Good Morning Jazz Fans.

Having woken up to the sound of Boris Johnson’s booster rockets falling into the Pacific Ocean, I feel a sort of mental lethargy creeping over me. Yesterday I read that he was paid £275000 for writing articles for The Telegraph, and as a Minister of the Crown he would have been paid £69000 on top of his salary as an MP of £75000. I feel that not only are jazz musicians underpaid, but also people who write blogs about jazz for absolutely nothing are also undervalued! I wont sulk (yet)! 

So perhaps this edition, which as always is in full colour, may be shorter than usual. After all, I have to be awake by 4pm to hear what our new prime minister has to say once she is standing in front of No.10 at 4pm.

Coming to Hedsor Jazz this week (Thursday 8^th September) is someone new to us. Alam Nathoo is a saxophonist who has stepped slightly sideways from a musical career to help run a family business, but he is a saxophonist of great ability. He also writes! Do check out his website https://alamnathoo.wordpress.com/

 

He also lives in Cookham! Perhaps one day we will be able to gather all the musicians who live in Cookham to play together. Now that would be interesting, as Chris Rea is also a Cookham resident, as is Vasilis Xenopoulos.

Alam will be alongside that superb trombone player Nick Mills. 

Alam has played alongside Nick in larger musical ensembles that ours at Hedsor Jazz, and is looking forward to this small group outing on Thursday. Our usual start time of 8.30pm and it is still only £10 to get in. 

Come and sample two young musicians playing improvised jazz before the booster rockets reappear from their Pacific hiding place!

Last week (pictures below) we had a great evening listening again to some of the tunes Hedsor Jazz’s founder Clive Burton used to enjoy playing. What a treat it all was, even finishing our evening with “Jeanine”*. They were of course brought to us by Mike Wills and Lester Brown, with Ken McCarthy, Ester Ng and Martin Hart all making up  “The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet”. 

Do look back to last weeks blog for the listing of the next 2 months of Hedsor Jazz gigs. We have a great set of line ups coming, with some unusual evenings for you to rant or rave about.

Don’t forget to let me have the names of the musicians you would like to have come to Hedsor to play for us. Not everything is possible, but we do try to please!

Also make a note in your diary for December 15^th. It will be our Christmas Party!

*There is a version of “Jeannine” played by Cannonball Adderley in 1962 available on YouTube, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN1SwOdbdBU

 OK, it's my splash down time, so I'll see you when I have dried out. TTFN.