This weeks blog can be viewed as both positive and negative.

Positive, we now have our 30 “volunteers” for our first post lockdown Hedsor Jazz concert on May 20^th.

Your invitations are in the post and each invitation is accompanied by a summary of the covid rules that will apply on that day inside Hedsor Club.

The negative is if you don’t get an invitation in the post, you were unlucky this time. No invitation, no entry!

However, more good news, there will be another gig a week later on May 27^th.

I am delighted to be able to say that on May 27^th we will have Stuart Henderson and Duncan Lamont jnr coming.

If you would like to come to that you must let Tracy (tracy.georgiades@gmail.com) know before coming.  In order to prevent disappointment at the door we are asking you all to pre book each week via Tracy. There will be a limit of 30 people allowed in to any of our gigs until, at the earliest, mid June.

Now all of the above is of course subject to government decision. On May 17^th there is a government review of the lockdown rules and the relaxation route out of lockdown and if the government retracts its unlock plan, we wont be having any gigs at all!

However we have looked ahead with a positive plan!

If all goes well, and all the boxes get ticked, then we can look forward to:-

20^th  May   Lester Brown trumpet+ Kelvin Christiane reeds + Peter Hughes bass + Ken McCarthy keyboard + Martin Hart drums

27^th  May   Stuart Henderson trumpet + Duncan Lamont Jnr reeds+ Terry Davis bass + Martin Hart drums

 3^rd  June   Lester ++++++  

10^th  June   Alan Graham vibs  +++++++++++

17^th  June   Lester+++++++++

One last thought.

Last week I blogged about the pianist Tony Lee tracks that were available on a Google Drive link. Can I say that having listened again this week I strongly recommend you download the files and store them for future listening or even for future generations of jazz fans to listen to. 32 sessions are represented in that link. 3.2GB of mp3 jazz recorded at live gigs between 1970 and 1987. The individual sessions and tracks are well documented within the software, are all reasonably well recorded and have some of the late 20^thcenturies British jazz greats performing before an audience. Dick Morrisey, Terry Smith, Danny Moss, Ronnie Ross, Alan Ganley, Bill Le Sage, Jo Temperly, playing at venues like The Pizza on the Park, The Bulls Head at Barnes, The Burford Bridge Hotel and others. All recorded with Tony Lee at the piano

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B_4h4o5gAuTOTEdVdzJXSmI2M1E

Don’t forget you can get free flow test corona virus test kits from your local pharmacy.

We will meet again soon. Keep well.

After over a year with no jazz at Hedsor, or very many other places come to that, there is little to report back on.

I’m sure by now you have found your own routes to jazz past, YouTube being one great way, perhaps less good since they have upped the advertising breaks on my links.

However there are others still to investigate.

The BBC doesn’t produce a lot of jazz on TV, but by Radio (steam or otherwise!) they do have a lot going on. I have investigated this these past months via their Sound app. Do look at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/category/music-jazzandblues-jazz?sort=popular

I have enjoyed the jazz programs from Northern Island https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05mpjy4, and some of the previously broadcast Jamie Cullum programs from Radio 2. 

One of the great advantages of these Sounds repeats is that, via your iPhone or tablet, you can turn them on and off and listen when it suits you.

One of the drawbacks if you are used to listening to Radio via a Hi Fi system is that via a tablet or phone the default method is either very tinny using the in built speakers or less tinny via headphones, neither of which are a really comfortable substitute for sitting in front of your Hi Fi in your favourite chair. However, if you haven’t invested in a streaming radio system for your amp and speakers, you can, for around £20 add in a Bluetooth connector.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bluetooth-Adapter-Streaming-Wireless-Speakers/dp/B016NUTG5K/ref=asc_df_B016NUTG5K/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=394366101554&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16433790698445488158&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006906&hvtargid=pla-523770557921&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=87233666332&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=394366101554&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16433790698445488158&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006906&hvtargid=pla-523770557921

Yes, a long link, but just follow the picture clues!

If you connect the adaptor to a line in input on your amplifier and a power source, you can connect your phone or tablet via a Bluetooth wireless link to your Hi Fi. The above adaptor comes with all the necessary instructions on how to do this.

