THIS WEEK we have as our guest  at Hedsor Jazz TRACEY MENDHAM

Two Photos of Tracey from a previous appearance at Hedsor

Below is a repeat of this week nagging email!

A quick round robin today just to remind you that we are celebrating Hedsor Halloween tomorrow night with the booting sound of Tracey Mendham and her array of saxophones!!

My mother always used to say the third one is never like the rest, and Tracey is the third saxophonist guest in the last  three weeks, so expect something special. 

If you want to get into the spirit of the Halloween occasion, try printing a mask. 

Follow the link below and lets "enghoul" ourselves tomorrow!!

https://neon.epson-europe.com/PDF/ScarySkeletonMaskPDF

TTFN

Geoff C

Who owns a Zafira and takes broadband etc from TalkTalk. Now should I start buying lottery tickets?

Ken McCarthy has just reminded me that if you are not already booked to go and see Lenore Raphael at Christ Church Marlow on Saturday this weekend (as I am), there is another super gig at Ickenham Village Hall, see below:-

Toots Music Management presents …..

Live Jazz @ Ickenham Village Hall

Saturday 24 Oct 2015, doors open 19.30

33 Swakeleys Rd, Ickenham, UB10 8DG 

 Nick Mills’ Blue Note Project

Featuring - Dave O Higgins, ten sax; Steve Fishwick,tpt;  Pete Billington,pno;  Mick Hutton, bass & Matt Skelton, drums.

A celebration of Blue Note legends such as Horace Silver, Freddie Hubbard, Art Blakey, Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter and more. Regulars at Jazz Clubs throughout the UK and most recently headliners at the 2015 Ealing Jazz Festival, Nick Mills’ Blue Note Project authentically recreate the Blue Note sound with arrangements and classic compositions from artists of a golden era of music making. A formidable force not to be missed.               

Tickets, £12 – available from Pro Music International, Swakeleys Rd, UB10 8DF, on the door on the night or at

www.tootsmusicmanagement.co.uk/news-events

Licensed bar serving excellently priced beers, wines & soft drinks         

It has been nearly 4 weeks now since our day of jazz at St Piran’s School. A good day, but with a “but” and an “if only”! I must admit that I haven’t had a lot of time to catch up on jazz much since. I have done little listening to my collection of recordings at home, or gone further than Hedsor for my “weekly” fix of the live stuff. But, my normality is beginning to settle back.

It has sadly been interrupted by the need to go to two funerals. And this weekend past it was a choice of 2 out of a possible 4 in the same time frame. However friends and family did come first, and so on Friday we travelled to Salisbury and on Monday we were much nearer home. Sad though these occasions are, there is always a silver lining. The catching up with people whom you haven’t seen for a while.

Whilst away I was able to listen to some music on headphones via Spotify that I hadn’t got in my own collection, and thus I was reminded of how much we owe to the late Humphrey Lyttelton.

Once home I dug out a little known recording made by Humph in Canada. Only released in the UK in 2015 by Delmark Records it has Humph playing with Jim Galloway on reeds, Ed Bickert guitar, Neil Swainson bass and Terry Clarke on drums. It’s on the Sackville label as SK 3033 “Humphrey Lyttelton in Canada”. It is a fine mixture of mainstream recordings, recorded in 1983 during only his second visit to Canada. Many of the tunes you would have heard on earlier released Humph recordings (Looking for Turner, Lady Jekyll and Mistress Hyde and Caribana Queen for example) and include some work by Humph on clarinet as well as trumpet. It swings along nicely, and if you have never listened to either Ed Bickert or Jim Galloway before then this one becomes a “must”.

