A little light blogging, as there are few gigs to encourage you to go to, (well none really). BUT there are some you can watch in the privacy of your home!

Watched in retrospect. Last Friday I did watch the streamed concert from Norden Farm of Tina May. 

It did sort of rub home the problem. I wasn’t actually there! The sound quality and the visuals put out by Norden Farm were excellent. The lack of any audience reaction (applause!) was initially shocking. The fact that the gig ran without a break was a surprise (especially for my bladder!) but it was a full gig, 1 ½ hours of very good music. Tina was joined by Robin Aspland on piano, Andy Cleyndert on bass and Winston Clifford on drums.

After my mention last week of Stuart Henderson and the number of his clips on YouTube, in looking for more this week I came across a super demo of a new trumpet by him, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMRQlhkYA5E Look further for Stuart on YouTube and under videos you will see more clips.

 

As I haven’t found much of interest to go on about this week, I thought I would give you something to listen to from a Cancer Fundraiser that we held at Hedsor on May 18^th 2017

 

Disk 1

1. There is No Greater Love
2. Alone Together
3. It Could Happen To You
4. Favela
5. Move

Dropbox link https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nkbd592l1lw5344/AADTk7ByZRnXjdTC-VarSutta?dl=0

 

Disk 2

1. Speak Low
2. I let a Song...
3. Hearts
4. Old Folks
5. Ornithology
6. I’m Glad There is You
7. On a Clear day
8. Bluesology

Dropbox link https://www.dropbox.com/sh/t3eb5uwewjdx9j5/AADR-jpRornDU066HDYqBtJua?dl=0

 

Cast is Clive Burton trombone, Nigel Fox keys, John Monney bass and Martin Hart drums. Guests are Nigel Price on guitar and Vasilis Xenopoulos on reeds.

 

Yes, we used to run splendid music. The sad thing is I think we all took it for granted. BUT watch out for the possible return of some form of live music to Hedsor on May 20^th. His is subject to confirmation, so do keep an eye on the blog.

 

Thats it for now,

 

Geoff

Jazz from Geoff

No, you haven’t overslept (not that I can tell from here), it is still Tuesday, but it is a blog from Geoff.” Will wonders never cease” my old mum used to say!

I have a number of items for you to catch up on.

First.

Don’t forget to book your place in the stream for Tina May at Norden Farm. It IS this coming Friday, you can read more via https://bit.ly/321TinaMay and it will cost you £15 to watch from the comfort of your home. Yes, Tina in your front room, aren’t we lucky?

 Tina May, with Duncan Lamont at Hedsor. Some of the songs Tina will sing on Friday are by Duncan

Second.

Martin Hart has phoned through to tell me that there will be another gig, in aid of local charities, at The Great Hampden Cricket Ground, Memorial Road, Great Hampden, Bucks HP16 9RF on Sunday June 13^th from about 3 pm on wards, probably finishing around 5. You may remember if you were there last August that it did get a bit chilly going on 'till 6pm, so it looks like the organisers have brought it forward an hour. It is open air, the band has a tent, but that’s it. AS I recall, Rebellion beer was available, but no food. I anticipate that the band will be as last year, a variation on The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet, so it should be a great gig. The sound quality from the PA was excellent and the setting last year was lovely up there in the Chilterns. You will need to bring your own seating and weather protection as well as food! When I know the detail of ticket purchase I will let you know.

Last August's Cricket Club Gig

Third.

In finishing off my evenings Telly last night I came across 3 excellent YouTube clips, which, put together, will give the better part of ½ hour of Stuart Henderson and “Tolly”. All three clips were recorded at “Jazz on the Corner”, The Royal Oak in Swindon on Tuesday 27^th Feb. 2018. You will remember how we used to so enjoy their combination when they both played for us at Hedsor Jazz.

The three links are:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2f5xBwkoqg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA0AchJpN6Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa9Tf-YSkOE

Stuart Henderson and "Tolly" at Hedsor

Don’t forget that if you want to be included in my regular nagging emails about jazz you must confirm your email address at octogeoff@outlook.com

If you want to be considered for an entry pass to our socially distanced covid restricted gig at Hedsor Club on May 20^th, don’t forget to email Tracy at tracy.georgiades@gmail.com

Blog day was really yesterday and today it is a bit late, BUT there are good reasons. With no bated breath I can tell you that this morning I had my second covid jab!!

And apart from that bit of news, there are one or two other chunks to pass on.

One of the reasons the blog wasn’t written yesterday was that I was working on transcribing the email addresses of people who like to be reminded (OK “nagged” then) of the issue of a blog update.

I have managed to retrieve some of the links, following on from my Russian intruders, from a paper copy of the lists I had. This archive is probably not up to date, so I have 2 requests.

1.       Would you please send to me at Octogeoff@outlook.com your current email address, and

2.       If you don’t want to be disturbed by my emails, please email me to tell me so and you will be taken         off the lists.

BUT please do not use zt36geoff@hotmail.co.uk to communicate with me.

Obviously I am taking some measures to ensure future safeguard my pc’s wellbeing and I looked at the recommendations of “Which Magazine”. Highly regarded by them is Kasperskey, and some pretty good coverage is available for free too. I tried it out on one of the computers I am readying for Ghana, and it is easy to load, and uses much better English in it's instructions than Norton 360. I then noticed that its office base is in ......................................Moscow!!

Now for other things.

