What’s on at Hedsor Jazz this week?
Do you really need to ask?
It is ALWAYS good!!
But as you did asked (!)
this week our guests are guitarist Max Brittain, and vibraphone player
extraordinaire Alan Grahame. Backing the front line, as always, the
Clive Burton Celebration Rhythm section.
Last weeks jazz with Lester
Brown and Robert Goodhew produced some wonderful music. My photos of
it are below. Robert likes these sessions recorded for his benefit, BUT when I
have processed the recording I will put it out via DropBox.
Our sound engineer in
residence (Geoff S) will be back in residence after his holiday, so next week
the photos may be his not mine!
There is some exciting news
to fill in the gaps in our program up to Christmas. On November 29th
American tenor man Frank Griffith has confirmed that he is bringing with
him that legendary trombonist Roy Williams. Do tell others. It will be a
regular session at our regular entry fee of £7. I hope to do a poster before
the week is out, but I may not have the time. So it is important (for the
greater good you understand) that as many people know about this gig the
better.
The other missing person in
our list up to Christmas was a partner for saxophonist Sue Greenway on
December 13th. That person will be Alan Grahame. Now THAT
will be an interesting session. The drummer for this will be Mike Jeffries
as Martin is taking a look at New York
CD Listened to this week.
Last Thursday Nigel played a
tune by pianist Charles Thompson, often referred to, like our own Michael
Weinblatt (king of the raffle) as “Sir”.
Sir Charles Thompson was
the pianist associated with a set of recordings made in 1953 and 54 referred to
at the time as being “in the mainstream of jazz”, and the style became know as
“Mainstream” ever after. Those recordings were made with trombonist Vic
Dickenson as leader, and in my loft I still have one of the 10” LP’s from those
sessions. My loft LP has on it the tunes “Jeepers Creepers” and “Russian
Lullaby” and they are the last 2 titles of the CD which I played for myself on
Sunday. “Vic Dickenson Nice Work” is a cd on the Vanguard label (79610-2), and
has 7 other tracks of similar quality. It’s a great listen, light, swinging,
and with thoughtful solos.
The players were the cream
of the swing era, with each having loads of experience with all the swing bands
of the 30’s and 40’s. After the war, big band were in decline, but the players
who had settled in New York’s clubs playing in small groups found that their
work didn’t disappear. So on this 50’s set we have with Vic D, Edmund Hall on
clarinet, Shad Collins and Ruby Braff on trumpet, Walter Page bass, Steve
Jordan guitar, and either Jo Jones or Les Erskine on drums. Many of the tunes
played come from the age before Be Bop. Tunes Like “Everybody Loves My Baby”,
“Nice Work if you can Get It”, and “You Brought a New Kind of Love”.
The cd was a really
refreshing listen. How they generate a lot of swing without a lot of notes is a
joy to wonder at. The recording isn’t bad for 1953/4 and I think you would
enjoy it. Spend money, its (nearly) Christmas!
For an entire listing of
our gigs at Hedsor up to and including Christmas please see last weeks blog.
You can always cut and past and produce your own diary size print for further
reference. Whatever, DON ’T MISS A GIG!
POSTSCRIPT
Last Tuesday many of
Hedsor’s regulars went to see a jazz event in Marlow’s Christ Church
A link to Martin Ashfords
photos from the night is below
http://www.musicinmarlow.org.uk/greg-abate-nov-18/4594471724
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