The blog this week is slightly later than usual as I’m trying to fit everything in with domestic events! DECORATING!!

So, it will be looking back on last Thursdays evening of jazz at Hedsor, and looking forward to a few more!

Those of you who were there last week will realise that our evening with trumpeter Steve Waterman and saxophonist Kelvin Christian turned into a magical event.

Now and again with music, and particularly with jazz, an evening turns into something greater than the sum of the parts. People interact, excitement is generated and Magic happens. Last week was definitely one of those evenings.

One of those taking part as a player said at the end of the evening “That was something special wasn’t it”!

One of the audience said “That was the best jazz gig I’ve ever been to”! 

It WAS a great evening!

Steve is a brilliant trumpet player; after all he is the professor of jazz trumpet at the Royal Academy of Music.

Kelvin has been to us many times before, and we have heard some special things from him in the past.

They have played together before.

BUT the integration with our rhythm section on the night last Thursday was total!

Almost from the start of the evening we all new it was going to be special, but for me two tunes stand out. Ken McCarthy’s feature “The Surry with the Fringe on Top”, which was sprung along nicely on the strings of Peter Hughes bass (but not his braces), and Kelvin’s version of Duke Ellington’s “In a Sentimental Mood”. He simply built it! Statement after Statement to a final hiss. 

Sometimes we take for granted those who perform for us on a regular basis. Ken McCarthy every week, “Come Rain or Shine”, always put in a class leading performance and Kelvin, who doesn’t come quite as often, but has often come to us at very short notice and has sometimes baled us out at the last minute. Last week he showed us that he is a saxophonist with enormous talent who should be known better than he already is.

I took few snaps, but one or two are below.

Special praise must go to Peter Hughes braces, a new pair I understand!

So, lets take a deep breath and prepare ourselves for next Thursday.

December 2nd.

And it will be “The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet” which means a return visit by Lester Brown and Mike Wills. That will be an excellent start to Hedsor Jazz’s in December.

We had hoped that in December we would be able to celebrate Alan Grahams 94^th year in a proper fashion, but sadly it wont be able to be done in 2021. At some time in 2022 when Alan is well enough to appreciate being appreciated by his many friends, including us at Hedsor, we will do it!

So the rest of December now looks a bit like this:-

December 9^th saxophonist Al Nichols will be our featured guest alongside guitarist Max Brittain do check a 20 minute video of him https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyiHvfQK1vA performed I think in Marlow's Christ Church in 2019

December 16^th  Someone who hasn’t been to us before. It is another trumpet player, someone who has played on over 20 number one hit records with bands and groups you will certainly have heard of, and he is coming to Hedsor!

 Who is it?  Johnny Thirkell. Click or copy the link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Thirkell 

He will be with saxophonist Frank Walden, someone he has played with before and who has also been to Hedsor Jazz before.

December 23^rd  Our Christmas Party.

Now at his time we are assuming the government and covid 19 doesn’t cancel Christmas, so we are going to squeeze another ½ hour into our party night and start the evening at 8pm.

Our guests will be singer Sarah Moule and saxophonist Duncan Lamont Jr. There may be others, but “That’s Jazz”!

News of Jan Burton

Jan was moved last night from The Royal Berks Hospital in Reading to The John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Here she will undergo an operation to improve the blood supply to her brain in order to help prevent further strokes. She was moved at midnight, and arrived in Oxford at 2am!! The move has immediately improved her mobile phone reception! She was able to tell me this morning that she is slowly improving her leg and hand movement. When she has received the treatment in Oxford, she will be moved again to Newbury for rehabilitation. The final objective is to get her well enough for her to be able to live at home again. Well done Jan, and well done The NHS too.

That’s about it for today, see you ALL on Thursday! After the paint has dried!

As last weeks blog was a little on the long side, I thought I would keep this weeks edition a bit shorter!

