There are always things to look forward to at HEDSOR JAZZ.

This week (June 27th) is no exception, except that we only have recommendations, not actual previous experience, for this weeks front pairing.

Trumpeter Ian Smith and saxophonist Ollie Wilby.

If you look back to one of my May blogs you will see that they both have good cv’s. Duncan Lamont Jr recommended Ollie, and last weeks tenor man Kelvin Christiane had praise for Ian. To back those at the front we have Ken McCarthy on keyboard, Martin on drums and a bass player new to Hedsor, Thomas Pedersen from Denmark.

So a Thursday night session full of promise, and all for £7 entry.

For your £7 last week we had a real treat. After all the confusion of bass players names and a trumpet guest who will be with us on another occasion, but sadly wasn’t with us last week, we had not only Kelvin, who stuck to his tenor sax all evening, but a really fine trombone player, NICK MILLS. It was a really good session, with a front line combination that we haven’t had too frequently since dear Clive left us for his place in a higher plane brass band! I was apprehensive, as Jan was with us, but it all passed off very well indeed, and Jan enjoyed it very much. Nick is a fine trombone player, and we will undoubtedly have him again. It was refreshing to hear that trombone/sax sound again at Hedsor Jazz, and Nick introduced us to some new tunes, which was very refreshing.

I had a phone conversation with saxophonist Frank Griffith last week, and can give you advance notice that he will be with us on November 28^th. Frank now lives in Liverpool, so we will be included in his Autumn tour! He did point out that my blog, and much of our online advertisements, don’t mention Hedsor Clubs post code. Just for the record it is SL8 5ES. I hope that helps all the people to navigate their bus to us now. We have often wondered why it never got to us in the past!

I want to look back now to that great session we had with Nigel Price and John Donegan on June 13^th. I quoted (or more probably paraphrased) one of our audience for that night. No, he didn’t take offence, but he did email me a great write up about his view of the evening, so here it is….in full!

“I am not usually rendered (almost) speechless, but last night's gig I was!  It was a truly awesome performance - and I do mean AWESOME - the artistry, creativity and technical skills involved had to be seen (and heard) to be believed. Nigel Price demonstrated phenomenal technique and achieved what I, as a lifelong guitar enthusiast, thought to be impossible. John Donegan, not to be outdone, also contributed some incredible piano work, the speed of which was mind-boggling.   Stuart Barker on bass almost played out of his skin - nice work. Martin Hart rose to the occasion with some very tasty drum fills. I, for one, will be remembering this night of superb musicianship for a long time to come.

I said earlier that I would be stuck for words - I lied! 

Regards Alan Peppett”

I would also like to mention that Alan was told last week by his oncologist that he is now completely clear of the cancer that he has been treated for for the last 5 years. It is just wonderful to hear news like that.

One final retrospective of that session with John Donegan and Nigel Price.

John had his new cd with him that night, and I have now had a chance to really listen to it. Called “Siamsa Vol1” it is a collection of Contemporary Compositions inspired by his Irish Roots. I enjoyed it very much. No it isn’t Bop, but it does have some great female voice from Catherine Donegan, and some superb soprano sax from Tommaso Starace. All the compositions are by John, and obviously his piano playing is fully featured too. The album title gives a clue to there being another to follow. Do check it out via his web page:- www.johndoneganjazz.com

STOP PRESS

Tonight one of our headline guest is unable to be with us.

In Matt Holland's place we have trombonist NICK MILLS

Check out 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xI37xU_IgA

Correction

Terry DAVIS will be on bass this coming Thursday

Coming to Hedsor Jazz this Thursday, June 20th

Is a trumpet player who hasn’t been to Hedsor Jazz before.  

Matt Holland. 

His CV looks exciting!

His résumé includes touring the world with the likes of Burt Bacharach and Roy Ayers, as well as live performances on Strictly Come Dancing, Dancing on Ice and a special X-Factor show with Robbie Williams.

Matt has also spent time in the studio recording for Ray Charles and eight Van Morrison albums.

He will be accompanied by a saxophonist who HAS been before, and who has often played more than one saxophone at the same time, a la Roland Kirk. Yes Kelvin Christiane will be with us again. So putting the two together seems like a good idea. Usual start time and usual entry fee. DO TELL FRIENDS, we really are getting some very talented musicians coming to play at Hedsor these days, and I’m NOT ignoring our regular guys in that at all. Martin will be leading the backing group, (sometimes from behind his drum kit), with Ken McCarthy on keyboards and Terry Hutchins on bass. 

It would be nice for our finances if we had a larger audience. 

It would also more fun for the musicians too.

Kelvin at Hedsor on a previous visit

Those of you who braved the weather last week (well, really only the weather forecast!) were entertained to a world class performance, it was a real WOW. I need not say more than Nigel Price.

But I will, because we also had that wonderful pianist John Donegan. What a night. They didn’t know each other! But by the time they got to play “You’d be So Nice to Come Home to” they had both realised that the other was very talented. 15 minutes of chase, “I can do better than you", changes!

We had one or three musicians in the audience and Roy Hole who was sitting with me said at the end of that tune “How about that then”! Another said if only his pupils had come, they would have learnt more than he could ever teach them in that one evening!

