Hello England and welcome to our summer of, well, discontent. Inflation inflating and with the government helping us all by putting up the tax on alcohol! The sun not shinning, but global warming is warming, and the value of my car declining by the minute. One consolation, I will probably no longer be interested or able to drive it by 2030 anyway!

I’m sure whatever government we have by 2030 will be puzzling on how to replace the £23Million (or should that be billion?) in tax generated by the fuel tax on petrol and diesel, which they are going to be preventing the use of by then!

So we all need something to brighten our lives. Some GOOD news? Well, I do have some.

First, coming this Thursday, August 3^rd, to Hedsor Jazz we have “our” trumpet man Lester Brown paired at the front with that superb saxophonist Frank Walden. As usual, they will be ably supported by Martin Hart on drums, Ken McCarthy on keyboard and this week our bass player will be Esther Ng.

 

The second piece of good news is:-

After some discussion and thoughts about  the future of Hedsor Jazz we decided it would be good to ask another jazz musician to help and advise us in the role of Honorary President of Hedsor Jazz. 

I am delighted to announce that Vasilis Xenopoulos has agreed to help us in this capacity. Vasilis is now resident in Cookham and Hedsor Jazz is therefore very near to him, and he is even nearer to me!

He will meet with the committee of “Jazz Angles” very soon, but has already suggested that he could sound out other jazz musicians who haven’t yet played at Hedsor and whom we would enjoy. He is also offering to revise our social media profile with a view to making and keeping it up to date.

Vasilis has had a long association with Hedsor Jazz, having played in the early 2000’s when our jazz was played in the bar before it was redecorated! Since then we have all “matured”, and he is now married with two small children who keep him very active! 

He is also a very busy musician, so we are very grateful for his willingness to become associated with us at Hedsor Jazz in this role.

 

Last Week

Hedsor Jazz on Film? Well maybe, but last week we celebrated with Alan Grahame his 96^th birthday at Hedsor Jazz, and according to him, 90 of them have been in show business! So his son came with a film crew, and part of our evening was filmed for later distribution on YouTube. It was a super evening and our room was filled with fans old and new. With Alan on vibes were Duncan Lamont Jr on tenor sax and flute, with our usual rhythm section of Ken McCarthy on keyboard and Martin Hart on drums and with a return of Steve Riddle on bass. The music was timeless, with many tunes culled from The Great American Song Book, much of which has been written and become part of our lives during Alan’s time as a musician! Long may he continue to play Hedsor Jazz for us!

My photos of this are below.