Good Morning Jazz Fans.

I have a good excuse why this is a day late, and why it will be brief. BUT IT IS INFORMATIVE!!

Below you will find not only my photos of last week’s session with Duncan Lamont Jr and Mike Innes, but also a link to my DropBox files from which you can download all of the music and chat from the evening.

Those of you who were in the audience will remember that it started fairly soon after a power cut and during a torrential down pouring of rain. One of the tunes they didn’t play was “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today”, but when power was restored the next tune they did play was “I’m Beginning to See The Light”!

The evening was, despite the unfortunate start, one of superb jazz music. One of our regulars emailed me thus:-

“Hi Geoff, I’m sending this email to tell you how much I enjoyed last Thursdays jazz. Duncan Lamont and Mike Innes were superb. The combination of sounds, harmonies and beautiful arrangements were just sublime. I hope to have the pleasure of hearing them again in the not too distant future. A great night of jazz. Thanks Geoff”.

You missed it? What can I say? Jazz at Hedsor on a Thursday Night can sometimes be, as my emailer suggested, “sublime”!

DropBox  link here:-

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zr3ld0vr7olamew/AAD-wWmCXkA6iHVBEOmWQvUga?dl=0

Tomorrow (Thursday August 26^th) we have “our” regular trumpet player Lester Brown coming to play alongside multi reed man Mark Aston, backed by our regular trio led by Martin Hart.

For September I only have at the moment the listings for the beginning and the end of the month! 

September 2^nd The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet which of course mean we will have a return of Mike Wills as our multi reed player, again with Lester on trumpet. 

But for the end of the month, September 30^th we have a very special evening for you! 

On tenor sax VASILS XENOPOULOS

On guitar NIGEL PRICE

On keyboard KEN McCARTHY

On bass ANDY CROWDY

On drums MARTIN HART

This will be at our usual start time of 8.30pm and our usual admittance charge of £10. I do have the artwork for a poster, so if anyone would like a PDF of it to print and display let me know (Octogeoff@outlook.com).

For any of our gigs do let Tracy know you are coming (tracy.georgiades@gmail.com). Don’t forget you will be expected to abide by whatever covid hygiene rules apply at the time.

A late again blog that today will look back with nostalgia and forward with anticipation!

Looking back only as far as last week our concert at Hedsor Jazz was remarkable in that at the end of the evening many people remarked on it and asked if I had recorded it. The tunes played and the empathy for those tunes between Kelvin Christian, our guest for the evening, and Lester Brown, our regular trumpet player, was richly rewarding. Improvised harmony and good tunes made for a great evening out. A few of my photos from the evening are below, but I DID record it, and you can download the files from my DropBox account by following the link :-

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/494jsakl1dh6i1g/AADyaXif1P-Zx9irVZwf5B5Ea?dl=0

I think at this point I would mention that live jazz like that deserves more live fans! AND Hedsor Jazz does have the capacity to seat more people. Still with the ability to keep safe, government restrictions are being relaxed, and I’m sure that if you can make the journey to Hedsor Jazz on a Thursday you will be rewarded with a very enjoyable musical experience. BUT it will be JAZZ.

Tomorrow, Thursday August 19^th, we have two fine musicians coming to play in our front line,(with some equally fine musicians behind them!). Duncan Lamont Jnr on reeds and Mike Innes on trombone will be backed by Ken McCarthy on keyboard, Peter Hughes on bass and guest drummer,(but a regular Hedsor Jazz fan) Mike Jeffries on, yes, you have guessed it DRUMS! 8.30 start £10 entry fee.

 

I am honour bound to mention that there are other jazz venues now open in our area. Hedsor was the first to “unlock” and Marlow Jazz is now open for business again. Do take a look at

https://www.marlowjazz.co.uk/Jazzaug21events.pdf

for their forthcoming events.

Frank Giffith on a previous Hedsor visit

One of the great saxophonists who used to visit us a few times a year and share his great playing and awful jokes with us has now moved further North. He can still be heard via a local radio show and has emailed to promote this, so I am pasting his message below;-

My weekly radio show, "Grifftides", this week on www.mykindamusic24.com will have new releases from the likes of John Hart, Karen Sharp, Georgia Mancio, Tina May, Mike Tracy, Rob Schepps, Scott Reeves and Ed Puddick. Thursday night at 9PM, UK time. Dig the sounds...-- 

Frank Griffith

23 Heathfield Road

Liverpool

L15 9EU

0151 903 3444

07976 313224

frank@frankgriffith.co.uk

www.facebook.com/frankgriffithsax

www.facebook.com/frankgriffithjazz 

Check out my weekly jazz radio show, "Grifftides",Thursday's at 9PM on 

www.mykindamusic24.com

Nostalgia 

Some weeks ago I noticed that one of my blog posts had had a comment posted to it. This is unusual, so I followed it up and discovered someone who used to listen to Century Jazz in both The Fifield Inn and the Cookham Tavern back in the last century!! I have been in contact with him, sharing memories of both places and of the music. He has been kind enough to send a cheque to me as a donation for Cancer Research UK. He now lives in Somerset, and doesn’t yet have any live jazz near bye to supplement his CD collection. You may remember him, because he can genuinely sign his emails 007!

