Hedsor Jazz
There WILL BE a Hedsor jazz session this week.
Martin has checked out the
Hedsor Social Club, and the works Foreman is sure that the only inconvenience we
will suffer this Thursday is a smell of paint!
So February 22nd
should not be missed! WE WILL ENJOY again the added benefit of lady saxophonist Sue
Greenway joining forces with Mike Wills.
We will also have the
(en)joy of pianist Ken McCarthy being our pianist for the evening.
I now have tickets
available for our Cancer Research UK fundraiser on March 22nd. You will be able to get yours from Dee at the door this Thursday.
I
have also talked with the Cancer research team in Maidenhead and they hope to
be with us as well, with perhaps some leaflets of there own, and probably a big
collection bucket too!
Some of you I know took
some of Ken Rankine’s collection of LP’s, and the donated sum of £19 was passed
to CRUK this week. I still have more available, but they are very heavy to lug
about, so if you have an interest in vinyl, do let me know and we can arrange a
fork lift truck viewing!
I have had an interesting
few days listening to one or two of the LP’s that have recently arrived at
Cronin Towers. I tend to forget the joy of just 20 minutes of music. CD’s
usually trap you for far longer. The 20 minute length per side seems very
comfortable, and what is even better is the large artwork and sleeve notes LP’s
could give you. CD’s do obviously have a large place in my collection, and they
are convenient, don’t usually have clicks and surface noise, and yes, do have
(small) works of art and sleeve notes. But somehow LPs add in an extra element,
perhaps its called nostalgia! AND perhaps it is also that they have a slightly more mellow
sound.
However of the new CD’s
in my listening experience this week is Nat Steele’s “Portrait of the Modern Jazz
Quartet”. It is a very good, fresh listen to the sounds made famous by Milt
Jackson, John Lewis, Connie Kay and Percy Heath. The CD is a joy to hear, very
well recorded and of course well played. I hadn’t heard Nat Steele before, but
he has resurrected the quartet once formed by pianist Michael Garrick just
before he died in 2011 which had Jim Hart on the vibes.
It is good to hear in it’s
entirety “The Golden Striker” for a change because almost every week someone
playing at Hedsor will “quote” from it!
I can really recommend the
CD (on Trio Records TR958), and look forward to April 3rd when we
can all hear them live at Marlow’s Jazz club.
Look out soon for our new
Facebook links, and our own web site too, both currently being worked on by our
connections with and in Brunel University. Soon you will be able to tweet to
your hearts content, enabling you to all KEEP LIVE JAZZ ALIVE!
1 comment:
Hi Geoff, I only recently came across your blog but I have to say I am thoroughly enjoying reading your comments. I lived in the Windsor and Slough from 1972 to 1999 and one of things I miss down here in Somerset is the vibrant jazz scene in your area. We do have some regular jazz venues but most require lengthy journeys with jus a few fairly close in the summer months. None are accessible by public transport so a few beers with th jazz is out of the question unless the bands are playing here in Watchet. I don't know if you are aware, but Keith Vitty's Century Jazz made some recordings in the form of at least one cassette tape and one CD, both of which are treasured items in my jazz collection. I have transferred the cassette tape to CD and if you don't have copies of either, I would be happy to duplicate them for you and pop them in the post. They are tribute to the fine trombone work of Clive Burton as well as being some of the best small group jazz of their time. Keep up the good work and long may jazz flourish in the Thames Valley. Just for information, there is whole page obituary and appreciation of Clive Burton by Simon Spillett in the March 2018 issue of Jazz Journal.
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