At Hedsor Jazz this week, for one week only, we are BACK TO NORMAL!!

We welcome back our recently irregular regular reed section, Mr Mike Wills!! He may still be trailing cloud of Australia behind him, but I doubt if he will be playing a didgeridoo!!

 Mike Wills, with John Coverdale, who was with us last week!

Sadly I have another commitment this Thursday, so I wont be part of the welcoming party, but do go along and for the immensely small sum of £6 you can welcome him back.

He will be with us the week after for our Christmas party on December 17^th, but we will have additional guests, including one of the UK’s most talented singers, Sarah Moule. With her, and another first time visitor to Hedsor, will be trumpet professor Steve Waterman.

Steve Waterman

An earlier start time of 8pm, and a slightly higher entry fee of £10 will give us the means of enjoying all the music and a half time buffet!

CD

It is a well known fact that I like lady singers, and last evening I sat down to watch a DVD, part of an album release, by a young singer that I hadn’t heard of. I should have done, as about 8 years ago she was voted as a BBC Rising Star.

Polly Gibbons is now in her 30’s, and the album I have watched (but not yet listened to) is called “The Many Faces of Love”. The DVD bit was recorded in Beverly Hills, California, although she is a native of Suffolk UK and the daughter of a pig farmer! She also has 6 sisters and a brother!

The DVD on the album was a live show, presenting some of the material from the CD (on Resonance Records RCD 1022), plus other music from her repertoire. With her on a couple of tunes is guest pianist Roger Kellaway, as well as the quartet on the album CD.

She is very good!! She has a big voice, and knows exactly how to sing a song and how to interact with her fellow musicians. On the basis of my watch of the DVD part of the album I can only heartily recommend it to all those of you who like lady jazz singers of a robust nature. There is plenty of evidence for her on YouTube, so do at least go and check her out. With some good fortune (which we all need from time to time) we should hear more from her in the future. I didn’t expect to enjoy the DVD, thinking it would be too glitzy, but she has certainly made an impact on me!!

So, until our Hedsor Christmas party, where we will also have a guest barmaid, I will say farewell!!

This week at Hedsor Jazz we are delighted to be able to welcome back guitarist John Coverdale as our guest.

I am still vividly remembering his appearance with The Clive Burton Quintet at St Piran's on September 26th. He appeared as a guest, and played amazingly. He held centre stage for about 1/2 hour and sadly I didn't get to record it! It will be a delight to welcome him back, so do come and enjoy a very talented musician.

Dont forget to get your ticket for our Christmas doo, £10 including light buffet, either from Dee on a Thursday (only 2 before the event! Scary eh, Christmas is very coming!) or from Cookham's Stationery Depot in the Parade.

CD 

I am in the process of listening to a new CD by Colin Town's Mask Orchestra. It is a 2 CD release, and I havent yet heard it all, but what I have heard so far is magical. 

It's a cross between an orchestra suite and a set of jazz pieces for a large band. All the tunes are originals, and all are inspired by works of stage drama. The quality of the players in the orchestra is terrific, and include Henry Lowther, Peter King, Simon Allen, Alan Skidmore and of course Colin Towns himself at the keyboard. All the music has been composed by Colin Towns, the CD notes and production are first class, and as I have said at the top, I think it's magical. It isn't Bop, it isn't 50's Modern jazz, but it IS very good!!
It's on Provocateur Records PVC1044