Good Morning England,

NO not another message from a Prime Ministerial candidate, just Geoff’s Blog!

Most of us have no say in who runs our country for the next couple of year, but you do have a say in what you actually listen to and how you pass your Thursday evenings. This week I do hope you vote with your feet for Hedsor Jazz, as it is going to be rather a special evening. Hedsor Jazz is going to say “Happy Birthday” to a very special vibraphone player, who passed the 95^th year milestone in the past few days. SO on Thursday this week, July 28^th, we will have Alan Grahame, Duncan Lamont Jr. Stuart Henderson, Ken McCarthy and Martin Hart, now thankfully recovering from covid 19, all joining with some of Alan’s friends from his career in music, plus his daughter, an alto player usually seen in the Jools Holland Orchestra, all coming to play at Hedsor. There will be a buffet, so do come along. Entry will still only be £10 a head and it will be an 8.30 start as is our norm. But do come early. I think we will have enough seats for everyone, but maybe not a table space for everyone’s drinks!

 

Alan Grahame earlier this year

Last weeks concert, featuring Stuart Henderson and Mike Wilkins, was another very enjoyable evening, with some great arrangements being rapidly read. Mike Wilkins seems to be getting used to us, as he was playing better this time than when I last heard him at Hedsor. I’m sure we will see him again.

My photos of the evening are below.

 

You might like to look more closely at the last photo, provided by John Dutton. Yes, Stuart did play one solo on his flugel horn BUT with it UPSIDE DOWN!!

Last week I never did get around to writing more about my Swanage Jazz 2022 experience. However, a short (5 minute) compilation is now available on YouTube that gives you at least a flavour of what it is like, and maybe wet your appetite for next years festival. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVv6e2H3iFY

As I mentioned last week I enjoyed greatly the Nigel Price Saturday gig in the Molem Theatre. Vasilis Xenopoulos, who was part of that concert, has since told me that to make it an economical event, after a couple of hours having a late lunch drinking a cold lager and downing a sandwich, he travelled back home (to Cookham!!), via a gig in Romsey, near Southampton, that evening! 

The discussion I had with him really makes me wonder how much longer we can go on enjoying live music of any sort, but perhaps jazz in particular, with so little financial resource going into this form of art. All around us we see organisations that promote and support artistic endeavour struggling to keep going. Will it ever be that top quality jazz can only be performed by people who come from a wealthy background where they, the performer, doesn’t actually need the income from his performance? Most musicians travel many miles to play for us. We all enjoy the rich mix of talents, be they performed in a jazz festival or in a small club like Hedsor, but with fuel costs hitting all of us, even a ten mile journey will cost the musician about £10. So enjoy it all whilst you still have the opportunity. Hedsor Jazz charges £10 entry, yet most of the musicians travel more than ten miles to play for us!