Today’s blog comes with mixed feelings. So let’s get the sad bit over first.

Jan Burton, Clive Burtons wife, whom many of us know as Clive led the jazz music at Hedsor Jazz for over 20 years, had a stroke at her home in Reading last Wednesday night. She is currently being treated in The Royal Berks Hospital, and I have managed to speak with her. She is without feeling down the right hand side, but is able to speak. She now faces many months of treatment, and for some part of that time will be transferred to the Radcliff Hospital in Oxford. Her family have been able to visit and she is reasonably comfortable. She has the ability to watch TV and listen to the radio which helps her to pass the time. I will endeavour to keep you all up to date with her progress, but in the meantime I‘m sure she will value the power of your positive thoughts and your prayers.

Now for some of the more joyful stuff for this weeks blog.

It just so happens that we have the nearest manifestation of The Clive Burton Quintet coming to Hedsor Jazz this Thursday, November 18^th.  “The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet” comprising Lester Brown, Mike Wills, Ken McCarthy and Martin Hart will be with us, plus a bass player so far unnamed. Both Mike Wills and Martin Hart were part of the Clive Burton Quintet that had played in Hedsor Club from 2002 until Clive passed away 4 years ago.

For those of you new to this blog and to Hedsor Jazz I should mention that all our gigs start at 8.30pm and the entrance fee is £10. I do apologise to any new attendees because that hadn’t been mentioned in recent blogs. As we are no longer using the red cashbox, we haven’t put the sign back on the door about the entrance fee. With luck, I may be able to conjure up a sign for this week. Apologies for any embarrassment to anyone who was actually asked to pay!

When you consider that our guests next week are the renowned trumpet player Steve Waterman partnered by saxophonist Kelvin Christian, you will realise that what you get at Hedsor Jazz is an absolute bargain. DONT KEEP IT SUCH A SECRET! Do look Steve up, https://www.stevewaterman.co.uk/ he has played Hedsor before, and appeared alongside Gill Cook at the St Pirans Jazz Festival some years ago.

 

Last week (pictures below) was another cracking evening. You do really have to pinch yourself to realise that music of this quality is coming to you without the fine of travelling into London. Duncan Lamont Jr and Mike Innes played some wonderful jazz, and we had a couple of pro musicians in the audience who in the second set “sat in” too. So for part of the second half we had a 3 part front line of excellent quality.

OK jazz of this quality used to be even nearer to me than Hedsor (Thursdays used to take place in The Cookham Tavern, Now Costa’s Coffee, shut in the evenings now anyway), and I know most of you travel further than I do to listen at Hedsor anyway, but such jazz sessions that are so local and so inexpensive in travel cost and parking charges are remarkable.

 

Someone who has travelled further than most of us can be heard TONIGHT at Marlow Jazz. USA saxophonist Greg Abate. Here is a quote from Marlow Jazz’s web page.

“Tuesday November 16th U.S.A. Alto sax and flute superstar Greg Abate with our trio. £10 Fingers crossed that his planned tour will go ahead. If you have seen his two previous Marlow dates you will know why this guy is rated as one of the greatest saxophonists in the world today.”

Last Friday Cookham Rise Methodist Church put on a fund raising concert by the 16 piece big band “Echoes of Swing”, who just happen to “employ” one of our regular bass players, Peter Hughes. One of the highlights of Peters appearances at Hedsor are his braces! BUT E O S have band him from wearing them!!

Even without his braces the church raised £380 for charitable causes.

When I got home from the E O S bands Cookham concert and needing something to watch whilst I had a bit of supper and a glass of vague! I plugged YouTube in to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq6nMspaZYY where a video of Andrea Motis performing in Copenhagen in October this year can be watched.

I have watched Andrea before. A pleasing singer and trumpet player, but this, her latest offering on YouTube, shows a certain maturity in her playing, not just as a singer and trumpet player, but as an on the spot organiser of a jazz session.

