Good, you have got this far before hitting the delete button!!

First, I must wish you all a very Happy Easter. There is a promise of sunshine, and for many, 4 days break from paid employment!!

There is also JAZZ to be had!

TONIGHT, Clive Burton and his merry men play for us at The Hedsor Social Club from 8.30pm. Mike Wills is holidaying in Amsterdam as I type, so wont be with us. It will be exciting to find out who will be!! Maybe even YOU.
Remember, if you don't come, the music will stop, and become a fond memory of things past. You will of course be able to tell your grandchildren that once upon a time, you could listen to people playing on instruments and see them whilst they did it. AND it was real!! Not on their i anything, but LIVE MUSIC!!

BUT for £3,and a contribution to the raffle, you can enjoy it for real, and ensure it has a future! (Nag, nag, nag again!) at Hedsor.

And you will be able to do it all again on SUNDAY, where at The Fifield, Century Jazz perform from 8pm onwards. Great music, great food, and a great atmosphere!

Last night we had a reunion! The Harrow took life and limb by the throat, and invited back Ken McCarthy, Lynn Garner and Brad Lang to play and sing. I'm pleased to say that a good audience turned out to see them again after a gap of 6 months, and I only hope that Elaine will manage to summon up the courage to do it again soon. It was a smashing evening, which only reminded me of how casually we all took the regular weekly concerts at The Harrow.

CONCERTS! Oh yes, I'm running another one for Cancer Research UK at The Bourne End Community Centre on Friday May 12th, from 8pm. Tickets £10 from me, or Crocks and Crystals in Bourne Ends Parade. The Clive Burton Quintet will be assisted by Simon Spillet on tenor saxophone, and Richard Kellaway on Clarinet. Richard says that that cant be at the same time as Simon, BUT WE WILL SEE!!

CD listening this week has been somewhat curtailed by the need people have to get their computers fixed!! But last week I asked for the CD's you had come by recently that represented today's jazz scene. Not many of you replied!!
There are some though, that you can play over and over again, and that you can end up whistling the tunes from. (Try that with recent releases from major labels!). 2 stick out in my recent listening.

Scott Hamilton's "Back in New York", released in 2005 has that lovely warm melodic tenor sound playing tunes like "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face", "Fine and Dandy", "Bouncing with Bud", ably supported by the wonderful piano playing of Bill Charlap, plus Peter Washington on bass and Kenny Washington on drums. Well recorded, a really tuneful listen, in a slightly out of fashion style.Concord CCD-2274-2 the back cover is on my blog!

Another CD I've mentioned before, which just goes to show you that I find it most playable, is Tommy Smith on Tenor and Brian Kellock on Piano. Just the two of them. Both Scott's play standard tunes (Cherokee, Moonlight in Vermont, Pure Imagination, for example) but with a very fresh approach that made my skin tingle the first time I heard it. They somehow find a combination of the many notes that are around, to make these tunes sound fresh and exciting. Modern modern jazz at its very best. Again, the back cover will be on the Blog. Its on Spartacus Records, its called Symbiosis, and its number is STS010.

Well thats it for now folks,

Geoff C
http://jazzfromgeoff.blogspot.com/