The weeks fly by, and we are heading towards the third week of February already. I always seem to have more things to do than weeks to do them in, which in many ways is a good thing, as I don’t know what it would be like to be bored!

But I wouldn’t miss who we have coming this Thursday, February 20^th. 

When I wrote last week that guitarist James Fenn might have a dep playing next to him, I was mistaken. Saxophonist Frank Walden is billed and is coming! You can see them together in action in “The Filthy Six” on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8P67sqNu-E.

But at Hedsor Jazz this week our trio led by Ken McCarthy on keyboard  will be behind them.

James Fenn

As I wrote in last weeks blog James was one of the early players at Hedsor Jazz, and we had some entertaining Monday nights back in the early noughties!

Frank has only relatively recently come to be one of our regular saxophonists at Hedsor, and he is shortly to go out on tour, so we are fortunate to catch him before he goes.

Frank Walden

 

Last week (my photos are below) we had an evening with a difference inasmuch as not only did Lester Brown and Mark Aston play some familiar tunes, but we also had an original baroque style composition by Mark himself in the second set. Played as an unaccompanied duet with Lester “Small Piece” was a delight.

Another part of our evening with a difference was provided by singer Paul Cherry, who joined the band for a couple of tunes in the second set. As someone said to me “who needs to go to Ronnie Scott’s?”  At the prices they charge I would say “no one”. Their charges are very definitely out of my league. As an apprentice back in the 1950’s, I could afford to go to London Jazz Clubs and theatres, but not any more. Even the cheap seats are £30, and you will really have to make one drink last the night!

Paul Cherry, "sitting" in last week

 

OK, having quality jazz at The Hedsor Bar does have some drawbacks. Very few people would ever find out there is jazz there, as it doesn’t get many people walking past it, and yes, it is dark, with few (if any) streetlights. It isn’t the most luxurious place to be once inside, but there is a competitively priced bar, the venue is comfortable enough, the toilets are clean and you do have free car parking. AND you do get some really great jazz for your £10 entry.

So why not turn out and help us keep live jazz alive? In these challenging times our friendly atmosphere coupled with our wonderful musicians may make all the difference to your week.

A SAD FOOTNOTE

One of the guys who used to make quiet a difficult journey to get to Hedsor Jazz, (not every week, but over many years), coming part by train, and part on his bike, has recently passed away. Will Paine died suddenly in December. We didn’t learn about this until this week, and sadly, the funeral has already taken place. 

He was a keen open mike singer and now he can do so with a better class of choir!

 It’s Tuesday again, another blog day, and quite frankly, Doris Day could well be singing

 Oh, the weather outside is frightful

But the fire is so delightful

And since we've no place to go

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

 BUT we are spared the snow, however dreary the weather actually is. I believe there is “a sun up in the sky”...but I don’t seem to have seen it for weeks.

However,         “when everything seems against us, Hedsor Jazz is here to help us!!”

And what better way to brighten our day (one short of St Valentine’s) is a Thursday evening of JAZZ on February 13th.

And this week at Hedsor Jazz we have two familiar faces in the front line. On trumpet Lester Brown, recovering from last month’s trad night, and Mark Aston on trombone, probably simply recovering!! We anticipate Ken McCarthy will be right behind them, and so will be Al Pirrie on bass and Martin Hart on drums. Pictured below is the last time Lester and Mark collaborated at Hedsor.

 

This past week has been a good week for jazz in our area. Dawkes, the music shop in Maidenhead, has been promoting live music in their new “Performance Space”, since it opened in the Autumn of 24 and on Sunday afternoon they had Stuart Henderson with Ollie Weston playing the music of “Blue Note”. A couple of my photos from the afternoon are below:-

Both of them have been front liners at Hedsor Jazz in the past fortnight, and Tonight Feb 11th,(YES a Tuesday night) two other Hedsor performers will be playing at Dawkes, saxophonists Jonathan Lewis and Martin Dunston, see poster below:-

 

Last Thursday we had our own very special evening of bop, and yet again the Hedsor Roar was heard, as Stuart Henderson and Alam Nathoo again collaborated. A wonderful evening and my pictures of the evening are below.