The other album liberated for a listen I have probably mentioned before. The Howard Alden Dan Barrett Quintet “Swing Street” on Concord CCD 4349, was first released in 1988. With the two named leaders are Chuck Wilson reeds, Frank Tate bass and Jackie Williams drums. This recording reminds me very much of the wonderful days of the Brecon Jazz Festival in its heyday. Precision playing and great swinging drive. Mostly the tunes are those you will have had a chance to hear somewhere else (Flying Home, Cotton Tail) but there are also some Buck Clayton tunes you may not have heard before and others that you may well have!! It is a worthwhile album to acquire or to place on your Christmas list! Again, if you have never heard a trombone playing note for note with a fingerpicker before, then go get it now! Dan Barrett is a formidable musician.

Talking of formidable musicians, at Hedsor we have two coming for you in our next two Thursday sessions.

This week (October 22^nd), Simon Spillett, last seen by me on September 26^th (wasn’t it great to hear him playing with the Remix, bringing alive those Tubby Hayes arrangements) will be alongside Clive Burton at Hedsor with, I strongly suspect, our regular rhythm section!!

And Next Week (October 29^th) hang on to your chairs, because Tracey Mendham is coming to (Hedsor) Town. Just in time to get you in the Halloween mood, this spot of the year has been traditionally reserved for Tracey and her great BIG tenor tone. A lovely Lady, she comes all the way from darkest Essex to entertain us, so do turn up, park your broomsticks at the door, and be hugely entertained. She herself will probably travel by car as she has a tenor and a baritone to bring, but do ensure you lock your broomstick, she has been known to fly!!

Most of our gigs at Hedsor start at 8.30pm and cost £6 to get in, and these two are no exception.

Another Week...

has gone by, how did I ever find time to go to work? 

So many things seem to have happened this week, including sadly the death of a friend, and another of a relative too. Both had lived to ripe old age, but again, one is saddened by loosing someone from ones circle of friends.

Then there was a car to get MOT'd and serviced, and finding I needed a new exhaust for that car. Getting it all sorted out and fitting all that in with a trip to the dentist, a starving blood test AND a trip to the optician's has brought us round again to THURSDAY. So here is a late blog!!Again!!

Tonight I am delighted to say that at Hedsor we have as a guest pianist Ken McCarthy. Always a delight to listen to, this week with I think the "standard" Clive Burton Quintet. However over the next few weeks this will change!!

Next week (October 15th) we have that delightful young man, and a lovely sounding saxophonist, Robert Goodhew with us. He is also, I might add, a very good photographer!! Below are two shots he took at the St Piran's jazz day.

 Mike Wills and Ken McCarthy

Alan Grahame

Robert will be in place of Mike Wills who is going abroad for about a month!!

So,in Mike's absence we have a succession of visiting saxophonists. The week after Robert on October 22nd we have Simon Spillett. It is really very good to have him back to Hedsor Jazz before he has a second stint at Ronnie Scott's (Sunday November 1st). It is a strange and wonderful thing about jazz, you can talk to the stars of our jazz world face to face, and hear them play acoustically, not over a vast PA system with a huge screen!

Our final guest this month, who has been complaining that she hasn't been to us enough this year, is Tracey Mendham! A lovely lady with a huge big tenor tone, she comes to help celebrate Halloween (well it's our nearest Thursday!) on October 29th.

I always think she looks very fetching with her pointed hat and flying stick!

So a month of delights. Tell your friends about Hedsor Jazz, we need your company, and theirs!!

CD Listened to this week

Whilst browsing a charity shop in Marlow (Upmarket charity shops there!!) I came across a Stacey Kent CD! One that I didn't already have in my collection.

"Let Yourself Go, Celebrating Fred Astaire" is a true delight. We know all the tunes, many of us have seen all the players before too. But the combination is a celebration  of all that is good about jazz. Good tunes, good singing, and excellent playing from her husband Jim Tomlinson, accompanied by Colin Oxley on guitar, David Newton on piano, Simon Thorpe on bass and Steve Brown on drums. It was recorded in 1999, is on the Candid label as CCD 79764 and is well worth seeking out. 

But you wont get it for what I was asked to pay for it, just 25 pence!!

OK, Hedsor will cost you a minimum of £6 to get in, but I bet Ken McCarthy will let you speak to him!!