Another music link I have only just recently discovered comes courtesy of Tony Lee and Google. 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B_4h4o5gAuTOTEdVdzJXSmI2M1E

Here you can discover some jazz past from the likes of Lennie Best, Dick Morrisey and Terry Smith to mention just 3. There are hours of music for you to get your ears round recorded way back in the 1970’s. They are live gig recordings, many from The Bull's Head at Barnes. Download the tracks via Google or store in your personal Google Drive cloud. I would recommend downloading and playing back the files from your phone, tablet or laptop as running everything in real time could lead to musical hiccups!

Here is one last idea from me today via an email and another link to live jazz that is coming to you tomorrow and it comes from Vasilis

 

 

Dear Friends, Thanks so much for joining us last month for the music of Harold Arlen! Next Friday April 23d at 8pm will be the final live-streaming gig of Paul Edis and myself, hoping that from May onwards we'll be able to start gigging again in public (following all the restrictions of course). For this month we have selected a series of songs that have all been influenced by the beauty of Springtime, such as Spring can really Hang You Up the Most, Spring is Here, April in Paris and a few more that we both think you'll recognise. Tickets will be available again from Paul's website at  https://www.pauledis.co.uk/store/spring-is-here-vasilis-xenopoulos-and-paul-edis-live We hope you can join us on the day! Many thanks,  Vasilis

My blog is later than usual, but this time for a very good reason.

Last Thursday evening the directors of Jazz Angels (that’s the people who CAN sign the accounts cheques!), Martin Hart, leader of the Clive Burton Celebration Quintet, and Sarah Bason, manager of the Hedsor Club, met to discuss the possibility of,  and our plans for, recommencing live jazz at Hedsor Club.

Initially the gigs will be held under the government (and the clubs) covid rules of spacing etc, and then in June, hopefully, with no abnormal restrictions at all.

As you will have read, we are planning to have a trial or pilot run in the hall of Hedsor Club using the indoor guidelines that apply, on Thursday May 20^th. I can now confirm that this will take place.

This pilot evening will be limited to 30 people who will have with them an invitation ticket. If you have already said you would like to come you will receive this invitation in the post with a covering letter from Jazz Angels treasurer John Dutton. If you would like to be considered for this (or future covid restricted Hedsor Jazz gigs) and haven’t already done so, (or even if you have, as a double check for us!!) please send your contact details to Tracy at tracy.georgiades@gmail.com. IF you come on May 20^th and don’t have that initial invitation you may be turned away.

This return evening will start at 8pm in order to give everyone time to get used to the revised arrangements and also, perhaps more importantly,  to give time for you to chat to other jazz people (from 2 meters apart of course) for the first time in many months.

Please note the full Hedsor Club indoor rules will be sent out later, but one thing I will clarify is that face masks must be worn within Hedsor Clubs premises EXCEPT AT YOUR TABLE. You can order at the bar with you mask on, but your drink will be delivered to your table. You will not be allowed to congregate at the bar! Preferred payment to the club is by card or electronic transfer.

Following on from May 20^th, if all goes reasonably smoothly, we anticipate recommencing regular jazz gigs at Hedsor Club from May 27^th. This will be at the old start time of 8.30pm. To avoid handling too many coins, and to help in running costs, our admittance fee will be going up to £10 per person. Dont forget, until covid restriction are lifted we will need you to pre book your place. 30 people will be the maximum audience number allowed.

Whilst making your life more expensive I would remind Hedsor Jazz attendees who are also members of Hedsor Club that club fees for 2021 are now due!

Please bear with us, Hedsor Jazz, as we try getting live jazz back in front of a live audience. There is bound to be the odd glitch, so please be patient, the gain will be worth the pain. We are looking to advertise more, and to have more of your favourite musicians coming to play for us. We also plan to have new faces coming to play at Hedsor Jazz. On May 20^th the usual reed section (Mike Wills) won’t be able to be with us, but we do anticipate having Lester Brown, Martin Hart, Ken McCarthy and Peter Hughes with us, plus as our guest, reed player Kelvin Christiane

Another Bank Holiday over, Easter is behind us. I do hope you enjoyed your opportunities of meeting family and friends in the fresh air of your garden (or other, legal, outdoor space). I hadn’t seen my daughter or her family for 8 months, and we enjoyed al fresco dinning on Good Friday. It was so really good, especially as it was not as cold as forecast. SO, a blog now, even later than has become my usual, but at least I have some canned jazz to talk about.

I have been listening to some fine jazz from my earlier years.