Well that’s about it for today. Next week we will have more news for you of future special events. In the meantime do consider our weekly jazz sessions at Hedsor to be special anyway! 

A Short Essay today, (as I think my A level assessment has passed me as B+ )!!

I have managed to do one new thing this week though, and I have self assessed myself as A+ for doing it.

For my recent birthday I was given an Echo Dot.

Now that is a device that I had never thought of putting on my present list (which I don’t have anyway). I was pleased with myself when I managed to get it to work, and to get it to link to my tablet and for it then to play Scala Radio for me. I then considered getting it to play through my Hi Fi, so I sorted out the appropriate cabling, plugged it together and LOW, Scala Radio through the Hi Fi. I would mention that the Echo Dot, by itself, doesn’t produce very good sound for listening to music .

Then I wondered if I could link Eco to my Bluetooth device, already connect to my Hi Fi for playing music from off of my phone. And Lo and behold, the two linked (I think the correct terminology is “paired”) and so with no visible means of connection Alexa could obtain Scala Radio and I could hear it, wire free, through my Hi Fi, and all by asking "Alexa, play Scala Radio"

Considering the number associated with that last birthday, I was very pleased with myself. Alexa did however get a bit confused when I asked “her” to play me some music by Sandy Brown. After assuring her that I didn’t want to sign up for some subscription music channel, she did play me some jazz, and eventually, Sandy Brown was in the mix, but before then I'd had some Acker Bilk, Chris Barber, Ken Colyer etc!! 

I think she and I still have a lot to learn!

If when you arrive at Hedsor Jazz this coming Thursday (which as this blog is now a day late will be tomorrow, Thursday August 12^th) you ask to hear Lester Brown, Kelvin Christian, Ken McCarthy, Terry Davis and Martin Hart, you will be given an A+ as well, because Hedsor Jazz will be able to oblige!

Maybe it’s Hedsor Jazz that gets the A+!!

Last week we heard at Hedsor for the first time a young saxophonist, Frank Walden, and what a great player he is. SO until Tom Jones next international tour begins, we will be able to invite him back to Hedsor (Frank is in the touring orchestra backing Tom Jones). I did record the evening, and in due time I will remaster the recording and that of the past two Hedsor Jazz sessions and put them out on DropBox for you to download, but until then, my photos of the evening are below.

Next week (August 19th), our Thursday Jazz evening will have a wonderful pairing (I knew that was the right verb after all!), of two great musicians, Duncan Lamont jnr on saxophone and Mike Innes on trombone, They will be backed by our regular rhythm section led by Martin Hart.

"OK, play the Loony tune, its time for coffee."

Sadly Alexa doesn’t actually make coffee!

Hi All, I’m a BIT PUSHED FOR TIME THIS WEEK, AND YES, I’M A DAY LATE ALREADY.

So a brief blog, just to keep HEDSOR JAZZ firmly in the forefront of your minds, and I hope your diaries.

I published a full list of our August gigs last week, so do take a look back, and remind yourself of what you can’t miss. I hope that means EVERYTHING!

This coming Thursday we have:-

Last week we celebrated together Alan Graham’s 94^th birthday. I haven’t yet had the chance to remaster my Tascam recording of the event, but wasn’t it good!? If you shut your eyes you would never know that Alan is of that kind of age. With your eyes shut you wouldn’t see him sit down between playing, but those of us in the audience are sitting down just to watch! The evening was further enhanced by the additional percussion of Hedsor Jazz’s deputy drummer on the conga drums. I trust his palms have recovered!

My photos of the evening are below.

 

The evening was also enhanced (even refreshed) by the buffet supper at half time. A brilliant spread, the sausage rolls were the best I think I have ever had. This was organised by John Dutton and Mike Jeffries, well done.

Some parts of the evening were videoed by Will Paine, and he has put it out on his Facebook page. Do take a look.

https://www.facebook.com/will.paine.90/videos/342014214144966

Don’t forget we would still like to know that you intend to come to each session so do please let Tracy tracy.georgiades@me.com know you are coming.

Now I come to the classified adds!

Our sound engineer and lighting rigger Geoff Swaffield is looking for an assistant to give him a hand in setting up and taking down at the end of each Thursday. If you know of someone who has an interest in that side of musical production, has the physical strength to do it and would be interested in helping us, please let Geoff S, John Dutton or myself know. Don’t forget to tell the person nominated beforehand though!!