And we did have some students there. Our Brunel University helpers (with Instagram anyway) had told me they were going to come. All through the first half I looked out for them, but no sign. Then at the beginning of the interval, there were our two, plus a friend. They had got off the train at the wrong station and had walked …. from Cookham! “What lovely scenery” is all they said!

Nigel emailed later Thanks for having me. I look forward to seeing you all again at some point.

Cheers Nigel 

And John said 

Keep well and hope to see you again in the not too distant future. Best wishes,  John

More photos from last week (mine and Geoff Swaffield's) are below

Next week, June 27^th, another combination of talents who haven’t been to Hedsor before, trumpeter Ian Smith and saxophonist Ollie Wilby.

Hedsor Jazz....EVERY THURSDAY!

ps. I have no idea why blogspot sometimes puts a white background to my text. 

All that Hedsor Jazz 

this week will be one of our really special nights.

No, no food (well, crisps and nuts at the bar I’m sure) but a quartet of superb musicians. Our start time will be our usual 8.30pm, and our entry charge will still be £7, BUT, we have coming to play for us:-

First, the name on the poster, British guitar legend NIGEL PRICE.

Then on keyboard, someone many of you have asked to see again, JOHN DONEGAN

Then on bass, local man made very good STUART BARKER

FINALLY on drums our very own MARTIN HART

So, I would suggest that you come slightly earlier than you usually do. If you are too early you can help us put the seats out, BUT if your late, you may not get one!!

Last week both Geoff Swaffield and I were away. Geoff S on holiday, I was helping my wife celebrate a birthday, HERS!

So we don’t have any photos to brighten the text. But we do have a rave review from someone who was there:-

“Last Thursday was great with the fitting combination of Stuart and Duncan. Stuart  was especially excelling with a fantastic version of Willow Weep for Me using the mute and hitting some tremendous high notes. Sandu and Secret Love were 2 other tunes which had the audience (about 25) raving.”

The Stuart was Henderson and the Duncan was Lamont Jr.

As well as celebrating June’s birthday last week I have to mention that Roy Hole celebrated 95 years on Sunday (as I write this, yesterday). Well done Roy, and very many happy returns for many more birthdays to come.

The last time I was with you at Hedsor I had 2 Brunel Students with me. They have done some work amongst the students using Instagram.  Check out 

https://www.instagram.com/hedsorjazz/

You never know, we may see some younger members in the audience. I will just mention that if you have a genuine students union card (or similar proof of student status) our entry fee on non food nights is £3.

For now, farewell.

A footnote. Both Nigel Price and John Donaldson are at this years Swanage Jazz Festival, AND Nigel (it is rumoured) is going to try and keep “Harri’s Jazz” running.

Here’s that Blog again!

At the moment I do my blog regularly every Tuesday, mostly nowadays just to chivy on support for Hedsor Jazz. It was initially to spread more interest in jazz over a wider area, but as time has gone by, and I have got older, there is less energy for such tasks. Sadly there is now also less jazz events to nag on about too. Jagz in Ascot ran its last gig last Sunday, and I am told that its last lunchtime session ran to about 20 people.

To try and counter some of this shrinkage, and to improve both the jazz and Hedsor Jazz profiles, for the next 2 or 3 weeks we have the help of two students from Brunel University. Ines and Azuz are using Hedsor Jazz as part of their business studies module for a Masters degree. They came to Hedsor last Thursday with the aim of placing Hedsor Jazz on Instagram. They took lots of photos, and are busy agitating on Instagram amongst the student fraternity.

They are not particularly jazz fans, but I did run a series of jazz tracks past them during their afternoon with June and me. They enjoyed them, and genuinely enjoyed the evening at Hedsor. So, let us hope that their involvement will give our kind of music a small boost. This blog is apparently linked to our Instagram page(?), I have yet to get it all to work on my desktop computer as it is mainly a mobile phone app. but you never know, my blog may well become totally redundant!

Last week the session Inez and Azuz watched was one led by clarinettist Martin Nickless and Max Brittain. My photos of this set are a below.

This coming week (June 6^th ) it will be Stuart Henderson and Duncan Lamont jr who will stand in front of the Clive Burton Celebration Quintet Rhythm Section! This Thursday is June Cronin’s birthday, and as she is a well know non-lover of all things jazz, I may not be there!!

BUT I will not miss the following week, and I really hope you don’t either. June 13^th has that wonderful guitarist Nigel Price coming to us. He plans to be the soul member of the front line, but our regular quintet rhythm section will be with him, and on bass for this one we have Stuart Barker. Usual start time of 8.30pm, and our usual entry fee of £7. Do cajole your friends to come out for this one.

In my discussions with the Brunel Students I said that I thought that people who had not experienced live jazz in the kind of friendly and close atmosphere of Hedsor Jazz would really appreciate our overall event.

Most people these days think of a live music event as being in a crowd of many thousands, with the sound conveyed via mega watt speakers, with the image of the musicians before them on some large screens. Yes, they are at a live music event, but to really see the instruments being played, the interaction of players, the skill of those same players able to play tunes called only by name, key and tempo and then have the ability to talk to those same players during the evening is a totally different experience. AND, dare I say, one that is vastly more valuable than the £7 entry fee.

So, if your friends say they don’t really like jazz, just bring them to Hedsor Jazz, and see if they still don’t like it after the experience Hedsor Jazz has given them.