There is a bright star in the sky! Sunshine?

AND we also look forward to a bright star at Hedsor Jazz this coming Thursday, March 20th!

Saxophonist star Vasilis Xenopoulos will be leading our rhythm section of Ken McCarthy on keyboard, Al Pirrie on bass and Mike Jeffries on drums and I’m sure he will be exploiting some of the meaning of jazz for us. Sometimes it is good to have just one front line voice to exploit tunes that we may have heard multiple times.

More can sometimes come from less. I personally always enjoy listening to the harmonies generated by two instruments at the front, one leading the other and then changing the rolls. But by giving some individual musicians the chance to explore before an audience a tune that they know well will often illuminate for us a tune that we thought we knew well too! On Thursday we look to Vasilis, a Master of Music from Boston’s Berkley Collage of Music, to shine that light.

 

Last Thursday we had at Hedsor Jazz one of those sessions that I thought before the night might not work. Guitarist James Fenn and trumpeter Lester Brown have different jazz backgrounds, and with piano, bass, and guitar all being chordal instruments I worried that it might not work behind a single note instrument. In addition, Lester and James had never met before, and Stuart Barker on bass had never met James before either, so I was a little worried.

I WAS WRONG! It was one of those evenings where jazz magic did actually happened. We had some of that wonderful musical cohesion that you can only dream about. The three, plus drums, worked beautifully, with an integrated sound whilst Lester was playing above them that much rehearsal would have killed. In my mind it gave Lester a freedom that I hadn’t heard from him before, and I do believe it was the best I have ever heard him play. We will be booking them again! Smiles all round. My pictures from the evening are below.

 

Coming to us at the end of March (Thursday 27^th) two players with a breadth of experience in jazz. Trumpet player Pete Rudeforth and saxophonist Duncan Lamont Jr. Pete is another musician who comes via the mainstream and traditional jazz background, having his own band playing in that style, and having been part of the last version of the Chris Barber Band, whereas Duncan comes with a strong affiliation to the musical (as in stage and story with music) genre. Both have a host of stories to tell, and some of those stories they will tell by playing. Don’t miss it!

Below is our program poster for April. Do copy, print and display. We need more in our audience to guarantee you can have a Christmas Party at Hedsor Jazz!

 

In recent years I have written much less about recorded jazz than I used to do 15 years or so ago. It is one thing to move from LP albums with great cover art, to cassette tapes with minute sleeves, on to CD’s with great booklets of information, on to streaming music with no notes and no art at all. Personally I think that only streaming your music leaves you without a sense of ownership, whereas you did actually cherish your purchased solid object, being LP, cassette or CD.

So this week I thought I would at least mention 3 CD’s that have come my way this month, all by Jacques Loussier and his trio. 2 CD’s are actually double albums, and are later recordings of some the J L Work we knew from 1959. They are mostly recordings that were made later in the 2010’s reflecting back on those recordings that so surprised the jazz and classical world on their original release.

In this reissue format they are stunning. Both recording and execution are of top quality, and well worth your ears and time to listen. I still think the Bach titles are the best, although much of the Vivaldi is kind of thought provoking. All in all, if you can still play CD’s, and you have the time to listen to them, do give them all a try. Three musicians playing very nicely together!

In these days of “instant” Music, taking the time to listen will reward you in more than 3 ways!!

Album artwork below.

That’s it for now folks, enjoy all the sunshine!