OK, My Apologies!

No Blog last week. I had a particularly debilitating infection, and for 3 days ran a temperature of 101 deg F! Yes, in F!! My Mercury thermometer was old enough to only measure in F. For those too young to know what the norm is for human temperature in deg F it is 98.4

However, handling a glass mercury thermometer whilst being unwell as a great way of ensuring newer technology, as I managed to drop it into the (empty) bath. OK (again!) Mrs Cronin went and purchased a modern replacement which will give me results in Centigrade.

I observed when reading the instructions for this new battery powered device, that one should discard it after 3 years as it will be unreliable after that time!! Such is progress. I can now be told if my temperature is normal, or I am running a fever via a series of bleeps, but only for 3 years. My mercury thermometer might have been old technology, but it had let me read how ill I was for at least the last 30 years!

But less of this and on to things JAZZ.

At Hedsor Jazz this week we have a resumption of normal service. The Clive Burton Quintet will be back with both Mike Wills as our reed section, and Martin Hart as our percussionist! Many thanks to Mike Jeffries for his great work in the drum chair for the last 3 weeks. Many thanks too to Vasilis Xenopoulos for being our guest saxophonist last week.

I was very sad indeed to miss his night with us at Hedsor. If you did too, you can catch up with him at The Oakwood Theatre, Woodley, on Saturday (7^th Feb). With a bit of luck I will be allowed out to that as well. I have a ticket!!

Being unwell I have had to miss (for the first time ever!!) The Evening of Ineluctability with Cookham’s fabulous Shirtlifters! I still have the (souvenir?) ticket in my wallet! Did any Hedsor fans go?

Did I listen to any recorded jazz during my away from it all days?

Well sadly, not a lot. I now realise that you have to be in recovery mode to do more than absorb daytime TV! Yes, I slept a lot too!

But there is one CD that I did play that I may also have mentioned before. A privately produced CD that I think I got from saxophonist Frank Griffith. I reproduce the artwork for it below, but “The Strayhorn Project’s” “Muliticoloured Blue” is well worth seeking out. It was recorded in 2003, live at “The Fiddler’s Elbow” in NW5 and the band consists of Steve Kaldestad on tenor sax, Phil Lee on guitar, Dave Whitford bass and Stu Butterfield on drums. My copy of the CD is labelled as GWB 445, so maybe you can get it somewhere.

But if you can your resourcefulness will gain you a treasure. If you left click on the jpeg you will be able to read the tunes and the sleeve notes, so you will know that the prospect is good. They are great  Billy Strayhorn tunes. The bands performance does the material proud, and you will enjoy the individual and collective work done by the band on tunes familiar and tunes less familiar. It is a gem of an album.

Well, it’s almost time for another sleep. I have actually been out today for the first time in about 10 days (apart from trips to the medics). I am working on being with you at Hedsor this week.

Don’t forget, every band needs an audience to keep music alive. Do your bit to keep live jazz alive at The Hedsor Social Club by coming to see the band every Thursday from 8.30pm ‘till 11pm. And it is STILL only £6 to get in! There IS a small voluntary charge made to let out!!