This week at Hedsor Jazz

We are pleased to welcome back one of Britain’s best tenor saxophonists, Simon Spillett.

Simon and his Quartet at St Piran's

Simon is an award winning musician, and a great friend to Hedsor Jazz (as we are to him!!). It will be great to hear him paired again with our own Clive Burton on trombone.

Do join us in this celebration of post war modern jazz, and YOU can then say you have gone for a burton!! Music starts at 8.30pm if you have paid your £6 to get in.

We are only 3 weeks away now from our Christmas Party on December 17^th. Tickets are now available at £10 each, and as is now usual, this price will include a light buffet supper. We start at 8pm on such occasions, just to give you more time to eat!!

Our guests this year will include two superb musicians who have never been to Hedsor Jazz before. Singer Sarah Moule and trumpeter Steve Waterman. Our regular bass player has been urging me to get Sarah along to Hedsor now for some months. She sings regularly with big band “The Sound of 17” for which Ken Rankine plays bass, (and has done so for many peoples lifetimes)! Sarah has a number of CD’s to her name, and also a number of YouTube appearances, try https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99qFjZQg42Y for starters.

For those elite who got to The St Piran’s Jazz Day you will not need to be told of Steve Waterman’s ability, as he was with us that day. For those who weren’t there (shame on you) don’t miss him again when he is playing so near to us and for so little an entrance fee. He is more than just good, he is the professor of jazz trumpet at Trinity Collage of Music!!

Until Thursday, drive (and walk) safely, after Thursday…….just carry on doing the same!

Geoff C

Another week, another chance to listen to Jazz at The Hedsor Social Club.

Despite the gloom and sadness caused by recent atrocious events, one bright spot every week is our gathering together at Hedsor, and listening to The Clive Burton Quintet and talking with each other about almost every topic under the sun!!

This is another week where our regular reed section goes walkabout, and in his place we have someone who has only been to Hedsor I think once before! He hasn’t been mentioned in my blog before either, so I guess I was painting railings when he was at Hedsor. Martin Nicholas I’m sure will be an asset to our evening, and I am looking forward to hearing him. I am told he likes playing the clarinet as well as a saxophone, which will be nice to hear.

Last week “I trailed my coat” about the guests for our Christmas Party on December 17^th.  Neither of our two guests has appeared before at Hedsor, and I am very excited to confirm that Singer Sarah Moule and trumpet star Steve Waterman have both agreed to be with us at our party.

I have a number of Sarah’s CD’s but have never heard her “live”. She is a tremendously talented singer. On her 2014 CD (cover below)  she sings the words of the late great Fran Landsman, and on this cd (“Songs from the Floating World”, Red Ram Records RAM002) she is accompanied by her husband pianist Simon Wallace. Also with her on various tracks of this release is among others another of my favourites, Nigel Price!

Our other guest you would have seen at the day of jazz at St. Piran’s School in September. Steve Waterman was alongside singer Gill Cook on that occasion and I thought it would be a treat to get him to Hedsor Jazz. Especially as he may well play alongside Sarah. He should fit in with our regular Quintet very well. Steve is professor of Jazz Trumpet at Trinity College of Music in London and visiting Jazz Trumpet specialist at The Royal Northern College Of Music and The Welsh College Of Music And Drama. He is also a very nice man!!

Here is a link to his website:- http://www.swjo.co.uk/about.html

 Steve Waterman alongside Gill Cook at St Piran's

So book your ticket, there will be some for sale this Thursday at £10 each. Do encourage others to venture out and enjoy good music, buffet food and great company on December 17^th. A poster for our party is reproduced below. Do feel free to download the artwork and print and display somewhere near you.

One further advance notice. On Thursday November 26^th we have as our special guest saxophonist Simon Spillett, so do come, and if you can, bring another along as well!!

In THAT way, we will keep live jazz alive at The Hedsor Social Club!!

HEDSOR JAZZ TODAY

I my be wrong, (but I think your wonderful), but I also think that today's version of The Clive Burton Quintet will be back to normal!! An original, guest free night! Well, that may be so, but you never know. The fact that we are a regular weekly jazz club does sometimes encourage some well know jazz figures to come and sit in, so there is always a level of expectation.

We are working hard to get some special guests to our Christmas party on December 17th. We are aiming for 2 who have never played at Hedsor before!! Watch this space. But keep your eyes on the road and your nose to the grindstone. You could possibly also get your backs to the wall, but I'm no athlete!!

Sorry for the brief blog, but it has been an amazingly busy week, and I'm just off out AGAIN!! Yesterday I was with the Great and the Good at St Clement Danes School Remembrance Day Service in Hertfordshire.

Don't forget we can only keep Hedsor Jazz alive every week by having an audience. Now THAT is up to you!!

TTFN

Geoff

After last weeks Halloween inspired evening, this week we have Guy Fawkes!! 

However, this week at Hedsor we do return to something like normality!!

We welcome back after a 3 week break (must be long railings!), our regular reed section, Mike Wills. Not that it will necessarily be the “regular” Clive Burton Quintet. Regular bass player Ken Rankine is accompanying singer Sarah Moule in London this week, so in his place (from last week in the audience) we have Steve Riddle.

Mentioning last week, it was good to see drummer Malcolm Potter again after about 8 years, back at Hedsor as a short notice dep for Martin.

Thinking again about last week I must say that I thought Tracey Mendham played the best I have ever heard her. Her tone was amazingly big, and due to Clive’s arrival being delayed, Tracey started off the evening without him, or the PA, and her self assurance and slightly different choice of tune was a real bonus. Her singing towards the end of the second set was also a revelation, and deserved the applause she got from the audience. Well-done Tracey. She mentioned to me afterwards that she has had a number of appearances recently with The Humphrey Lyttelton Band.

CD’s Listened to This past week.

I have been impressed by two this week, both on the Linn label. Now Linn are a renowned manufacturer of quality turntables, and all of their CD releases are of the finest recorded quality, and that is true of the two I have heard this week. I would point out that I do listen on reasonable quality equipment (Roksan Kandy KA-1 Amp, Marantz Signature Cd player with Cambridge Audio interconnects and Rega Jura speakers), and these two recordings sounded wonderful.

The first is by a gentleman singer that I haven’t listened to before, Joe Stilgoe. He accompanies himself on the piano, but has added a number of great British jazz musicians in this album mostly of his own songs called “New Songs for Old Souls”. It ranges from small group to Big Band, and although I am not generally a fan of male singers, I think this one makes for a refreshing 48 minutes. His style is reminiscent of Frank Sinatra in 1940’s,50’s mode, but almost all the tunes and lyrics are by Joe himself.  Well worth listening to, and reading some of the thought provoking lyrics reproduced in the booklet too. Linn AKD 484 if you want to refresh YOUR Hi Fidelity listening.

Also on the Linn label is a new release by David Newton, a great Scottish born pianist and one of the best in Britain. Here in trio form with Matt Skelton on drums and Tom Farmer on bass they play a selection of tunes made famous on the silver screen. It isn’t often you get to hear these tunes other than in their original settings, and the re-workings of “Chariots of Fire” and “Wouldn’t it Be Loverly” are worth the purchase on their own. But there IS much more to this trio CD than just those two tunes. The album is entitled “Big Screen Take One” and the CD number is Linn AKD 504. It will sound terrific on your Hi Fi too.

HOWEVER, the BEST Fi to listen to is LIVE MUSIC. Become and Audience, then the music will be able to continue!!