CORRECTION

Mark Aston will be there on Thursday, not Mark Ashton. Yet another hedgehog error!

Is JAZZ the only sane system in an otherwise 21st century world? Discuss!

Well perhaps not!

Well maybe during bass solos! After all, talking has always been the answer to the question “What do you do during bass solos? 

BUT not at Hedsor Jazz please! We do have a variety of bass players now coming to play for us at Hedsor Jazz, and everyone of them brings something different and worth listening out for.

BUT this week we are going to concentrate of SAXOPHONES!

This Thursday (October 31st, the only day to find yourself in a ditch OR engaged with a broomstick) we will have 2 saxophonist, at least one of whom also plays the trombone! 

And we will have “our” usual trio of piano bass and drums behind them. 

BUT we will have the following instruments in front of the trio:-

Soparino, soprano, alto, C Melody, tenor and baritone saxophones plus Bb, alto and contra-alto clarinets.

And of course that trombone!

The two guys trying to make up their minds as to the tunes to play and the key to play them in will be Mark Ashton and Mike Wills.

This will be a unique event. Please don’t miss it. Bring your camera’s, it will be hard to find that collection of reed instruments anywhere again!

I bring my camera most weeks, and last week was no exception. Stuart Henderson and Kelvin Christiane and for 2 tunes in the second set Kelvin’s partner Lesley played and sang for us and photographic evidence of it is below. The room was nicely full, and the music was exciting and vibrant and sponsored!

I know I almost promised last blog to review recent cd’s added to my collection, but I really haven’t yet had time to do any serious listening. I’m old fashioned, I like to listen to music at home as an individual activity, not as a background one, and porch and other events have meant that I have had no real possibility of doing that, and I will listen and comment very soon on some recent acquisitions. 

I listen on adult sized Hi Fi equipment, some of it as old as you are, (probably) and at a volume level that could not be considered background. Due to the porch development at the front of our house I have had ample opportunity whilst chasing up orders to listen to the holding pattern music, and that is better heard when travelling in a lift! I know that my custom is of value, but so is my time, not just theirs! I really do want to listen to music in comfort and quality. So bear with me for future comments. 

If you want to listen to some music that has been played at Hedsor recently, then try this link from my DropBox folder:-

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4tccuc1bowwk5yw/AADwigWwfCWXWWIINodmhr0Da?dl=0

This is The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet recorded by me on October 17th.

Our sessions for the coming 5 weeks  are listed below. Tell you friends. For those who don't know the way, Hedsor Jazz is held at The Hedsor Club, 2 Hedsor Rd, Bourne End, SL8 5ES  and it is free to park there!

November 

  7th      Alan Graham vibes + Mike Wills reeds with Roger Davis on bass

14th      Lester Brown trumpet  + Mark Aston reeds

21st      Al Nichols reeds + Simon Wilde trombone with Peter Hughes on bass

28th      Frank Griffith tenor sax + Lester Brown trumpet with Terry Davis on bass

December

5th        Ian Smith trumpet + Ollie Wilby reeds with Terry Davis on bass

19th will be our Christmas party with special guest Tina May

And that is all I have for you this blog day. I’ll see you all on Halloween at Hedsor Jazz! 

THIS IS JAZZ FROM GEOFF

How time fly‘s, especially when you are enjoying all the high quality debates over Brexit! Sorry, bad form, mustn’t talk about religion, or is that politics?

Away then to JAZZ, and this week a shorter blog than usual, because I have been taken up this weekend with our computer shipment to Ghana, and other matters now press for my time. We have had a spate of household items breaking and they are now in need of repair. Just how many can give up the ghost so near Halloween?

Coming to Hedsor Jazz this week (in a sponsored concert) are Stuart Henderson on trumpet and flugelhorn, and Kelvin Christiane on saxophones and flute, backed as usual by The Clive Burton Celebration Trio. I’m sure this will be a great session of lively jazz, performed by two of our long standing Hedsor Jazz friends.

Don't forget that if you fancy a Thursday Evening of jazz performed by your favourite jazz musicians, we do accept sponsored gigs. You pay, we book, we take any profit from the night to set against future less profitable gigs. Just talk to Martin Hart or John Dutton our treasurer about it.

Last week we had the full Celebration Quintet, with John Donegan as our pianist. It was good to hear again some of the tunes and arrangements that we used to hear in the days of Clive. Jan was with us, and it was good to reminisce about some of his phrases, “he’s no athlete” as someone rushes for their raffle prize, or “are you wearing that (shirt?) as a dare?”. I just wonder what he would be saying about the unmentionable subject I started off with!

Pictures below of last weeks concert, and of “my“ shipment to Ghana. If all goes well with the repairs, next week perhaps a bit more writing about jazz, even a CD review too perhaps.

The Quintet were joined by Miles Hart in the second set

Some of the photos of the Ghana shipment

We again shipped 5 boxes of computer equipment off to Nyaboo in Ghana. All have been donated by local people and those shipped this week will join those already there in helping to educate over 450 Ghanaian children

Jazz from Geoff, THE blog, is coming early this week. I have been driven to write sooner rather than later because of a myriad of “other things” that will occupy me later, and THE RAIN!