We have all seen the instant rehearsal and before tune consultations before, but this raises it to a new level. They all understood what they were being asked to do and Andrea’s hand instructions are obviously being watched for. It isn’t an ensemble that seems to fit naturally into a jazz mould (piano, bass, drums, trumpet/singer plus guest violin), but this is an example of jazz at its best.

The amazing thing comes at the end when you see how diminutive Andrea is. I was surprised during the 25 minutes of video how she could use her arm as a trumpet parking spot whilst she sings, but at the end when you see the size of the drummer....she seems to be about the size of his leg!

Wonderful stuff, all captured on a handheld video camera. The sound isn’t the best, but good enough. Do watch all of to its end, and if you search YouTube there is more of this session out there.

Enough from me, see you at a local jazz session soon.

This week a blog of two halves.

        And this is Part Two!

Tomorrow is of course November 11^th, a day for remembrance. One where I shall be remembering past wars and past people with current and young people in St Clement Danes School in Hertfordshire.

Yes I am an Old Dane, which has a double significance for me, being a past attendee of the grammar school when it was in Hammersmith, and also a past member of the RAF. St Clement Danes Church in the Strand is the RAF church. So the first trumpet of the day for me will be one playing the last post in the schools service of remembrance.

Mind you I also hope to join you, or maybe have you join me, later in the day in listening to some more brass music in the evening at Hedsor Club. For 11 11 at Hedsor we have saxophonist Duncan Lamont together with trombone player Mike Innes. What a presentation of talents.

On their last visit to Hedsor

Last week we had two other talents, trumpeter and raconteur Ian Smith and tenor player Ollie Wilby. Ken McCarthy was taking a well earned break “up North” and in his place we had keyboard player John Cooper. Music was played, stories were told and great fun was had by all. My pictures of the evening are below.

All of our Thursday evenings are special. Apart from the covid shutdowns we have been presenting first class live jazz EVER THURSDAY at Hedsor for over 20 years. I will say however that in order to carry on we do need your physical presence. I do appreciate that going out has become less of a habit. There is so much jazz to watch on YouTube, even though it is now constantly interrupted by adverts. But jazz is a living culture, it needs to be lived not just watched or remembered, so do consider supporting it, even though it means going out into the weather and the dark. 

This week we also have a Big Band gig to support at Cookham Rise’s Methodist Church on Friday, see previous blog portion for the advert.

An Advanced notice.

Our Christmas Party (yes that dreaded C word) on December 23^rd will have tonight’s guest  Duncan Lamont together with singer Sarah Moule. But we are also going to have a very special raffle.

A large basket of Christmas food will be raffled off to raise money for Cancer Research UK, courtesy of an anonymous donor. For two years now we haven’t been able to run one of our fundraising Jazz evenings, and due to our donor’s generosity we will be able to make up a little for this with the proceeds from this Christmas Raffle.

The sale of CD’s, started again in September, has so far raised over £120 for CRUK

So ends part two!

 More blog later in the week, but I have just learnt that Cookham Rise Methodist Church is putting on a Big Band night this coming Friday, see below. That well know bass player and supporter of braces, Peter Hughes, will be part of the ensemble!

Other famous names will also be part of this band, which rehearses every week in Cookham Rise Methodist Churches hall.

The day before, Thursday Nov 11th, in "OUR" Hedsor Club Hall, we will have Duncan Lamont Jr with us, but more in a later blog.

TTFN  Geoff

My Blog, and this week Hedsor Jazz gets first mention.

On Thursday November 4^th our concert presentation in Hedsor’s Big Room will feature trumpet maestro Ian Smith together with his saxophonist accomplice Ollie Wilby. 

They have both been to Hedsor a number of times before, and on each previous occasion given us jazz of great interest, often welded to linking language that is both erudite and poetic! If you come along you will see and hear what I’m on about! You will enjoy it! This week we also welcome back our regular bandleader and drummer Martin Hart from his Silly break. We also welcome back a pianist who was with us last in 2018, John Cooper. Ken McCarthy has left for a short break in the Yorkshire countryside.

