Hedsor Jazz

This week has “our” Lester Brown on brass (!) and Alam Nathoo on tenor sax, a combination that was forged last month alongside Alan Barnes. That was so good we are repeating it but sadly WITHOUT Alan!

However supporting those two at the front we will have Ken McCarthy on keyboard, Al Pirrie on bass, and perhaps, even a return of Martin Hart on drums.

 

Last weeks session had the lone front line of Ian Smith on trumpet. Yes, he did recite the lyrics into the microphone, especially when reminded to do so. He had been a friend of the late Michael Gambon, and told us one or two amusing stories about that great actor, who died last week. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002091/ 

Sadly Ian and the trio were playing to the smallest audience we have had at Hedsor for a long time. Obviously it was a collusion for everyone to go on holiday at the same time! Almost as rare as a total eclipse!!  Those who were there enjoyed the evening, as did that lonely trumpet player at the front! 

A couple of my pictures are below.

 

Last Saturday 3 or 4 of the frequent Hedsor faces did manage to get to the Wooburn Festival Jazz Supper and had an excellent evening led by Claire Martin and Jim Mullen. The first half was good, but the second half, after an excellent light repast, was very good. Not only had the audience relaxed, but so had Claire, who seemed more herself and communicated to the audience with her obvious love for the music. A quite impromptu encore finished the evening. Claire came on stage to collect her microphone, which the audience thought meant an encore. However the band had started to clear up, and when Claire realised that the audience would LOVE a bit more, got the bass player to accompany her in one last song. Now that IS jazz! The rest of the band were made up of Drummer Steve Brown and bassist Jeremy Brown, unrelated!

 

Do look back at previous jazz from geoff blogs for our list of future gigs.

 

If you feel you would like more jazz this week, then as I write there were 15 places left in the Progress Theatre for Stuart Henderson, Karen Sharp, Leon Greening, Raph Mizraki bass, and Simon Price drums, check out to see if there are any left. https://progresstheatre.co.uk/whats-on         Partners in Time – Historic Sax/Trumpet Partnerships

 

The Wooburn Festival was a sell out! It looks like the Progress Theatre gig will be too. Once upon a pre covid time, we also turned people away from Hedsor Jazz now and again. We still offer first class jazz at an unbeatable price!

 

Geoff C

Tuesday, 03 October 2023