Coming to us at Hedsor Jazz this week we have Steve Waterman. Steve is professor of Jazz Trumpet at Trinity College of Music in London and visiting Jazz Trumpet specialist at The Royal Northern College Of Music. He will have with him a saxophonist we know quite well, Kelvin Christian. Will the event be an education? You will just have to come out to see. 

Whether you are educated or not by the experience I am convinced you will be entertained. Steve is a great player. He has been to Hedsor Jazz at least once before and appeared at the One Day Jazz event at St Pirans School in Maidenhead alongside singer Gil Cook.

Perhaps this week too you could give a thought to Gil, who has been a Hedsor Jazz supporter for many years. He won’t be with us this Thursday as he has to undergo further tests to establish if his previous cancer has returned. Like last week, thoughts and prayers again please.

Last week Gil was enjoying with all of us the return of “The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet”. It was good to have Mike Wills back with us again, and a splendid evening was had by all. When Mike was with us week in and week out we tended to take him and his playing for granted. Talent like his should never be taken for granted, and the Oxford Jazz scene keeps him well occupied these days.

 My pics are below.

December beckons and we will see a return of “The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet” again on December 2^nd.

We hope also in December to see vibraphone player and onetime TV musical director Alan Graham with us again. It could be on December 9^th when we will also have that big toned tenor sax player Al Nicholls with us.

On the other hand, it could be that Alan comes to us on December 16^th; all depending on how well his recovery goes (he recently had a small op.). We do really want to celebrate with him his 94 years!

Our Christmas Party will be on December 23^rd. Celebrating Christmas with us will be the renowned singer Sarah Moule. Do check out her website https://sarahmoule.net/about/, there is music to sample on it.

 

She will be accompanied by saxophonist Duncan Lamont and possibly a few other jazz friends as well.

All the concerts at Hedsor Jazz are performed in The Hedsor Club, Hedsor Rd, Bourne End, SL8 5ES. They start at 8.30pm, and our entry fee remains at £10.

Today’s blog comes with mixed feelings. So let’s get the sad bit over first.

Jan Burton, Clive Burtons wife, whom many of us know as Clive led the jazz music at Hedsor Jazz for over 20 years, had a stroke at her home in Reading last Wednesday night. She is currently being treated in The Royal Berks Hospital, and I have managed to speak with her. She is without feeling down the right hand side, but is able to speak. She now faces many months of treatment, and for some part of that time will be transferred to the Radcliff Hospital in Oxford. Her family have been able to visit and she is reasonably comfortable. She has the ability to watch TV and listen to the radio which helps her to pass the time. I will endeavour to keep you all up to date with her progress, but in the meantime I‘m sure she will value the power of your positive thoughts and your prayers.

Now for some of the more joyful stuff for this weeks blog.

It just so happens that we have the nearest manifestation of The Clive Burton Quintet coming to Hedsor Jazz this Thursday, November 18^th.  “The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet” comprising Lester Brown, Mike Wills, Ken McCarthy and Martin Hart will be with us, plus a bass player so far unnamed. Both Mike Wills and Martin Hart were part of the Clive Burton Quintet that had played in Hedsor Club from 2002 until Clive passed away 4 years ago.

For those of you new to this blog and to Hedsor Jazz I should mention that all our gigs start at 8.30pm and the entrance fee is £10. I do apologise to any new attendees because that hadn’t been mentioned in recent blogs. As we are no longer using the red cashbox, we haven’t put the sign back on the door about the entrance fee. With luck, I may be able to conjure up a sign for this week. Apologies for any embarrassment to anyone who was actually asked to pay!

When you consider that our guests next week are the renowned trumpet player Steve Waterman partnered by saxophonist Kelvin Christian, you will realise that what you get at Hedsor Jazz is an absolute bargain. DONT KEEP IT SUCH A SECRET! Do look Steve up, https://www.stevewaterman.co.uk/ he has played Hedsor before, and appeared alongside Gill Cook at the St Pirans Jazz Festival some years ago.

