Wednesday, 19 April 2017      Todays Blog

About tomorrows Hedsor Jazz!

There is a saying that “Rubbish In means Rubbish Out”, and so it was for my last week blog edition.

Those of you who came will have noticed that we didn’t have Ken McCarthy as a deputy pianist, because Nigel Fox WAS there. I had been incorrectly informed 3 weeks ago about who was or wasn’t playing last week.

THIS WEEK I can be sure that Nigel IS away in France, and that Ken McCarthy will be playing at Hedsor! ALSO we have as a guest (who must by now have frequent traveller points for his trips to Hedsor) on drums Mike Jeffries. The person who does have without doubt frequent traveller points is Martin Hart, who is away travelling!

This week we anticipate Clive being with us alongside Mike Wills who is back! Clive is actually having his second round of Chemo TODAY, so there is a possibility that he may be a little frail and we might have a surprise extra guest. We may also have Jazz Angels new (to us) PA system!

YOU can find out by actually coming and supporting Live Jazz at The Hedsor Social Club!!

I have enjoyed some not so live jazz by listening to both LP’s (Yes a new Audio Technica cartridge has been installed in my Technics SL1700 turntable during the Easter Break), and CD’s.

The CD set that I want to draw your attention to this week contains music that was ALL released on black plastic disks. Actually some of it was released on round shellac disks too!!

What I have been playing is a Proper Box set of the jazz that writer, poet and critic Phillip Larkin used to love. He started collecting records in 1936, so 3 minutes listening before turning the record over would have been his norm. It is an excellent collection of music recorded from the 1920’s right up to 1959. It has some absolute gems on it. Who can forget Earl Bostic and “Flamingo” (1951) or Duke Ellington at Newport in 1956. The collection also includes a superb 12-minute track from an Eddie Condon Jam Session in 1954.

This 4 CD set, with an excellent booklet, starts off with music from 1928 by Louis Armstrong and His Hot 5. All of the recordings in this box set have been remastered with great care, and I can recommend it without any hesitation! “Larkins Jazz” is on ProperBox 155.

Phillip Larkin (who died in 1985) didn’t just sit indoors and listen to music on his gramophone. In an interview with “The Guardian” in 1965, He said “I can live a week without poetry but not a day without jazz”.

He did go out to find it live, as you can too.