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