If you do want to come to May 20^th Jazz at Hedsor,  our proposed limited edition, you MUST let Tracy know via an email to tracy.georgiades@gmail.com

We are planning a covid restricted jazz event at Hedsor, with distancing rules and we are limited to a max of 30 people. Entry will be controlled, and an entry voucher will be asked for before you are allowed in. This event cannot yet be written in concrete, but we have every hope that we will be able to go ahead.

An event that will definitely NOT be going ahead is The Swanage Jazz Festival 2021. A revised date was issued today informing that  the next Swanage Jazz Festival and it will be on the 8^th to 10^th July 2022.

An online jazz event will take place at Norden Farm on March 19^th. Tina May will be performing some of the songs associated with Duncan Lamont and it will be live streamed. See https://bit.ly/321TinaMay for all the information you need.

Following on from my recollections of the late Chris Barber, more is available for you to watch on YouTube, and a very good alternative to the Big Band link I put out last week is this 1994 concert on YouTube that is out in 2 parts:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RvzqagIfB8  part one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKch6Hg4yP0 part two

Slightly more conventional, (one trumpet, one trombone), but still with great blues guitar from John Slaughter.

Finally this week I thought I would add in a few photos taken by me from Swanage Jazz Festivals past.

Ah, those were the days!!

 Hi All, another week and another blog from Geoff.

 After last weeks government road map for the future, plans are afoot, and The Swanage Jazz Festival is suggesting it will run a Festival in September (either 17^th to 19^th, or 24^th to 26^th), so do keep an eye on their website (www.swanagejazzfestival.co.uk), and on your booking for digs. Holidays in the UK will be at a premium this year, so a self catering tent might be required!

Yesterday we heard the sad news that Chris Barber had died at the age of 90. Much has already been written about him, so all I am going to do is leave a link for you to follow

https://www.jazzwise.com/news/article/chris-barber-17-april-1930-2-march-2021

but  then I can tell you why, like many who have passed away in recent years, Chris Barber was important in my jazz education.

Like many people born before WW2, the radio played much swing and jazz during my early years. We did have a wind up gramophone in our air raid shelter, and apart from “Songs of the Western Front” we did have some swing type records from before the war. The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra for one. At the wars end, my interest in jazz type music widened slightly. I can remember buying new 78’s. Sid Phillips and “Clarinet Marmalade” being one and also a couple of Jo Daniels and His Hot Shot sides too. I became aware of the Ken Colyer Band in about 1953 which was really the Chris Barber Band with a different trumpet player. 

Then in 1954 The Chris Barber Band brought out a famous 10” LP with Pat Halcox in place of Ken Colyer.

By then we had the ability at my home in Hammersmith to play LP’s, but they were expensive, and for my pocket money I still bought some 78’s. I remember my first real contact with Chris Barber was in 1954 when I went in to Doug Dobells Record Shop at 77 Charing Cross Road and bought the 78 of “Chimes Blues” almost direct from Mr Barber himself, and  he signed it on the tax stamp!!

My interest was fired, and I started to play the trumpet along to their records. My interest in other jazz grew, Humph of course, with Wally Fawkes in these days, and with more LP’s and with school friends we all found  Buck Clayton, Duke Ellington and many many more. My understanding ballooned!

But it was the Chris Barber Band that I saw every Wednesday. By now I was an Apprentice at CAV Ltd in Action, and every Wednesday after work I would take the trolley bus to Southall and “The White Hart” for that was where the  Chris Barber Band had its regular sessions. Before “Rock Island Line” became a hit there was Lonnie Donegan, the banjo player, doing his thing after the interval. Skiffle had arrived!!

The Barber Band then introduced us all to all kinds of American Blues singers, some they even imported so that we could see and hear them live for ourselves. Champion Jack Dupree billed  as “Blues from the Gutter”!

“The White Hart” had its own blues singer, that young school teacher Ottile Patterson would sing the occasional Bessie Smith song, and then go back to marking homework on a table beside the bandstand. How could that slim lady become Bessie Smith, but somehow she did!

We did see Ottilie in a new light once at a Hammersmith Town Hall concert that had Chris Barbers Band together with Acker Bilks Band.

Ackers band were on first, and many of his fans danced, the girls being dressed in dresses made out of sacks! All very “alternative”.

During the Barber set Ottilie came on stage in a very long stylish black dress with a very full swirly skirt, so long in fact that it covered her shoes. As the music got going she lifted her skirt high enough for us all to see full length red leather boots. We had never seen the like before, wow!

My life continued, and my ability to attend live jazz diminished as married life and children took over. But FM radio came to my aid, and in 1968 I can remember listening to a weeknight broadcast of The Chris Barber Band playing a kind of musical fusion, with a blues guitar being added to the mix. I had heard a performance of the music from the record “Battersea Rain Dance” with the addition of guitarist John Slaughter!

All along Chris Barber had expanded musical boundaries, and towards the end he introduced us to “The Big Chris Barber Band” playing, with a 10 piece ensemble, the big band music of the 1920’s. Spot on ensemble playing, but all from memory. Terrific stuff.

 And so to memory. It is very sad to see that Chris Barber died suffering from dementia. I for one am glad that I can remember so much of my Chris Barber experience.

Finally another link, have a go at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpvsQSOPuxc&t=37s

All 1 hour of it! The BIG CB Band in 2005

More next week, do tell others of the blog.

 

Geoff C

octogeoff@outlook.com