 

Last week (pictures below) was another cracking evening. You do really have to pinch yourself to realise that music of this quality is coming to you without the fine of travelling into London. Duncan Lamont Jr and Mike Innes played some wonderful jazz, and we had a couple of pro musicians in the audience who in the second set “sat in” too. So for part of the second half we had a 3 part front line of excellent quality.

OK jazz of this quality used to be even nearer to me than Hedsor (Thursdays used to take place in The Cookham Tavern, Now Costa’s Coffee, shut in the evenings now anyway), and I know most of you travel further than I do to listen at Hedsor anyway, but such jazz sessions that are so local and so inexpensive in travel cost and parking charges are remarkable.

 

Someone who has travelled further than most of us can be heard TONIGHT at Marlow Jazz. USA saxophonist Greg Abate. Here is a quote from Marlow Jazz’s web page.

“Tuesday November 16th U.S.A. Alto sax and flute superstar Greg Abate with our trio. £10 Fingers crossed that his planned tour will go ahead. If you have seen his two previous Marlow dates you will know why this guy is rated as one of the greatest saxophonists in the world today.”

Last Friday Cookham Rise Methodist Church put on a fund raising concert by the 16 piece big band “Echoes of Swing”, who just happen to “employ” one of our regular bass players, Peter Hughes. One of the highlights of Peters appearances at Hedsor are his braces! BUT E O S have band him from wearing them!!

Even without his braces the church raised £380 for charitable causes.

When I got home from the E O S bands Cookham concert and needing something to watch whilst I had a bit of supper and a glass of vague! I plugged YouTube in to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq6nMspaZYY where a video of Andrea Motis performing in Copenhagen in October this year can be watched.

I have watched Andrea before. A pleasing singer and trumpet player, but this, her latest offering on YouTube, shows a certain maturity in her playing, not just as a singer and trumpet player, but as an on the spot organiser of a jazz session.

We have all seen the instant rehearsal and before tune consultations before, but this raises it to a new level. They all understood what they were being asked to do and Andrea’s hand instructions are obviously being watched for. It isn’t an ensemble that seems to fit naturally into a jazz mould (piano, bass, drums, trumpet/singer plus guest violin), but this is an example of jazz at its best.

The amazing thing comes at the end when you see how diminutive Andrea is. I was surprised during the 25 minutes of video how she could use her arm as a trumpet parking spot whilst she sings, but at the end when you see the size of the drummer....she seems to be about the size of his leg!

Wonderful stuff, all captured on a handheld video camera. The sound isn’t the best, but good enough. Do watch all of to its end, and if you search YouTube there is more of this session out there.

Enough from me, see you at a local jazz session soon.

This week a blog of two halves.

        And this is Part Two!

Tomorrow is of course November 11^th, a day for remembrance. One where I shall be remembering past wars and past people with current and young people in St Clement Danes School in Hertfordshire.

Yes I am an Old Dane, which has a double significance for me, being a past attendee of the grammar school when it was in Hammersmith, and also a past member of the RAF. St Clement Danes Church in the Strand is the RAF church. So the first trumpet of the day for me will be one playing the last post in the schools service of remembrance.

Mind you I also hope to join you, or maybe have you join me, later in the day in listening to some more brass music in the evening at Hedsor Club. For 11 11 at Hedsor we have saxophonist Duncan Lamont together with trombone player Mike Innes. What a presentation of talents.

On their last visit to Hedsor

Last week we had two other talents, trumpeter and raconteur Ian Smith and tenor player Ollie Wilby. Ken McCarthy was taking a well earned break “up North” and in his place we had keyboard player John Cooper. Music was played, stories were told and great fun was had by all. My pictures of the evening are below.