Now THAT is a great tune:-

Broken windows and empty hallways
A pale dead moon in the sky streaked with gray
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it’s gonna rain today

Scarecrows dressed in the latest styles
With frozen faces to keep love away
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it’s gonna rain today

Lonely, lonely
Tin can at my feet
I think I’ll kick it down the street
Tin can at my feet
I think I’ll kick it down the street
Why not?
That’s the way to treat a friend

Bright before me the signs implore me
Help the needy and show them the way
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it’s gonna rain today
I hope it’s gonna rain today, yeah
I hope it’s gonna rain today, yeah
I think it’s gonna rain today, yeah   Songwriter: Randy Newman, And sung by lots of people, including Nina Simon.

It was raining last Thursday too, and road works managed to delay many people arriving at Hedsor Club for the jazz session. It was, however, well worth the delay, and for some the long detour to get home again after the gig (another link there to “Detour Ahead”!).

The combination of Sue Greenway on saxophone and Simon Wilde on trombone was wonderful (another tune!). Simon had not been to Hedsor before, and he is a very accomplished trombone player indeed, who will get asked again. Sadly I didn’t record the session, managing even to forget to bring my phone! The camera however was with me, and my photos of the evening are below.

If I had recorded it I could be reminded of all the tunes and all of the harmonies and the general flavour of oneness that this session generated.

It was also raining on Saturday when I travelled to Woodley, near Reading, to listen to The Martin Hart Trio with trumpeter Ian Smith.

The trio, in case you haven’t been to one of the sessions run by Martin at Woodley’s “Oakwood Theatre”, consists of Ken McCarthy on piano, Nick Pugh on bass and of course Martin on drums.

Ian Smith you may have heard at Hedsor, and on December 5th you will be able to hear him at Hedsor again. He is a superb trumpet player, lecturer and writer on jazz subjects. His playing style isn’t flashy or florid, and he plays all the right notes with great accuracy. He isn’t loud, and usually doesn’t like to use amplification. He has in the past been involved with some very avaunt guard jazz groups, but his style seems more traditional than that, perhaps more rooted in the small swing group traditions of the past. He is an excellent listen so DO put his next Hedsor date in your diary.

In the meantime why don’t you listen to him talking with Kenneth Clark MP about trumpet player Lee Morgan. Follow the link below, and if you are not already signed up to BBC’s Sound Service, sign up, log in and listen to 1/2 hour of the best of Lee Morgan and some interesting conversation too.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0174gkd

Ian Smith

Coming to Hedsor Jazz NEXT WEEK (October 17th) we have “our” trumpeter Lester Brown together with “our” reed section Mike Wills. Nigel isn’t able to be with us on keyboard next week, and Ken McCarthy is being paid to go on a cruise, so in their place we have that tall Irish piano player JOHN DONEGAN. I know a number of Hedsor fans have wanted to see and hear him again, he was last with us as the piano man with guitarist Nigel Price. SO this time you can hear him with a more regular jazz lineup. However do ask him about his recent CD “Siamsa”. The music is based on his Irish Roots, and is a great listen.

The other day I had reason to rummage around in my reserved CD collection, the ones you listened to a few years ago and then put to the back (bad practice, they should be in alphabetical order! I do slap my own wrists) and I came across a recording originally made and released on LP in 1977 then re-released (with additional out takes) on a CD in 2002. Its by another pianist that I had seen a number of times before, John Bunch. An American who hasn’t really ever had the fame that some American pianists have had. He is (rather was, he died in in 2010) rather neglected in my view, and my re-find is well worth a search and a listen, because on this CD release he is with tenor saxophonist Scott Hamilton and trumpeter Warren Vache, Michael Moore on bass and Connie Kay on drums. Superb mainstream jazz, recorded when both Scott and Warren were at the peak of their form, young men making a name for themselves. Some great tunes too, the kind I can never remember the titles of when asked about off the cuff! My copy is on Progressive Jazz PCD 7134. If you search Ebay, there are still copies out there. Cover art below.

Well, that’s it for now folks....has it stopped raining....NO

It’s Tuesday, its blog time of week. We have builders in at home, so to the joyful noise of a kango hammer this might well be a short blog today.

But of prime importance YOU need to know that coming to Hedsor Jazz this week is lady saxophonist Sue Greenway. Sue has been with us a number of times before, and loves the older sounds of Ellington and the swing bands, and does in fact play in one in the Oxford area. This week, we are teaming her with a trombonist who hasn’t been to Hedsor before, Simon Wilde. So this will be an interesting first for all of us. He comes highly recommended via Martin, who should be back with us on drums this week, AND so, I think, is Nigel Fox, but he wont be on drums!

Last weeks session with Lester and Mike Wills was almost a Clive Burton Celebration Quintet evening, but we did have 2 high quality deps, Ken McCarthy and Mike Jeffries, in place of Nigel and Martin. Some of our regular clientele were also away, but they were replaced by one of two occasionals, and a newcomer. Keep up the good work of persuasion, we need more people more often!  Photos of the evening are below:-

Talking of absentees, Dee has had to go back to hospital for another knee operation, and the result of this is being reassessed as I type. I’m sure we all want to wish Dee a speedy recovery and return to our jazz fold.

