Some come early, and some come late!

THIS blog is a day late!! AND it may well be a bit shorter than some of my recent others, but it is no less colourful!!

Do look at last week’s blog for all the info on the next few weeks jazz at “The Hedsor Social Club” (this could almost be sung!). Also note the note about the raffle.

This week (January 31st) we have most of The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet, the guest being that multi reed player Kelvin Christiane.

http://www.kcmusic.co.uk/pages/biography.html

Last weeks session at Hedsor Jazz with Vasilis Xenopoulos as our guest was well attended, (my photos are below) and it was an excellent evening.

Stuart Barker

Nigel Fox

 

Hedsor is so fortunate in having players of Vasilis’s ability coming to play as a friend of Hedsor Jazz. He has been coming to Hedsor ever since he made his home in Ealing in 2002. This was a specialist evening concentrating on the music of Jerome Kern and it was his idea, as was the concept of having it just as a quartet evening. We all know the tunes, but it was enlightening to hear some of the stories behind them. One of our regular attendees said to me, “and he is playing it all just in front of us!” I know what they meant. At Hedsor you can see and hear musicians of international quality, not via large video screen, but close enough to touch and I know some of did!!

One added bonus from last week was the addition of a “sit in” by a young drummer who happens to be known by Vasilis and who lives in Burnham -  Jason Reed (bottom two pictures above). I hope we can persuade him to come and visit us at Hedsor again, as he is not only a very good drummer, but he is also a teacher, with access to Borlaise Grammar School and Wycombe High School. Jazz needs young people!

We were very fortunate with the weather last Thursday, I must commiserate with Marlow Jazz Club and Michael Eagleton on there snow disrupted Tuesday evening event where over half the audience couldn’t get there. The weather caused a huge traffic jam around the Marlow Bisham bye-pass causing many people to get home 3 hours late!

As a side note to Marlow’s spoilt evening, critic Clive Davis has sent me a very interesting article on Karen Sharp, culled from no better international source than the USA magazine “Downbeat”. A link to their website and the article is below:-

http://downbeat.com/news/detail/karen-sharp-on-the-low-end

Her new CD is out now.

That's it from me this Wednesday, keep listening!

Geoff C