 

We have often wondered how Alam keeps so well in practice as he isn’t a full time musician anymore, but in talking with John Dawkes on Sunday we discovered at least one of Alam secrets . He uses one of Dawkes practice studios! Much better than waking a young family member up at home!!

Do keep an eye on Dawkes, they are beginning to use their new performance area much more and it is a very smart place to be..

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/dawkesmusic

Coming to Hedsor Jazz NEXT WEEK February 20th, we will have James Fenn, a guitarist who was one of the founders of jazz at Hedsor.

When it was The Hedsor Social Club we ran some Monday evenings of guitar led jazz under his leadership, and on one of those occasions we met Vasilis Xenopoulos for the first time, and we also had pianist John Critchinson play as a dep!! However next week, we will have a guest to join James, and it may well be another dep, watch his space.

Well that’s about it for now folks. Don’t forget that live jazz needs a live audience. It’s what gives the exciting bits the roar!

PS I have used blogspot for around 20 years, and I still don't understand why sometimes the background to the text changes colour. I don't do it!!

Good Morning blog readers. We have escaped January, and have reached into February, and a whole new month of Thursdays, with excellent jazz for you to listen to every week.

At Hedsor Jazz we are trying to establish variety and consistency!! Consistent quality, and a pattern of performers, so this coming Thursday, 6^th Feb, we have, as the first Thursday of the month (as in January) the bringing together of two huge talents. Stuart Henderson and Alam Nathoo, trumpet and saxophone respectively.

Over recent months we have found that bringing these two together more than doubles the enjoyment of listening to them singly. There ability to feed off of each others thoughtful, but high speed, improvisations, is almost uncanny and tremendously exciting. 

Joining them this month will be Stuart Barker on bass. 

So do come and hear them for yourselves. Photos of them at Hedsor in January are below.

 

Last week we had two tenors for a ..... tenor!!

Tenorist Frank Walden was to have partnered the trumpet of Bruce Adams, but sadly Bruce had to postpone his visit as he is having his cataracts operated on and wont be able to blow that trumpet in anyway for a few weeks. That is something he usually does in a spectacular fashion, and when fully recovered we will invite him back to Hedsor Jazz to demonstrate just how well he does it!!

But last week Frank was paired with another tenor player, Ollie Weston. This turned out to be a fantastic joining together, which produced a few catalytic reactions! Everyone played past there best. Ollie is a wonderful find. For his solo feature he played “Isfahan” from Duke Ellington’s “Far East Suite”, one of my favourite saxophone improvisations. I had only listened to a recording of Alan Barnes playing that the day before. And Ollie did it superbly, as the applause at the end showed.

It wasn’t just the two at the front that excelled. Ken McCarthy was back from his holiday break and fresher than ever. Al Pirrie on bass and Martin Hart on drums seemed inspired as well.  In the second set, as part of a series of “breaks”, Al and Martin traded 5’s, with Martin playing his drum skins with his hands. This, not just for a couple of 5’s, but for series of 5 bars! Something Hedsor had not seen before. This produced a relatively new phenomenon, the Hedsor Roar!

Such was the adventure of our evening that everyone was inspired! One of our audience said that the whole evening reminded him of nights at The Bull’s Head at Barnes!

Pictures of the evening are below:-

 

I for one need evenings like that, as earlier in the day I had attended the funeral of a neighbour and friend that I had know since 1969. Yesterday I attended the funeral of a friend I had known since 1963. So for me our Thursday evenings are a great encouragement. If music, (even jazz music I hear you mutter) is the food of love, play on.

We are planning jazz events at Hedsor into the future, so do keep any eye on this blog. We can’t always keep to our advertised program (as we couldn’t last week) but we do promise you quality live jazz and enjoyable company at Hedsor.

So perhaps we will see you, and a friend, at Hedsor on Thursday. I look forward to it.