Tuesday, July 07, 2020


Jazz from Geoff...The Blog
Tuesday, 07 July 2020

Well, this is an improvement; it is at least still Tuesday! No, no more real news about when live music can start at Hedsor or anywhere else, but it is looking hopeful. Hedsor Club reopened for business on Saturday 5th July, obviously under the revised social distancing rules.

Normally at his time of year I would be down in Dorset, enjoying the hospitality of Swanage and looking forward to its jazz festival. Sadly not this year. Even my usual B&B is only able to offer a room served continental breakfast , not the usual energizing Full English that was always such a feature of my stays there in the past. Hopefully, Clare will be able by next year to re establish those happy norms. It may sadly be that this year will finally close the Swanage Jazz festival for good, it was struggling a bit last year.

However, some amazing live music is held on recorded media (well, it was live at the time!), and my first link is to YouTube and a really full concert given by Duke Ellington and his orchestra in 1969


This will give you 80 minutes of great Duke, with a great linup:-

 Duke Ellington and his Orchestra:- Cat Anderson, Cootie Williams, Ambrose Jackson, Mercer Ellington, trumpet; Lawrence Brown, Chuck Connors, trombone; Russell Procope, alto sax, clarinet; Johnny Hodges, alto sax; Norris Turney, alto sax, tenor sax, clarinet, flute; Harold Ashby, tenor sax, clarinet; Paul Gonsalves, tenor sax; Harry Carney, baritone sax, clarinet, bass clarinet; Duke Ellington, piano; Victor Gaskin, acoustic double bass; Rufus Jones, drums; Tony Watkins, vocal (Personnel on Camera)

Recorded in the Tivolis Koncertsal, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2nd November 1969.


There is a more local find this week. Gaining strength since my recent hospitalisation, I started to go through my CD collection, trying to sift the wheat from the chaff and regain some storage space, and I came across a plain brown envelope!! Inside were 2 cd’s with writing on them by an unknown hand! I have “attended” to them, using Audacity software, and I have put them up in my DropBox folder.  I have written up what they are on the CD cover that you can download, but as far as I know this is an unissued concert from Hedsor Jazz in 2011 featuring saxophonist Don Wright and guitarist John Coverdale. So, turn back the clock and enjoy.



This will get you the complete folder with both sets of music in mp3 and the CD cover in both MS Publisher and JPEG format. See also below.

I hope you enjoy watching and listening. 

You are welcome to give comment and feedback via email to Octogeoff@outlook.com 



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