Blog time again. I really don’t know where the time goes, but it does, and so much quicker than when I was paid money to work!!

First, a bit more information about the Vasilis Xenopoulos evening coming up on May 13th at The Hedsor Social Club.

The line up is The Clive Burton Quartet, with of course trombone maestro Clive Burton, Ken Rankine on bass and Martin Hart on drums, but with special guest pianist (by special request seeing as Zane is taking a holiday break) Malcolm Cliff. I managed to miss him somehow when he last visited Hedsor, but I certainly don’t want to do that this time, and neither do you!! Add to this the formidable talents of Vasilis AND the young singer Michael L Roberts, and you have a gig worthy of any jazz club in the land. I still haven’t forgotten people coming up to me at the end of last years Cookham Festival jazz event telling me how wonderful Michael was, and how they had never heard a singer anywhere as good as that!!

So, I have taken the (financial) liberty of hiring Hedsor’s big room, so do come and see for yourselves how good he is. Tickets are available at £8 from Cookhams Stationary Depot, or from me, or possibly on the door. BUT do make sure YOU get in.

The X Factor? Well it is a week since you would have put your cross on a piece of paper, and Xenopoulos has plenty of the X factor so beloved of television!

CD’s Listened to recently.


First, a download. I was recently lent a tape of a Gerry Mulligan Concert. The music on it was excellent, but unfortunately, the tape had seen better Hi Fi days years before. So, I searched the net, and got a very respectable download from Amazon. “Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker at Carnegie Hall” is a 1974 bringing together of the 1950’s partners, playing some of their original repertoire, and some new.

Names on the stage with Gerry and Chet, include Ron Carter, John Scofield and Bob James.
One of Mulligans loveliest ballads was recorded here for the first time:- “A Song for Strayhorn” is art in music at its best. Other titles include “Line for Lyons”, “For an Unfinished Woman”, “Bernie’s Tune”, and “K4 Pacific”. They are all typically unpolished concert performances, but with that team, they were pretty shinny anyway! I recommend you check it out via the download route; you can listen to excerpts before you commit to money.


The other album, released in 2007, is a finger snapper. A compilation of Horace Silver tunes on the HighNote label, called “Funky Pieces of Silver”! “Sister Sadie”, “Juicy Lucy”, “Song for My Father” plus many more, recorded by a selection of the exponents of the funk art. Charles Earland, Joey DeFranceso, Houston Person, etc. If you like funk, it’s a great compilation. If you aren’t sure what funk really is, it’s a good lesson! HighNote HCD 7176. Try looking on Amazon (search “Funky Pieces of Silver”, new they have it for £14.49) or on the HighNote website www.jazzdepot.com

Well that’s it for now, keep coming out for live jazz, you can vote every week for the Jazz Party at Hedsor.