Well, another blog, but after my experiences of  last week, in writing this one I’m feeling slightly punch drunk!

Last Monday I got the news that my chrome cobalt denture repair could not be a repair! I needed a brand new one. Oh well, the old one has served me 20 plus years, so how much will this new one cost? £1500 was the reply! So, with my new one I would be able to bite the bullet, but I have to bite the bullet first to get a new one!!

Yes the cost did stir me!

I went home to tell my wife the news, to be greeted with the dire news from her that the upright freezer had broken down. Search, order, pay up and...

The new one arrived on Wednesday. When we had finished its installation (in an outhouse) we went indoors with a view to washing our grubby clothing to find the washing machine had broken down in sympathy with the freezer. A service engineer is coming to look at that on Thursday! Now something special usually does happen on Thursdays doesn’t it!!

So what can it be this coming Thursday? Oh yes, I remember. Hedsor Jazz! By the time Hedsor Jazz arrives I should be able to tell you more about our white goods saga.

And Hedsor Jazz on May 23rd will have two great favourite players coming to play for us who I don’t think have played together at Hedsor before. Al Nicholls on tenor sax, and Jezz Cook on guitar, are both well established favourites at Hedsor Jazz. They will be accompanied on keyboard by Ken McCarthy,(thankfully back from his tour of local hospitals), a bass player I have yet to meet, Tom Mark, and “our” Mike Jeffries on drums.

Apart from Freezer deliveries, last Wednesday was memorable for another event in Cookham, the Festival Jazz night. This year it was led by Cookham resident Vasilis Xenopoulos , with pianist Paul Edis, Adam King on bass and a stunning young drummer Joel Barford.

They were playing music from their new album “Feels Like Home”, released in April to critical acclaim. I can safely say that the performance of the tunes from the album in Cookham was every bit up to the level of acclaim of the CD. A vibrant Live experience, with every member of the quartet playing their socks off. And the audience thought it pretty good too. Many were staggered by the sheer musical ability of these jazz musicians! 

The whole show was really enhanced by the excellent lighting of the band on the stage and the sound system was outstanding. Well done the organising team of this year’s festival. This was one of the best gigs I have been to in recent years, and I feel that the sheer professionalism of the musicians has won new people to jazz. We will have to see if any of last Wednesdays audience ever reach Hedsor but our flyers were out!

Two photos below taken in Pinder Hall.

 

 

The album art is also below

Hedsor Jazz’s night last Thursday was, I think, hit by listener fatigue, as attendance was very thin. Local jazz fans had had Marlow Jazz on Tuesday, Cookham Festival Jazz on Wednesday, and Hedsor Jazz on Thursday. Disappointing for the Thursday players, but we were able to listen to another new to us musician, guitarist Alex Corlett. Alex was depping for trombonist Nick Mills, and was a last minute replacement to keep Mark Aston company at the front. They were backed by Ken McCarthy on keyboard (who had obviously kept in practice despite his recent “indisposition”), Al Pirrie on bass and Mike Jeffries on drums. Alex is a confident player, with some great ideas and a technique to go with them. He will be back, so all of you who were worn out by a week of jazz will be able to hear him at a date yet to be arranged! 

Just a mention to some of you readers who used to get nagged by email from me to read the blog.

I have been having some difficulties in issuing blind copy emails using “New” Outlook ever since Microsoft stopped Outlook. So many of you will not have been reminded by email that you have something to new to read.

I will eventually solve the problem. Microsoft think they control the world, but they only control some of it. I may use my free will option to move to another method. In the meantime I hope you get into the habit of reading the blog, usually issued on a Tuesday. Even if you don’t like my text, the pictures are pretty! And it is always there to find if you Google “jazz from geoff” or type in http://jazzfromgeoff.blogspot.com/

That’s it for now folks. Do try and support live music, and live jazz in particular!