HEDSOR JAZZ

This week jazz at Hedsor will be one that has a number of surprises. We have joining with us on Thursday one or two people that used to be regulars, then became much less regular and this week it will be a delight to welcome them back, and a player who has never been to us before!

Our band this week will not be anything like our regular 5.

We will have Martin Hart on drums and announcements, our anchor man in fact!

But surrounding him this week we will have:-

a pianist not seen at Hedsor before, John Donegan, do look him up. Follow the link below, it IS worth the effort!

https://www.facebook.com/johndoneganjazz/

Nigel and Ken are both away, celebrating another pianists 90^th birthday (Jack Honeyborne). So we are indebted to our bass player for this week, Steve Riddle, (another familiar face not recently seen at Hedsor Jazz, who happens to play with John D regularly), for bringing him to us.

Which brings us to a front line!

Saxophonist Peter Cook has been gainfully employed, not just by the London College of Music (follow the link for more London College of Music), but as a band leader in his own right. He used to be a regular with us at Hedsor, mostly when we inhabited the Hedsor bar. It will be a delight to have him back with us again. At one time, he was in the chain of tutors who taught Vasilis Xenopoulos before Vas went to Berkley, Boston, Mass. for his Masters degree.

With him will be a return from illness of one of our Hedsor mainstays. Guitarist John Coverdale. John could always be relied upon to come to Hedsor to play, often at very short notice. In the dark days of Clive’s illness he could be summoned to fill the gap. He has been unwell himself recently but is back to playing and it will be an exciting evening having all these guys playing for us. A great evening to look forward to.

Mentioning Vasilis brings mind last Sundays gig at Marlow Jazz. A Sunday lunchtime gig, with free entry and with such a named musician headlining led me to believe that it would be packed. I got to it in plenty of time to ensure I could park in Marlow on Carnival day, to find myself only the second punter there! It did get better, it was just over half full, but it just goes to show, you can never rely on an audience. The session was one of the best I had heard at Marlow recently by the way. It was Vasilis’s first father’s day, his son Alex is now 3 weeks old! Vasilis is wondering why he is so tired!!

Whilst on the subject of Marlow, I thought I would mention another Sunday gig in Marlow. See the advert below. It should be interesting to hear our regular reed section playing in a different style. 

By the way, Mike Wills is also appearing at this years Swanage Jazz Festival. Catch him there on the Sunday morning (15^th July). Now HE may be tired at that one. He is playing the night before more locally to his Oxford location and travelling to Swanage in the early hours of Sunday morning! And I thought I needed my coffee now!