Good Morning England
This may be the last blog before both Christmas and New Year, so here is wishing you all a safe and jolly festive time.
Later down in the blog you will see my pics from our concert on December 16th, sadly the last Hedsor Jazz concert for 2021.
It was one of those concert of jazz at Hedsor that everyone should have been at. The combination of 3 residents from Speen was dam near perfect. In front of Martin Hart, our regular band leading drummer , who has lived in Speen for many years, was trumpeter Johnny Thirkell. And alongside him was tenor saxophonist Frank Walden. Both also now resident in Speen. With Ken McCarthy on keyboard and Terry Davis on bass we had a terrific evening of jazz, with an interesting choice of tune and slightly more adventurous arranging. It was led on the night by Frank Walden, and it really worked.
You may notice from my photos that John Thirkell was playing a trumpet with a black finish to the bell end. I had a chat with him about this after the show and he explained that it had been made for him by a F1 motor racing design engineer who had a theory about the need to stiffen the output end of a trumpet for greater volume. The black finish isn’t a coating, but carbon fibre. The Trumpet was made especially for John, and is truly unique. It also sounded superb. John promised to come (with the same trumpet) to Hedsor again next year.
And so to our plans for next year. You will be pleased to know that we do intend to carry on as and when allowed into 2022, and have already paid in advance our room rent for the year.
SO far we have the following musicians earmarked to come:-
January 6th Lester Brown trumpet + Mark Aston reeds
13th Kelvin
Christiane reeds + Stuart Henderson trumpet
20th
Lester Brown trumpet + Duncan Lamont jr reeds
27th Sue Greenaway reeds + ?*
*?
We are unsure who she will have alongside her. As I write, “our” Mike Wills has
a broken wrist!
February 3rd Mark Aston reeds + Lester Brown trumpet
10th Stuart Henderson trumpet + “Tolly”
reeds
17th Lester Brown
trumpet + ? we hope!
Throughout the year we hope to have some other great and well known musicians playing for us at Hedsor, depending on what virus lets us do w h u AND on audience numbers.
We are grateful for all who have supported us since were able to restart live jazz at Hedsor in May, but we could do with at least another 20 people coming to be the audience. In the past few weeks we have had a few new attendees’ but also we have lost a few who used to be regulars. So if you enjoy your evenings of jazz at The Hedsor Club, tell your friends.
CD’s for your Santa Stocking
Of
recent weeks I have listened to 3 new issues from the label “Lateralize Records”.
I
mentioned one a few weeks ago, “The Heart Wants” by singer Jo Harrop. This
month I have listened to two more from the Lateralize stable.
Like Hedsor Jazz Lateralize found that they hadn’t anywhere for their signed artists to play live jazz so they set about recording and issuing an album that has a number of different artists on it but playing tunes written largely by British artists. “British Standard Time” (LR013CD) is the result. If you look them up on the web you will be able to sample some of this album for yourselves, but it is surprising to hear well know tunes played in a different way from the original.
Two stand out for me. I have always been a fan of the U2 song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking for” and here it is sung by Jo Harrop. Her clarity of diction does mean that for the first time I can understand what the song is about!
Also sung by Jo on this compilation is “As Long as He Needs Me” from “Oliver”. Back in the 1960’s I saw this sung live on the West End stage, and it was really good the have a revived version.
Other singers sing other songs! One is used to hearing “Mad about the Boy” sung by Noel Coward, but to hear it sung by Carroll Thompson kind of wakes you up!
On the whole a good CD to make you realise there is more than one way to....no, not kill the cat, but to sing a well known song. Do take a look and a listen at https://lateralize.bandcamp.com/album/british-standard-time
I have really enjoyed the listen and the sound quality is excellent!
Comments on the third listen from the me will have to wait for their place in this "jazz from geoff" blog as I’m as yet unsure if jazz and harps go well together, so more on that later after a longer listen.
For a parting shot though I will say that I will look forward to hearing more from Jo Harrop.
One final note. Together with the raffle run on December 16th and the sale of CD'd I was able to pay in to CRUK in Maidenhead a further £70, which make a total raised for CRUK by you good people of Hedsor Jazz since September of £250
Now what was that about stockings?
 |
| Jo Harrop |
She has been know to sing alongside Nigel Price!
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