A Short note of blog today just to reinforce the message that Hedsor Jazz is alive and well and operates every Thursday.

This Thursday is no exception, and will be with a version of our regular Clive Burton Quintet.

Last week we had an excellent evening of jazz from the quintet, with Ken McCarthy in the piano chair (OK, stool!) but sadly the audience were largely scared off by the weather forecast. By the middle and end of the evening eleven brave souls had arrived, and I think everyone there enjoyed the evening. So, if you are free this week, and it doesn’t snow, flood or come down with a plague of frogs, maybe you too can enjoy the sound of live jazz. OK, I do nag!

If you can get catch up TV in some form or other I can strongly recommend a three-part serial on the “Drama” channel.

From my perspective a program that contains WWII aeroplanes, big band jazz, famous actors, comedy and gangsters is a must. And to have one that has George Melly actually singing makes it even more fun. “Aint Misbehavin” has all of these elements and is available for about another 10 days or so. Its so good in fact that I have just ordered the DVD (from Canada!).

One last conversational piece. Last night a number of the Hedsor Faithful visited Marlow Jazz. The guest musician was going to be guitarist Jim Mullen, but he has very recently been taken ill and is in hospital. In his place Michael Eagleton had booked Nigel Price, another fine guitarist and Hedsor favourite. The supporting trio was Frank Toms keyboard, with Elliot Toms on drums and Malcolm Creese on bass. In order to achieve some balance, saxophonist Frank Griffiths was also added in to the front line and actually acted as host for the evening. It turned out to be a pretty entertaining evening of first-rate jazz. The remarkable bit for me was that Malcolm Creese lives in Bury St Edmunds. I asked him at the end of the evening if he was travelling back that night. “Oh yes” he said “but I have to take Frank home to Bedford first”! So his journey to Marlow from Bury St Edmunds had been via Bedford in the first place.

And we get all of that effort for just £8!!

PS for those geographically challenged, Bury St Edmunds is in Suffolk! It would have meant a return journey of 246 miles.