler  coming as part of our backing trio.

 

Finally this weekend I was due to go to The Swanage Jazz Festival, 

but due to a health problem that needed checking out I have had to cancel 

my visit. I have therefore a Stroller Ticket for the entire weekend going spare. 

Contact me if you can use it as I would hate to see it going to waste. 

I will bring it with me to Hedsor on Thursday if is not claimed before hand.

 

Hi Blog Reader,

A Jazz-less week at The Hedsor Bar this Thursday.

I’m sure many of you are now getting over

a) the heat of last Thursday and

b) the superb jazz from Bruce Adams and Mark Ridout all enhanced by The Hedsor Bar’s super air-conditioning!

And all enhance by a couple of guest musicians in the second set.

One had been to us before, in the days of Zane Cronje, Ken Rankine and Clive Burton, drummer Cyril Bevan. Cyril is now into his 90’s, and last practiced in September 25, but he was invited to play on a couple of tunes in the second set, and he is still a very good drummer.

But completely new to Hedsor Jazz was pianist Pete Locke. Pete is visiting the UK from Australia, and is obviously a well respected pianist in his home town of Sydney. Do check out his website:-  https://peterlockemusic.com/

He has played many times with that well known Australian jazz musician Bob Barnard.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Barnard_(musician)  

So last week we were blest by Australian weather and an Australian jazz star.

In talking with Pete it seems that the Australian audience for jazz is thinning out a bit like ours, and Sydney is suffering the same small jazz audience as our own jazz scene.

A few slightly less in focus photos from last week are below, but it was a really focused jazz event! One that showed how good jazz can be. And at The Hedsor Bar!!

Bruce, Al Pirrie and Mark

Elliot Toms

Pete Locke

Cyril Bevan

 

However our next live Hedsor Jazz is on July 9^th, when we welcome back another of GB’s trumpet stars, Steve Waterman. Always much in demand Steve does seem to like coming back to Hedsor. This time we are pairing him with our own local jazz man who can walk to Hedsor Jazz, saxophonist Alam Nathoo. That should be a spectacular evening of live jazz, so make sure you get to Hedsor early for that on!

Next day I shall be leaving for The Swanage Jazz Festival and a Friday afternoon with Alan Barnes. Do check out the program for Swanage as there are still some tickets available so why not give yourself a little seaside treat:-

https://swanagejazzfestival.co.uk/artists/

Keep supporting Live Jazz by attending Live Jazz Events!

OR THEY WILL DIE

 

Good Morning Everyone

The sun is out and for once it’s in abundance! And with even more in the forecast! So in typically British fashion it will now become too hot!

And this week we have some really great jazz at The Hedsor Bar. Yes, this Thursday is one of our two Thursdays a month for Hedsor Jazz.

So let me cut to the chase. Coming to Hedsor this Thursday we have two really great jazz musicians. Trumpeter Bruce Adams and guitarist Mark Ridout. Behind them will be our Hedsor trio with Ken McCarthy on keyboard.

To keep the jazz cool, we will also have air conditioning. So why not come out and have a double benefit from your £12 entry. It’s an 8pm start, and you can ask your taxi to collect you after 10.30pm!

It really will be one of those gigs you don’t want to miss. I know it will be an effort to shift out from the shade of your home, but this combination is a must to see.

I know I write a lot about how good Hedsor Jazz is, but I really do believe that many local jazz fans are missing out on what we are presenting at Hedsor twice a month. Other organisations tell you more about the people they invite in to play in their newsletters but I tend to think that if you know the names we present you won’t need more encouragement. If you don’t know them I know you have the initiative to look them up! And we still only charge £12 entry!!

At home here at Cronin Towers we are going from one problem to another and this blog is coming via a laptop wired up via extension leads (one for the laptop and one for the router) because last night’s electrical storm seems to have killed off the original circuit of our house ring main. So this week it is brief. All I will add in today is the latest poster artwork for you to print and display if you are able.

 

I think it is a brilliant set of forthcoming gigs, and we are still busy booking further ahead. If you can positively support Hedsor Jazz in any way, with advertising, attendance or simple dogs body help do let John Dutton, Peter England or myself know. If you have a favourite musician you would like to see at Hedsor do bear in mind that you could sponsor an evening or even just part of one. A number of people do this already.

And to end on a popular political note, be assured that Hedsor Jazz is a totally undemocratic, unelected, none profit making organisation of volunteers!! We haven’t changed in over 20 years!