If you followed my challenge to find some of the Jazz Today tracks now available on CD, you may have found, not just  Chris Barber, but the excellent 2 LP’s (that’s how they originally they were!) which had a wonderful selection of un-label-able jazz from Kenny Baker, Bruce Turner and other great worthies from the British musicians pool of the  1950’s

 

The LP’s were originally “Midnight at Nixa”, issued in 1956 and a year earlier “After Hours”. In my collection I have them on a CD issued on the Vocalion label CDNJT 5302, artwork above. I noticed “today”! that they were remastered by Michael J Dutton! I wonder....?

 Today I found these same tracks via my smart phone on Prime Music! How different from my days of 10 inch LP listening in a front (often very cold) room in Hammersmith. In those days we still wondered in amazement that a 10 inch LP could play for over 20 minutes. The 78’s I had been buying before could only manage 3 minutes!

Today, Bluetooth and Smart Phones have transformed the ease of listening, and of acquisition, but maybe NOT the joy of ownership!

Things had moved on (a lot!) by 1975 when the next album was recorded. And by 2004 when the CDs were released, durability and sound quality had changed yet again.

I have been playing this double album again this week for the first time in a few years, and one tends to forget what an innovative and accomplished band the Chris Barber Band were. If you search for the above album, you will see it categorised as “Dixieland”. Well, the tunes may be old (though not all) but the treatment is fresh and exciting, the improvisations are pretty good and the musicianship and arrangements superb. Who else would have a band with a banjo and an electric blues guitar, include in a concert such different era tunes as “High Society” (composed in 1901), “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” (composed 1966), and “Take the A Train” (composed in 1941). I know it is unfashionable these days to enjoy such music, but “Hey, Hey” it has lifted my spirits this past week.

Whilst tapping your feet and crossing your fingers, keep in mind that we may be able to bring live jazz, with real musicians and maybe the occasional wrong note, to Hedsor Club on May 20^th. Keep watching this space.

NO, it isn’t an April Fool joke, it is a blog from Geoff. My timings have slipped, but with no new music at Hedsor I don’t have to tell you who is on on a Thursday.

SOON, perhaps.

We are still intending to run a limited live jazz evening at Hedsor on May 20^th. Do keep watching this space for more detail. We hope to have discussions with Hedsor Club later this month to see how they feel about our proposals, and I will let you know via the blog what the final details will be.

It is kind of sanguine to note that we did plan to have an event last October, under the then distancing rules, and that it was cancelled due to a change in the rules the day before!

We again planned to have an event in December, and we all went in to lockdown again (or even meltdown!) the day before!

We will have to stick to whatever distancing rules apply at the time, but a limit of 30 people in the audience will apply.

There is also an open air event planned, as mentioned in my blog a few weeks ago,

 “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”

Can I suggest that you let Martin know if you would like to go to that because I don’t have a direct line on the tickets. Contact Martin via martinnhart@gmail.com

I’m sure you have been checking out what jazz there is to view on YouTube. There is a lot with different styles and different performance dates from the past. It’s a shame that YouTube seem to have started taking advantage of the more captive audience to include many more adverts that then interrupt ones viewing. As they are LOUDER than the sound you are listening to, I sometimes fear for my loudspeakers!

 

One of the bands that has been doing a great job of playing New Orleans style traditional jazz for free listening on YouTube is “Tuba Skinny”. The lady cornet player is Shaye Cohn who, I for one, have greatly admired for her natural ease of leadership and improvisational skills. Did you know that she is the granddaughter of tenor saxophonist Al Cohn? True!

 

Al died in February 1988. It is encouraging to learn that a younger generation are still in the forefront of jazz today. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuba_Skinny

 

“Jazz Today” used to be a record label, which if my memory is correct, morphed into Pye Nixa. You will find that some great music came out on either version of the label in the mid 1950’s. It featured musicians such as the Chris Barber Band (“Wild Cat Blues”, a feature for Monty Sunshine, came out as a 45 on this label) and some pretty good mainstream jazz sessions as well, featuring people like Kenny Baker and Vic Ash. Again I think Nixa used the 10 inch LP medium, which for me as an apprentice, was just about affordable! Most of the released material from these 1950’s sessions is now available on CD, do amuse yourselves with a search of eBay!

With that search to occupy you for at least 1/2 hour, I will say "farewell" whilst your attention is diverted!