Hedsor Jazz for Maundy Thursday!

Yes, this Thursday, March 29^th, is this years Maundy Thursday, the day before Easter’s Good Friday.

And at Hedsor this week we have world renowned saxophonist, author and expert on the life of Tubby Hayes, Simon Spillett. He will be accompanied by Lester Brown (car permitting) on trumpet, Ken McCarthy on keyboard, John Monney on bass and of course Martin Hart on drums. At least, that’s who I think is coming, but we may also have Mike Wills back on reeds after his investigation into local hospital practice!

Simon might now be pretty well known, but our entry fee (unlike Ronnie Scott’s) is still just £7, and we offer free car parking and the drinks are at club (not jazz club!) prices. Do come along and relax before the bank holiday.

Looking back on last week can I thank you all for turning out and a BIG THANK YOU for all who helped with the arrangements, especially those who supplied the feast we had at half time. So far the money raised from the evening for Cancer Research UK amounts to £310. This isn’t yet the final figure, as more donations are still coming in.

But thank you to those of you who came just for the evening. Well it wasn’t really any hardship was it? £310 raised for Cancer Research and you didn’t have to run round a field, or swim the Thames. You just had to come and enjoy some excellent jazz and eat some wonderful food.

Our star guest Sarah Moule was superb. I could say a lot more, but visit her website to see what others say about her. 

http://www.sarahmoule.net 

Our extra, kind of unexpected and late booked, star guests of Duncan Lamont jnr on saxophone and flute (who replaced Mike Wills) and Stuart Henderson on trumpet and flugel horn (who replaced the car-less Lester Brown) made a wonderful sound, both backing Sarah and soloing in there own star right. What a privileged to have such superb music and such superb musicians at Hedsor Jazz.

It was also nice to see two students from Brunel University with us last week as well. They made a tremendous effort to be with us for this special night, travelling by train (including missing one that just didn’t bother to run, the connection from Maidenhead to Bourne End, which is why they were late). They are both very talented music students, but are also helping us get the message of Hedsor Jazz across to a wider and younger audience. If you see then at Hedsor again (as I think we will) do say “Hello” and make them welcome.

Our first gig of April will be saxophonist Frank Griffith, who until recently was also a music tutor at Brunel University. For those of you who don’t know where that is, it’s in Uxbridge. Franks date is April 5^th

Below I am going to put up Geoff Swaffield’s photos of last Thursday, but before I end the text part of today’s blog don’t overlook that on Tuesday 3^rd April Marlow Jazz are having a visit from Nat Steel’s “Portrait of The Modern Jazz Quartet”.

NOW Geoff Swaffield's Photos from Last Weeks Concert

No Photos were taken of the food!!

Hedsor Jazz Headlines 19/03/18 !

Hedsor Jazz has had a few problems to deal with this last 3 years. This week, with our Cancer Fundraiser coming on Thursday, we have had two more unpleasant surprises thrust upon us.

Yesterday (Sunday) I learnt that our trumpet player, Lester Brown, has been involved in a car accident. His car is I believe a write off, but the good news is that Lester is OK. Shaken and stirred, but he will be with us in a couple of week time. BUT he won’t be with us on Thursday.

Today (Monday) I have had the news that our saxophone section, Mike Wills, is again in hospital. He is currently being kept in to check out an “anomaly”. He says he feels fine, but we may not have him with us on Thursday.

SO, the line-up for our Cancer Special now stands like this:-

On trumpet we will have Stuart Henderson

On saxophone we have Duncan Lamont jnr

Our star guest remains as singer Sarah Moule

Alan Grahame had wanted to be with us as well this week, but he is currently abroad, but he will be with us later in April.

It is just sad to reflect that this will be our first Cancer fundraising evening without our dear Clive Burton. In the last few years Hedsor Jazz have lost our pianist Zane Cronje, Ken Rankine our bass player and finally Clive, and all three have been lost to cancer.

Many of us have other friends and family too who have been greatly affected by cancer and this week I had a message from Lisa Munns (Zane’s sister, now living in France) “Wish we could be there! Keep up the good work - miss Zane soooooo much!!”

SO do come out to support Cancer Research UK and to support our own band and all of its endeavours too. Martin Hart has done a splendid job keeping Hedsor Jazz alive and vibrant, and this week in getting replacements at such short notice. I am sure that the musical quality on Thursday will be up to our usual high standard and there will also be a light buffet to sustain us through the evening. It only costs £10 to get in, and all of our profit will go to Cancer Research UK. 

The evening will start at 8pm, so don’t be late.

Talking of being late, don’t forget that the clocks Go Forward 1 hour this Sunday morning.

I have been trying to locate a song I heard many years ago about Sundays. I’m pretty certain that the first line was “Sunday I go Sailing in The Serpentine” and I think it was by a traditional jazz trumpet leader called Jerry Brown. So far, I haven’t traced it down, but I did have a Sunday (as many of you did too I’m sure) where our planned activity was disrupted, yet again, by SNOW.

This time the weather gave me more time to catch up with some listening.

