A few words this week, as I seem to be bogged down with “other things”.

But, to let you know we have our regular guys at our regular session at Hedsor this week. They are now all fully recovered from their various courses of All-Bran and will be fully able to blow this week.

Next week (May 22^nd) of course we have one of our Gala nights. A fundraiser for Cancer Research UK with the Remix Jazz Orchestra, (all 17 of them), coming to blow away the winter cobwebs.

If you don’t know what to expect, head over on your neat computing device to http://www.remixjazzorchestra.co.uk/ and listen to there musical samples in MP3 format. They are complete performances, not faded snippets, so you will hear a little of what you will get on the night. Tickets are £10 each, with a light buffet at half time.

I hope to get a chance to further publicize this event on Sunday Nights Marlow FM program “Swing That Music”, Michael Eagleton’s regular weekly jazz orientated record program. It’s broadcast locally on 97.5 FM from 9 pm on Sunday nights but it is also webcast on http://www.marlowfm.co.uk/ (click the “Listen Now” button).

The last week in retrospect has been good for local live jazz.

At our Hedsor Session a small but discerning audience had a super time with trumpet star Stuart Henderson sharing the lead with guitarist John Coverdale. Mike Jeffries was guest drummer for the second week running and a really beautiful improvised session ensued, with tunes not often heard at Hedsor giving us an evening of delights. We do need more bums on seats though to ensure that we can continue providing this class of live jazz. Bring a friend, Hedsor’s live jazz is a musical experience, once savoured not easily discarded. Give it a try, it could become a habit.

Last Tuesday some of us had the pleasure of listening live to Vasilis Xenopoulos’s new band “Wind Machine” who played Marlow Jazz Club.

They are right at the beginning of a tour featuring the new band, and I feel that by the time they play at Hedsor on August 7^th, they will be in really good form. Tuesday’s session had one or two issues with the sound, especially that of the Hammond Organ, but I am assured that it wont be like that at Hedsor. The ensemble playing was blisteringly good, how can they do that? The tunes played are largely from yesteryear’s Big Band book, but organise for a quintet. If you missed it at Marlow, don’t miss them at Hedsor. Another couple of months together and they will sound even more awesome than they did on Tuesday.

Have a read of someone elses view of Wind Machine by following the link below (you may need to copy and past into your browser for these links to work) :-

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-wind-machine-vasilis-xenopoulos-33-jazz-review-by-roger-farbey.php#.U3SKd4FdVf0

Vasilis and Nigel Price have long been favorites of mine and I will be listening to them again at The Swanage Jazz Festival on Friday 11^th July, see more from the link:-

http://www.swanagejazz.org/?p=282

So, there are the week’s words from me. See you tonight at Hedsor from 8.30 pm tonight