The Hedsor Jazz Blog is Little Bit Earlier than Usual

and it will be the last blog for 2024. 

So just to start, a Christmas Greeting to you all

DO HAVE A SPLENDID CHRISTMAS TIME

and 

an invitation to our last gig of the year, our famous Christmas Party

AND ALL FOR JUST £10 per head

Next year we start on JANUARY 9th, 

and the 4 weeks of our music for January 2025 are set out for you below

AS you can see from our January program we are starting 2025 as we mean to go on, with wonderful players and a variety of musical styles all under that overall banner word JAZZ

Throughout the year we aim to bring you, on occasions, a evening in a changed style to the 1950's MODERN jazz that has been our mainstay for the past 20 years. We want to illustrate the many variations that can go under that word JAZZ.

To some extent last weeks session with Al Nicholls and Titch Walker did just that and kind of prefaced our January 23rd evening. Booting Texas style tenor playing from Al, with some Dixieland style trumpet from Titch, even playing tunes like "Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans" and "Back Home Again in Indiana". Great fun, but a complete contrast to the week before where Stuart Henderson and Alam Nathoo played as one charts that they had never seen before.

My pictures from last week are below.

Finally can I thank all of you for the support you have offered to us at Hedsor Jazz in 2024. You have turned out on dark days, windy days, election days, closed bridge days and you have all helped in that task of Keeping Live Jazz ALIVE

May Christmas bring you all the gifts you desire, and the refreshment, physical and emotional, that will lead you into 2025 with a fresh resolve. 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Geoff

Tuesday, Blog Day, every week! BUT I will be taking a break over the Christmas period, as Frank Sinatra used to sing, “It’s nice to go travelling” and our family is somewhat “dispersed”!

One or two things to highlight.

Our jazz at The Hedsor Bar is every Thursday, except for our Christmas Holiday Period. Our last Thursday before our break will be December 19^th for our Christmas Party, and we will recommence after our holidays on January 9^th. Our start time remains at 8pm, and I am pleased to see that the Hedsor Bar web site has now got the correct start time.

Our last two gigs for 2024 will have, this week, December 12^th, Al Nicholls on tenor sax and Titch Walker on trumpet with as usual the Hedsor Jazz trio backing all that they do! Al and Titch make up the heart of “Blue Harlem” so come and enjoy some bootingly good jazz.

Al with us in September

The musical side of our Christmas party on December 19^th will have Duncan Lamont Jr on reeds, Lester Brown on trumpet and they will be joined by that lovely singer Sarah Jane Eveleigh. A light buffet will be available at half time.

I do hope we all have an enjoyable and happy Christmas time, and safe journeys for all of us who have to do that.

Next year one of our innovation evenings is coming on January 23^rd. We will be emphasising the more traditional of jazz tunes and we will be joined for that by special guest Richard Kellaway on Reeds, with Lester Brown on Trumpet, Phil Brown on Trombone, Andrew Clancy on Piano, Al Pirrie on Bass and Martin Hart on Drums.

Richard with Cookhams "Shirtlifters"

With the coming of a new year it is time to thank Martin Hart for all the work he has done over the past few years in booking the musicians who come and play for us at Hedsor. Martin has decided that a rest is as good as a cure and for 2025 this roll will be taken over by Mike Jeffries, with assistance in the planning and booking from Ken McCarthy and Tracy Georgiades . Martin took over the role when Clive passed away and has moved our jazz musical experience higher every year. We do plan to carry on at Hedsor, and will be booking musicians of like quality into the future months. This can only really continue if we can increase our numbers (bums on seats) AND our notoriety as a jazz club. If anyone would like to help with this please let me know.

Last week.

My photos are below.

We had feared that Stuart Henderson might not be with us following on from the death of his father, but he was happy to come and do what he does best, play jazz. He was joined at short notice by that guy who can walk to us from home, Alam Nathoo, on reeds. With the rhythm section of Ken McCarthy, Al Pirrie and Mike Jeffries we had great expectations, and we were NOT disappointed. It was probably THE best evening of jazz I have heard this year. The standard of sight reading and timing was astonishing. Well done to all the players for delivering such an amazing evening. These are the sort of evenings that Hedsor Jazz wants to lay down into the future, and we have plans afoot!

Enjoy the rest of 2024, but remember in order to keep live jazz alive we need an AUDIENCE.

 

Geoff

 Late Change to Thursdays Program

Frank Walden is unable to play for us this Thursday, December 5th.  I am delighted to say that we have Alam Nathoo coming in his place.

As you will have read in this weeks main blog article, Alam actually lives nearest to The Hedsor Bar than any of our other guest musicians, AND he is a simply wonderful and innovative saxophonist. Don't miss this unexpected chance to hear him.

Time For a little light blogging, just to keep you “in tune” with all things Hedsor Jazz

We were hoping to welcome Stuart Henderson back to us this coming Thursday, but we learnt on Friday that sadly his father had died earlier that morning.  So it may well be, and understandably so, that he wont be with us this time. I would like to offer on behalf of all of Hedsor Jazz, and for Jazz Angels (the powers behind the music) our heartfelt sympathy for Stuart and all his family at this very sad time.

Stuart would have been in the company of saxophonist Frank Walden on this first gig of December (5^th), and we will still have Al Pirrie on bass, Ken McCarthy on keyboard and Mike Jeffries on drums anyway this week, so plenty of great playing for you to come to Hedsor for this week anyway.

Advance Notice

One of Januaries gigs has already been confirmed, and it is one of the promised “variation” events. On January 23^rd we are going to run an evening of more traditional jazz. Richard Kellaway (one time leader of Cookham’s Fabulous Shirtlifters)  will be on reeds, with Lester Brown on trumpet, Phil Brown on trombone (Lester’s Dad), Andrew Clancy on keyboard, Al Pirrie on bass with Martin Hart on drums.

Richard with the late Ken Rankine

 

 

We thought a bit of variety could add spice to our evenings. No, we aren’t changing our musical policy, but we will be having just one or two variations of style coming to Hedsor Jazz in 2025. Really “Watch this Space” to see what and when.

 Less advanced, but do please still notice that on December 12^th we will have a contingent from “Blue Harlem” coming to Hedsor Jazz. Saxophonist Al Nicholls is bringing with him from his band “Blue Harlem” trumpeter Titch Walker, and we will again be joined by Al Pirrie on bass plus Ken McCarthy on keyboard and Martin Hart on drums.

Al with Jezz Cook

 

Our December will finish on the 19^th with our Christmas Party. There will be a light buffet to sustain us and Duncan Lamont, Lester brown and Sarah Jane Eveleigh to serenade us.

Last Thursdays session, with a return to Hedsor of saxophonist Martin Dunston partnered by Lester Brown on trumpet was a very enjoyable evening, supported by an audience of a few brave people who turned out on a cold night. Great fun was had by all, with some different tunes being played including “United” by Wayne Shorter. We assured Martin he will be invited back (he provided many of the charts), and in fact he doesn’t live too far away. For location Alam Nathoo is nearest to Hedsor Jazz, then Mike Jeffries, then Vasilis Xenopoulos. Once or twice I’m sure we have had them all to us at the same time!

My pictures of last weeks session are below

A Future Fan?

 

 

PS This blog is produced using Googles BlogSpot software, and I have absolutely no idea why sometimes the background to the words goes all white!!