Another short blog today

Always trying to fit life around the writing does mean that just sometimes what I write does sometimes become "compact"!

This week at Hedsor Jazz I understand that we welcome back from the far East, our wonderful sax section Mike Wills. 

Over the past 3 weeks during Mike absence we have been entertained by 3 wonderful guests, sadly sometimes without the quintet leader himself, who has suffered a nasty cold/flu like bug. However this week, he will be back!

Also this week, I too will be back! I'm very sorry to have been forced to miss Max Brittain, but unfortunately an infection of a different kind kept me away.

So this week will be something to savour!

Last Sunday many of us payed tribute to Ken Rankine at Cores End Church. The event, sad though its cause, was well attended, and was filled with, as promised, words and music, and also with laughter. If any of you would like to hear the content of the event, I have posted my recording of it on my DropBox account:-

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9jdb03zcxiqbe8m/AAD4H4ug3uEpI9gMIY0WwnX5a?dl=0

The sound does go up and down a bit, but it is ALL there. Do feel free to download and listen.

Hopefully we can all now put sadness and illness behind us and look forward to Christmas (well I still do, but I may still be that small child inside really). Our Christmas Party at Hedsor is on December 22nd, with at least 2 special gusts so far, trombone star Roy Williams, and Barbadian singer Judy Vaughn.

For now then it's TTFN.

Geoff

Sorry for this late posting, but life does sometimes get in the way of Hedsor Jazz!

BUT Hedsor Jazz this week will again be without our regular sax section, Mike Wills still being away. However we do have the services of trumpet and flugel horn player Lester Brown.

Clive is still having a problem getting over his cold flu-like bug but is still hoping to be with us tomorrow for a double brass front line!

I must praise last weeks guest Simon Spillett. He performed an excellent job for us, especially as he had to occupy the front line all on his own, Clive being unwell. It gave us an opportunity to fully appreciate his big sound, no PA being available without Clive or Mike. But it was a memorable set, thank you Simon. In a room the size of Hedsor, and a sax sound like Simon’s, no PA made no difference!! It did of course make announcements slightly more difficult and shorter, and the raffle certainly got speeded up!!

I have spent some time this week putting together the program for our Tribute to Ken Rankine in Words and Music to be performed at Cores End Church (post code SL8 5HZ) on Sunday 27^th November at 3pm.

The music will be provided by Clive on trombone, with Robert Goodhew on tenor sax, Ken McCarthy on keyboard, John Monney on bass and Martin Hart on drums, with Gill Cook singing a couple of songs as well. 

Do come along. No charge will be made for entry, and light refreshments will be provided afterwards. We will however take up a retiring collection for The British Heart Foundation, an organisation that Ken actively supported.

Next week we have a welcome return of guitarist Max Brittain. He hasn't been able to get to Hedsor for a time, but he will be back with us next week.

Max at Hedsor in 2010

Don’t forget our Christmas Party on December 22^nd. Tickets (£12 each including buffet) will be available tomorrow at Hedsor.

Yes Hedsor Jazz, at the Hedsor Social Club, is regular, and weekly, even in winter. So do keep supporting live jazz, and keep coming yourselves. Tell your friends, and we will be able to  carry on for another year!

Hedsor and All That Jazz

There are advantages and disadvantages when regular members of Clive Burton’s Quintet decide to take a holiday (even those done at the Queens expense) and for the next few weeks whilst our regular reed section Mike Wills tries to restart the Vietnam War we have 3 guests to keep you entertained.

This Thursday, November 10^th , that wonderful friend of Hedsor Jazz Simon Spillett is bringing his tenor saxophone to keep Clive in his place.

On Thursday November 17^th we have trumpet and flugel horn player Lester Brown coming. He was last at Hedsor on May 30^th 2015, and sadly on that occasion I missed him. (Yes, the railings eventually caught up with me, but that’s community service for you). I hope you will join me in listening to him, this time alongside Clive instead of in place of him.

Then on Thursday November 24^th we have guitarist Max Brittain. It is a while since he was at Hedsor, but this will be a night not to be missed. Just take a look at his website and you will see what we have all been missing :-

http://www.thejazzguitars.co.uk/aboutMaxBrittain.html

                                     

Last Friday a number of us travelled to Portland to say Goodbye to Ken Rankine. It was a sad day, sweetened as all similar events are, by the social contact with friends and family after the internment. 

                                     

A more local event is taking place on November 27^th for all who would like to remember Ken. At Cores End Church a Tribute in Words and Music will be performed from 3pm. All are welcome. There will be no charge for entry, but we will give you the opportunity of donating to one of Ken’s supported charities (The British Heart Foundation). Please do come along. The words and the music will all be live and you will recognise many of the performers. 

This week at Hedsor Jazz will be slightly different. 

A number of us are going to Portland on Thursday for Ken Rankine’s Funeral on Friday, details of which are further down the page.

So, the unusual line-up for this Thursday at Hedsor will be :-

Our stalwart reed section Mike Wills, our ever so stalwart drummer (back from a short stay in a destination of his choice) Martin Hart, our regular keyboard player Nigel Fox.

But with them will be a bass player of fame, Andy Crowdey 

PLUS another great string player, guitarist John Coverdale. 

Andy has not played for us before at Hedsor, I do hope we can all get to hear him at some time in the not too distant future, John of course is a regular guest at Hedsor Jazz.

It should be a different and interesting sound. Sadly, I will be one of those not there, but I do hope many of you go along to make up the missing numbers.

For those who are going to travel to Portland, details of Ken’s funeral are:-

Friday 4^th November 2016

11am  service at All Saint’s Church,  1 Straits, Easton, Portland, Dorset, DRT5 1HG

There is a small car park or you can park at Tesco’s car park off Easton Square – permission is granted

12pm   burial    Portland Cemetery, Weston Road, Portland, which is next to St. George’s Church  (church address, at top of Reforne and on Wide Street, DT5 2JP . If preferred not to go to the burial, you can go directly to the blues club:-

after,  Portland Blues Football Club, New Grove Corner, Grove Road, Portland, DT5 1DP

there is plenty of parking in football club car park

Any donations to the British Heart Foundation which Ken helped with. Donations can be given on the day to the funeral director, or sent to their office  Rose Funeral Service, 23 Shrubbery Lane, Wyke Regis, Weymouth, Dorset, DT4 9LY  tel 01305 785832 or donations can be made on line to the head office of the British Heart Foundation. If preferred donations can be made to any cancer charity.

For those who are unable to go to Portland there will be 2 other events to enable you to pay tribute to Ken.

The first will be at Cores End Church

The second will be at The Drayton Court Hotel, 2 The Avenue, Ealing, London, W13 8PH and will be organised by Dick Esmond, organiser of the Sound of Seventeen Big Band that Ken was the bass player for since it started. It will be on the evening of Wednesday November 30^th. 

If travelling take care, and until we meet again

TTFN

Geoff C