This coming week at Hedsor Jazz has a very exciting prospect indeed

Yes, our regular band (now with John Monney as our bass player) is good, and last week (my first for weeks) they were exceptionally good (or does absence make the heart grow fonder?). But on the Thursdays where painting railings (a good community service thing to do) takes one of our regular players away, something a bit different can titillate the ear buds!! And this week it will excite!

Barbadian singer Judy Vaughn will be singing for us.

I managed to miss her last time she was at Hedsor (Yes, I was in hospital), but I know from a number of you how much you enjoyed her singing. 

We also have, just to keep Clive company at the front, and to add to the harmonies, that wonderfully toned young saxophonist Robert Goodhew (http://www.robertgoodhew.com).

One final personnel change this week (for another painter of railings and photographer, Martin Hart), is Mike Jeffries who will be our drummer this week.

We had a good crowd last week, and I didn’t get the chance to meet the new ones, so I do hope you all come again this Thursday for our new entry fee of only £7. 8.30pm start, bar open from 7pm

This week on my home stereo I have been busy listening to some old cassette tapes, and dubbing them into MP3 format to make it easier to listen again in the future. It made me realise what a rich musical heritage we have. Music created years ago can be played at home almost as though the performers were with you now.

I have checked on line, and I don’t think Tommy Smith playing “STANDARDS” is available new now. It comes from 1991, and was recorded by him in Oslo. I have had it on cassette tape from a about 1991, and it is timeless playing. With him are Neils Lan Doky on piano, Mick Hutton on bass and Ian Froman on drums. It is clean, melodic, modern jazz. I am delighted to have liberated the tape. The tunes include “Star Eyes”, “Speak Low”, “Night and Day”, “You’ve Changed” and 10 others. Do search it out, try the charity shops, but watch what you pay for it. I did notice one online shop asking over £40 for it!

The next buried treasure released from my cassette archives goes back slightly further to 1966/7. Benny Goodman recorded at a set of live performances in The Rainbow Room, part, according to my cassette, of Yale University’s Music Library. As well as BG it has some remarkable musicians alongside him. Zoot Sims, Joe Newman, George Duvivier in 1967, and Herbie Hancock and Less Span from 1966. The earlier tracks also have a singer, Annette Saunders, who is “OK”, which probably dams her with faint praise! The 67 tracks are however a great listen.

My last listen from off tape came to me very recently already on CD! Our regular drummer, Martin Hart, as a young man in the mid 1960’s played with a band called “John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, and although not on this recording, he is listed as a member of that band on their web site. The band evolved in the 60’s to become Fleetwood Mac. This CD is from tapes that were kind of bootlegged, being recorded very much live in various clubs in 1967 on a punters reel to reel machine. The band as recorded includes guitarist Peter Green, with John McVie on bass and Mick Fleetwood on drums. John Mayel sings and plays an Organ.

Yes, I did hear them in the 1960’s, and was only talking with Martin about that band a week before I went into hospital. The CD landed on my mat for me to hear when I came out. It has a really snappy title of “John Mayell’s Bluesbreakers Live in 1967” and can be found on Forty Below Records FBR 013