All of our Thursday evenings are special. Apart from the covid shutdowns we have been presenting first class live jazz EVER THURSDAY at Hedsor for over 20 years. I will say however that in order to carry on we do need your physical presence. I do appreciate that going out has become less of a habit. There is so much jazz to watch on YouTube, even though it is now constantly interrupted by adverts. But jazz is a living culture, it needs to be lived not just watched or remembered, so do consider supporting it, even though it means going out into the weather and the dark. 

This week we also have a Big Band gig to support at Cookham Rise’s Methodist Church on Friday, see previous blog portion for the advert.

An Advanced notice.

Our Christmas Party (yes that dreaded C word) on December 23^rd will have tonight’s guest  Duncan Lamont together with singer Sarah Moule. But we are also going to have a very special raffle.

A large basket of Christmas food will be raffled off to raise money for Cancer Research UK, courtesy of an anonymous donor. For two years now we haven’t been able to run one of our fundraising Jazz evenings, and due to our donor’s generosity we will be able to make up a little for this with the proceeds from this Christmas Raffle.

The sale of CD’s, started again in September, has so far raised over £120 for CRUK

So ends part two!

 More blog later in the week, but I have just learnt that Cookham Rise Methodist Church is putting on a Big Band night this coming Friday, see below. That well know bass player and supporter of braces, Peter Hughes, will be part of the ensemble!

Other famous names will also be part of this band, which rehearses every week in Cookham Rise Methodist Churches hall.

The day before, Thursday Nov 11th, in "OUR" Hedsor Club Hall, we will have Duncan Lamont Jr with us, but more in a later blog.

TTFN  Geoff

My Blog, and this week Hedsor Jazz gets first mention.

On Thursday November 4^th our concert presentation in Hedsor’s Big Room will feature trumpet maestro Ian Smith together with his saxophonist accomplice Ollie Wilby. 

They have both been to Hedsor a number of times before, and on each previous occasion given us jazz of great interest, often welded to linking language that is both erudite and poetic! If you come along you will see and hear what I’m on about! You will enjoy it! This week we also welcome back our regular bandleader and drummer Martin Hart from his Silly break. We also welcome back a pianist who was with us last in 2018, John Cooper. Ken McCarthy has left for a short break in the Yorkshire countryside.

Last week was a mega jazz week for me. Great Hedsor Jazz from Lester Brown and Mark Aston on Thursday, with a great set provided by our deputy drummer Mike Jeffries. The announcement of his death in the Maidenhead Advertiser was a great shock to us all ---until he answered the phone! NOT OUR Mike Jeffries I am delighted to say! 

Then on Friday at Marlow there was a delightful set given by pianist Chris Ingham based on the work of Hoagy Carmichael. This was excellent jazz cabaret, with Chris singing the songs and telling the story of Hoagy, as well as playing Christ Church’s Marlow’s Bechstein piano. It was a very well thought through program, a great evening of entertainment. With Chris was Paul Higgs on a green trumpet (!), with Marianne Windham on bass and George Double on drums.

They produced a very good cd, looking like a distressed old book

Saturday saw me off to The Woodley Theatre, near Reading, where Alan Barnes played an acoustic set with Martin Hart on drums, Ken McCarthy keyboard and Andy Crowdy on bass. A very entertaining evening, with Alan feeling at home with the rest of the band, and playing off them with great imagination and improvisation. Yes, without PA, you couldn’t hear the announcements further back than row C, and then only just!

My only slight doubt about the whole evening was that the theatre was full, no covid spacing and every seat taken.

More News Now of Hedsor Jazz

We now have a replacement for one of our Christmas Party guests. As mentioned a few weeks back Tina May has had to withdraw this year, and in her place I am delighted to announce that we have managed to get Sarah Moule back with us again. 

That will be on December 23^rd. Saxophonist Duncan Lamont jr will also be with us, more news on other guests later.

Below, my pictures from last week.  Also below is Marlow Jazz’s newsletter. ALL local jazz needs your support. Better still it needs YOU in the audience!