Good Morning England, and welcome to my blog, and to my ramblings all about local jazz.

Tonight, April 16^th, you can fill your jazz ears at Marlow Jazz Club, (that’s at the British Legion Hall near the railway station), where they will be celebrating from 8.30pm Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra with an ALL-STAR QUINTET FEATURING ENRICO TOMASSO, TRUMPET/VOCAL, DENNY ILET Jnr GUITAR/VOCAL

Denny has played for us at Hedsor Jazz in the past, but so far Enrico hasn’t!

BUT there is a trumpet player who’s name you will get to know.

He played Hedsor last week, and his name is Mat Hill, and I believe he is all of 23 years of age. Mark down the name, because you will want hear him again because he is a superb player.

Last weeks session had Mat playing alongside saxophonist Martin Dunsdon, and they will be back!

Martin has played with almost everyone, having been part of the Syd Lawrence Orchestra as well as the Glen Miller Orchestra. At the end of the evening (during which a lot of jaws dropped) a number of people came up to me to tell me they had just experienced the best night of jazz at Hedsor EVER!

Lets face it we have had quite a few great evenings at Hedsor Jazz but I don’t think anyone thought that this scratch ensemble would play such exciting and uplifting jazz. One regular jazz attendee said he had been lifted to a new plane! It really was a rich experience, one of those magic jazz occasions that we turn out for hoping to experience. Mat and Martin D were supported by Martin Hart on drums, Nigel Fox on keyboard and Peter Hughes on bass. My photos are below.

 

At the end of the evening whilst all were packing up, the band had broad smiles too, as they knew it had been special! 

Coming this week in the wake of that performance we have another trumpet/saxophone pairing. Lester Brown will be alongside saxophonist Frank Waldon. That’s This Thursday April 18^th from 8.00pm.  To goad them along we will have Al Pirrie on bass, Nigel Fox on keyboard and Martin Hart on drums.

Lester by now needs no introduction to the regulars at Hedsor jazz, and Frank has become a regular favourite over the past year or so. A great tenor sax player, working regularly in the more popular music field, but also enjoying life with the Filthy Six (no not the Dirty Dozen!), see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8P67sqNu-E for an example.

As many of you will know our regular pianist has been absent for some weeks now. Ken McCarthy has been forced to take a number of residences at and visits to hospital. He is currently at home in a state of recovery.

He misses us, and when I phoned him this morning he asked to be remembered to you all. Ken, how can we ever forget you, and all the joy your playing has given us over the years. Just stop annoying Maggie by kicking around at home and get back to playing at Hedsor Jazz (and all your other regular commitments) just asap.

In the meantime it is only right to especially thank Nigel Fox for stepping in on (but not stepping on) keyboard at Hedsor Jazz over this extended period of Ken’s absence.

And You , The audience?

Keep coming to Hedsor Jazz on Thursdays. We are almost unique in running jazz gigs EVERY WEEK.

Our last gig for April (Thursday the 25^th) is also a special. We will be celebrating and remembering some of the people who we used to see in our audience but who have since gone to that greater gig in the sky. So, for an evening celebrating those absent (jazz) angels we will have Vasilis Xenopoulos with us, and during the interval we will have a light buffet, all for the entry fee of just £10. An 8pm start as always. DONT MISS IT!