Next, a couple of CD’s I have enjoyed this past week.

First, a young British Big Band, but not one playing tunes you have ever heard before. This is a band made up of graduates from the London Music Colleges, with no named leader, and with more than one contributor to the writers of “their” book.

It’s called “Patchwork Jazz Orchestra”

And I was absolutely knocked out by my first and second listens to their music. They are wonderfully accomplished players and arrangers, and the recording is of first class Hi Fi standards. It’s a complex sound, with an overlying filigree effect, that given space, will fill your room. The tune titles show a great sense of humour but so to do the tunes, the last one for instance “Vixen” has in the mix some recreated hunting horn sounds from a foxhunt. It is subtitles “The tale of an inquisitive fox occasionally in peril“. There are 8 titles in all, and 17 musicians playing on them. The nearest equivalent to anything I have heard before would be “Loose Tubes”. I think that if you have a broad understanding and liking for jazz and are prepared to be a little experimental in your listening, then go out and buy it, it is, as they say (somewhere) a real blast! It is a new release with SPARK007 as the album’s number and it is called “The Adventures of Mr Pottercakes".

My other new to me listen came from OXFAM. On Big Bear records, and originally released in 1990, I have been listening to a more traditional band led by American trombonist Bill Allred. In 1989 he brought his Goodtime Jazz Band to Birmingham, and this is a live recording from 3 venues of the 5th Birmingham International Jazz Festival. It’s fun, superbly well played, and although not a big band (8 musicians), there are enough musicians who double up to make it sound like one (13 instruments if you count the voice as one). They are playing traditional jazz tunes, but with a happy smile on it’s and their face. And it is all great fun. If you can find it (it is still available as a new purchase) it is on BEAR CD31

One final item, I have been asked by a friend who has the unenviable task of clearing out his old family home,(the passing of family loved ones always leaves one with difficult tasks). to see if anyone would be interested in an upright 1915 Beckstein piano (yes 1915). It is in good order, a couple of photos are below. 

Also to be cleared from the house is a large electric piano. If anyone is interested let me know and I can share more detail (email geoff.jazzsuspect@tiscali.co.uk).

Finally finally, at Woodley this coming Saturday Martin Hart, Ken McCarthy and bassist Nick Pugh will be appearing with trumpet player Ian Smith. Flyer for this is below.

Ian will be also back at Hedsor with us on December 5th with Ollie Wilby on reeds.

PS, No, not a short blog after all, just interrupted many times!

Here it is, the better late than never, Jazz from Geoff

And just to get your anticipatory glands up and running, we have for you this week, Lester Brown on trumpet, Mike Wills on various reeds, Ken McCarthy on keyboard, Peter Hughes on bass and Martin Hart on drums and microphone. A wonderful ensemble that is almost “The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet”.

Last weeks session with Al Nicholls and Nick Mills was another cracker. Marvellous music and a pretty good audience too. In that audience was a young man who had not been to a live jazz event before, and he was most taken with it. It was an experience he really enjoyed. Lets hope that he will get to more live jazz events during his lifetime ahead.

My photos from the evening are below:-

Many of us grew up learning about jazz and listening to jazz on the radio. Great informative programs like Humph’s “The Best of Jazz”, 9 pm on a Monday and “Jazz Record Requests” on a Saturday. Sadly many of the voices (and the programs) have left us. Humph’s parting stopped “The Best of Jazz” but “Jazz Record Requests” has soldiered on through 4 or 5 presenters. BUT the BBC in their wisdom (!) has decided to move this long running Saturday Program to Sunday. All I can say is “Bah Humbug”, (purely in a non political way you understand). Most people like regularity, you know when things are happening, where they are etc. There is a comfort in all of that. Sadly the Beeb don’t seem to understand that we, who have listened to this program for over 40 years, have quite liked it where it was. I am sad that it has been moved, and must regenerate into a new habit. If you can, do try and support it, and its broad church of jazz, by tuning in to its new time of 4pm on Sunday afternoon. Its on Radio 3. It will be an hour well spent.

Hedsor Jazz is of course always on Thursdays, always at The Hedsor Club, and nearly always at 8.30pm.

A foretaste of what is to come this Autumn:-

October 10th saxophonist Sue Greenway with another trombonist new to our midst…Simon Wylde. Usual rhythm section rules apply.

October 17th Lester Brown and Mike Wills

October 24th Stuart Henderson trumpet with Kelvin Christiane

October 31st, a real saxophone extravaganza Mark Aston and Mike Wills

Coming in November on the 28th we have American Saxophonist Frank Griffith joining us.

Coming in December we have a return of trumpeter Ian Smith together with saxophonist Ollie Wilby. The provisional date for that is December 5th.

Our Christmas Party will be on December 18th and our star guest, especially for our Christmas Tree, will be singer Tina May. Tickets will be available nearer the time.