Well, here we are, coming to terms with a very much shorter gig list than last year!!

No regular gig at The Harrow on a Wednesday, and NO monthly Jazz from Geoff's sessions at The Old Bell following on from last weeks cabaret act by Peter Lim!

SO Thursday, we have The Clive Burton Quintet at The Hedsor Social Club, and THIS WEEK we have Simon Spillet as guest saxophonist. Entry (for the time being) is still free, but can I take this opportunity of saying that although the raffle IS voluntary, unless we get a AN AVERAGE of £4 a head on an average attendance evening, we will not be able to carry that on indefinitely. Doors are open from about 8 pm, and the music starts around 8.30pm.

SATURDAY, its Cookhams fabulous Shirtlifters evening of Winter Ineluctability at Pinder Hall, contact charles.benson@ntlworld.com for more information.

Sunday, Century jazz can still be heard at The Fifield from 8pm onwards, and food is available at this event, which is again raffle funded.

My listening pleasure has been enhance this week by a Humphrey Lyttelton CD (see top of page) of an LP I never knew existed!! On the Vocalion label, a session recorded in 1959 has the HL Band playing dedications to some of the top names of the Big Band era (Ellington, Basie, Goodman, Shaw, you get the picture), and to do this he got together a 15 piece big band, based around the rhythm section of his regular 8 piece band of the period. SO, there is Humph, together with Eddie Blair, Bert Courtney and Bobby Pratt on Trumpets, joined by Tony Coe, Kathy Stobart and Jimmy Skidmore on reeds, together with Redvers Reedworker, who turns out to be Ronnie Ross in disguise!! What a wonderful sound! A Train, Swingtime in the Rockies, Blue and Sentimental, all great swing tunes, but none of the tunes are played in their original arrangements. And we thought British Jazz of the 50's was rubbish!! Go check out Vocalion CDLF 8127 "Humph Dedicates".

See you at a gig near me