Another blog, and another where we have to mention “rearrangements”.

Last Thursday I had an early morning phone call asking me if I had heard about Mike Jeffries? I asked why, and was very surprised to be told that The Maidenhead Advertiser had published the details of his death and of his funeral arrangements! After a bit of consternation, and some phoning around, we realised/found out that yes, a  Mike Jeffries of about the same age, was in the obituaries column of the Maidenhead Advertiser, but OUR Mike Jeffries was still alive enough to answer the phone!!

WOW, what a relief, because OUR Mike Jeffries will be our drummer this week at Hedsor Jazz! Martin is taking a holiday silly, no not you! He is taking a holiday on The Isles of Scilly!!

Out in front will be “our” Lester Brown, and saxophonist Mark Aston.

The following week, November 4^th, with a return of Martin (hopefully also in time for his gig at Woodley on October 30^th) “our” pianist Ken McCarthy will also be taking a break, and in his place will be John Cooper, who has been to Hedsor Jazz before back in 2018. Out front for that gig will be trumpeter and raconteur Ian Smith and saxophonist Ollie Wilby.

John Cooper at Hedsor in 2018

For any of these gigs, to appreciate them to the full, you have to be there. Last Thursday in particular, because as well as not mourning the death of Mike Jeffries we had a late substitute in the form of Kelvin Christian in place of Frank Walden, who had the flu! However, what added considerable visual interest and some controversy was that  Kelvin had brought along his lodger. It is always good to have new people discovering the joys of Hedsor Jazz.

Now said lodger was a lady that had a posterior that at least one of our venerable regulars thought delightful. She also had the urgent need to use her smart phone as a video camera, and she also decided that no one would mind if she made sure the world could see what musician’s nostrils looked like. After a while this became less funny, and one of our great musicians told her, fairly visibly, to go and sit down (on that posterior!). You just have to be at Hedsor to catch all this great....activity! Below are some of my photos from the evening.

You will see from the last photo that Stuart came to Hedsor again with Clive Burton's old valve trombone, and in the second half he duly played it. What was particularly poignant was that Jan was in the audience this week. It has been 4 years since Clive passed away.

Below I have put 3 posters. Do support local live jazz no matter who runs it or where.

OK, time for coffee, see you somewhere SOON!

Geoff