First in the CD player was a CD led by bass player Jim Richardson. Called “2plus2” it has Don Weller on sax, Jim Mullen on guitar and the late Chris Dagley on drums. It may well have been one of the last recordings Chris made (it was released in February 2010. Chris was killed returning from Ronnie Scott’s in a motorcycle accident on 28^th July 2010). The recording just shows what a loss the UK jazz world suffered with Chris’s death. It is a superb modern jazz quartet album. Both Jim Mullen and Don Weller are in splendid form, and I heartily recommend this one. It’s released on Acton Records as ARCD 1005

Second up was an ACT album, celebrating 25 years of that label. It is a compilation, with a very nicely illustrated booklet moulded to it. It contains a variety of mostly Scandinavian musicians, but one stood out to me particularly as being very good indeed and someone I had never heard before. 

Korean singer Youn Sun Nah is a delight. On this album there is only one tune by her, but it prompted me to look further, and there is much terrific stuff by her on YouTube and a number of albums on Amazon. I am now a fan! Try

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJIYPtsxAsI

where she has Ulf Wakenius on guitar as part of her band.

Other material on the ACT album confirms my liking for trombonist Nils Landgren, and for guitarist father and son Ulf and Eric Wakenius. It’s all wonderfully well recorded, and a good workout for anyone’s Hi Fi. It can be found as ACT 9850-2 as “The Jubilee Album”.

So there you have it, and as someone once said “sic transit Gloria Swanson”!

A Short Reminder

Of what’s on at Hedsor Jazz this week.

If you read last week’s blog you will realise that this week we have The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet. And this week it will have one of our regular dep players, Ken McCarthy will be on Keyboard for us.

Martin last week reminded us that with Lester Brown joining the band that there will be some new tunes and some new arrangements of old tunes too. So do come and join us to see and hear what’s new (sorry we don’t do pussycats!).

Last week we had Lester joined by Kelvin Christiane on reeds (Mike Wills will one day get the painting of the railings completed. How many hours of community service will it be?) and a vibrant session was had.

Two items stand out for me, Kelvin’s feature “Nostalgia in Times Square” was not a tune we hear very often, and you don’t get it played on 2 saxophones at the same time by a single musician very often either.

The other outstanding number was the last of the night, Miles Davis’s “All Blues”.

Many of you will know the original tune is from Miles’s album “Kind of Blue”, but hearing it played so well and live at Hedsor Jazz made me revisit the original, and, yes, our live version on Thursday last week was pretty special.

It just so happened that my mobile phone was recording the evening, and if you want to see and hear what I am talking about take a look at my DropBox folder by following the link:-

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/w3gopkngx7fhdgu/AABMzNT0B3lHoZkw53vFCovEa?dl=0

I will leave it there for a couple of weeks to allow you to download it if you would like to.

As I said it did make me go back to some of the Miles Davis I have in my collection. I was fortunate to be given a promotional sample in 2009 of a selection from “The Complete Columbia Album Collection”. It arrived on one USB memory stick. Nearly 3 GB of WAV files, 27 tunes in all. I was fortunate, as even today, second hand, the complete set sells for £245, when first issued new it was £709!! Staggering!

Please don’t forget that for considerably less you can support not only Hedsor Jazz, but Cancer Research UK too by coming to our special evening on March 22^nd. See last weeks blog for the poster. Yes, it will cost you £10! That’s each!!

All the profit from the evening will be going to CRUK.

See you all on Thursday.

TTFN

Hedsor Jazz

I hope we have all now recovered from snow, ice and burst pipes. After last weeks cancellation I can now bring you news of lots of Thursday night jazz at Hedsor for you to look forward to. Martin Hart has been working hard on his telephone during the snow break, and we now have a program up to and including May 10^th.

Tell your friends and especially encourage them to come to our Cancer Fundraiser on March 22^nd. It should be a great night, with an early 8pm start and a light finger snack to eat at half time, all for just £10. ALL of our profit from this evening will go to CRUK.

Now for that list:-

March 8^th         Kelvin Christiane (saxophone) 

                             with Lester Brown (trumpet)

March 15^th       The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet 

      

March 22^nd       Our Cancer Research UK Fundraising night with

                       Singer Sarah Moule & saxophonist Duncan Lamont jnr

                       PLUS The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet 

March 29^th        Simon Spillett (saxophone)

April 5^th            Frank Griffith (saxophone)

April 12^th          The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet 

April 19^th          Robert Goodhew (saxophonist)

April 26^th          Alan Grahame (vibs)

May 3^rd             The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet (to be confirmed)

May 10^th           Terry Hutchins (guitar)

All of the above will be accompanied by elements of The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet, whose members are:-

Lester Brown (tpt), Mike Wills (reeds), Nigel Fox (keyboard) John Monney (bass) and Martin Hart (drums).

More next week, when I may tell you what I listened to in the cold snap,

but until then, 

                             Do help to keep Live Jazz ALIVE

Kelvin, yes, playing two at a time!

HEDSOR JAZZ

After due consideration and consultation with all the musicians, tonights Hedsor Jazz has been CANCELLED on safety grounds.

PLEASE tell as many people as you know who may be tempted to travel to Hedsor tonight that there will be

NO JAZZ SESSION TONIGHT

Keep safe, keep warm, and listen to or watch some jazz at home.

Hopefully next week will be a little warmer, and you can all come out to listen to Kelvin Christiane on Thursday March 8^th