OK, this is the second blog of 2019.

So lets for a moment look back on the first Hedsor Jazz session of this New Year.

Last week brought us a reunion with “our” regular sax section in the shape and sound of Mike Wills. He had managed to get to Hedsor because our guest last week was guitarist Jezz Cook who lives near in enough to Mike in Oxford to give him a lift.

It was a joyous first session. Jezz and Mike’s interpretations of some Pat Metheny tunes produced some wonderful chords and harmonies on tunes that Hedsor Jazz isn’t used to hearing. Really good stuff for a brand new year’s start!

My Pictures are below

For a first gig of a new year the audience was good too. Thank you for turning out! I can promise you however that the quality of the music we have planned so far for 2019 wont disappoint or diminish either.

This week (January 17^th) we have a soon to be wed Lester Brown on trumpet together with Duncan Lamont Jnr. on tenor sax all backed up by our usual selection of rhythm!

Most weeks in our rhythm section we can rely on having Martin Hart on drums. Martin has taken on the roll of band leader and musician booker. He does however occasionally take a break, and then we usually see Mike Jeffries step in as his regular dep.

On keyboard the usual fingers belong to Nigel Fox, but when he takes a break we often see Ken McCarthy.

On bass we have a choice of 3 who take it in turns. Mostly that means Peter Hughes (as last week) or Steve Riddle, but occasionally we have an even more local man, Stuart Barker, who lives in Maidenhead but works more often in London at a certain well know jazz club that has been running longer than Hedsor Jazz!

On January 24^th we do have another rather special evening, and you can see, and hopefully replicate and place amongst your community my poster for it below.

Yes, Vasilis Xenopoulos is coming to lead us into the musical land of Jerome Kern. He has specifically asked for Stuart Barker as his bass player of choice, and that together with keyboard and drums is your lot! For the £7 entry fee your lot will be amazing! Do try and come yourselves, and come early, because it is a pay on the door only event.

Talking of personnel we do have another change. For 10 years the Red Box at the door has been guarded by Dee. She has decided to hand that task on, so watch out for that Red Box, no matter who its guardian may be, and put money into it!

Joking aside, 10 years is a long time for voluntary service, and I’m sure you will want to thank her for all her sterling works. She is now going to be able to sit slightly further away from the draft of the door!

Next week I will publish our guest list for February, but I do have it. Our room rental (which we pay in advance) has gone up this year, but we still hope to keep the regular door fee at £7.

CD Review

One from my collection this.

In my much younger days I used to go and listen to the Chris Barber Jazz Band at the White Hart in Southall. Yes, I played trad jazz on my turntable as well in those days, even though I did discover via early LP’s the delights of Buck Clayton and Duke Ellington. And I did eventually get to like and listen to the likes of Dick Morrisey and Terry Smith at the Bell in Maidenhead as well.

However not only did my tastes grow, but so did the Barber Bands type of music change. You could say that we have all been on a musical journey of discovery. In 2011 Proper Records brought out a two disk set of Chris Barber entitled “Memories of My Trip”. It contains mostly previously unreleased material from all of the Barber Bands journey, from blues through gospel to mainstream. If you think you know what Chris Barber represents, go out and get this revision course! It is very enjoyable, and includes music from Ottille Patterson (who used to mark homework beside the bandstand in Southall before going on to sing), Van Morrison, Paul Jones, Mark Knofler, Edmond Hall, and probably a dozen others. Its on Proper PRPCD073

Don’t forget though that to keep live jazz alive, we need the audience.