Last week was a mega jazz week for me. Great Hedsor Jazz from Lester Brown and Mark Aston on Thursday, with a great set provided by our deputy drummer Mike Jeffries. The announcement of his death in the Maidenhead Advertiser was a great shock to us all ---until he answered the phone! NOT OUR Mike Jeffries I am delighted to say! 

Then on Friday at Marlow there was a delightful set given by pianist Chris Ingham based on the work of Hoagy Carmichael. This was excellent jazz cabaret, with Chris singing the songs and telling the story of Hoagy, as well as playing Christ Church’s Marlow’s Bechstein piano. It was a very well thought through program, a great evening of entertainment. With Chris was Paul Higgs on a green trumpet (!), with Marianne Windham on bass and George Double on drums.

They produced a very good cd, looking like a distressed old book

Saturday saw me off to The Woodley Theatre, near Reading, where Alan Barnes played an acoustic set with Martin Hart on drums, Ken McCarthy keyboard and Andy Crowdy on bass. A very entertaining evening, with Alan feeling at home with the rest of the band, and playing off them with great imagination and improvisation. Yes, without PA, you couldn’t hear the announcements further back than row C, and then only just!

My only slight doubt about the whole evening was that the theatre was full, no covid spacing and every seat taken.

More News Now of Hedsor Jazz

We now have a replacement for one of our Christmas Party guests. As mentioned a few weeks back Tina May has had to withdraw this year, and in her place I am delighted to announce that we have managed to get Sarah Moule back with us again. 

That will be on December 23^rd. Saxophonist Duncan Lamont jr will also be with us, more news on other guests later.

Below, my pictures from last week.  Also below is Marlow Jazz’s newsletter. ALL local jazz needs your support. Better still it needs YOU in the audience!

 Another blog, and another where we have to mention “rearrangements”.

Last Thursday I had an early morning phone call asking me if I had heard about Mike Jeffries? I asked why, and was very surprised to be told that The Maidenhead Advertiser had published the details of his death and of his funeral arrangements! After a bit of consternation, and some phoning around, we realised/found out that yes, a  Mike Jeffries of about the same age, was in the obituaries column of the Maidenhead Advertiser, but OUR Mike Jeffries was still alive enough to answer the phone!!

WOW, what a relief, because OUR Mike Jeffries will be our drummer this week at Hedsor Jazz! Martin is taking a holiday silly, no not you! He is taking a holiday on The Isles of Scilly!!

Out in front will be “our” Lester Brown, and saxophonist Mark Aston.

The following week, November 4^th, with a return of Martin (hopefully also in time for his gig at Woodley on October 30^th) “our” pianist Ken McCarthy will also be taking a break, and in his place will be John Cooper, who has been to Hedsor Jazz before back in 2018. Out front for that gig will be trumpeter and raconteur Ian Smith and saxophonist Ollie Wilby.

John Cooper at Hedsor in 2018

For any of these gigs, to appreciate them to the full, you have to be there. Last Thursday in particular, because as well as not mourning the death of Mike Jeffries we had a late substitute in the form of Kelvin Christian in place of Frank Walden, who had the flu! However, what added considerable visual interest and some controversy was that  Kelvin had brought along his lodger. It is always good to have new people discovering the joys of Hedsor Jazz.

Now said lodger was a lady that had a posterior that at least one of our venerable regulars thought delightful. She also had the urgent need to use her smart phone as a video camera, and she also decided that no one would mind if she made sure the world could see what musician’s nostrils looked like. After a while this became less funny, and one of our great musicians told her, fairly visibly, to go and sit down (on that posterior!). You just have to be at Hedsor to catch all this great....activity! Below are some of my photos from the evening.

You will see from the last photo that Stuart came to Hedsor again with Clive Burton's old valve trombone, and in the second half he duly played it. What was particularly poignant was that Jan was in the audience this week. It has been 4 years since Clive passed away.

Below I have put 3 posters. Do support local live jazz no matter who runs it or where.

OK, time for coffee, see you somewhere SOON!

Geoff

Today’s blog will be short, and kind of sad.

Last week we enjoyed (very much) our concert at Hedsor Jazz with saxophonist Frank Walden who played alongside our own Lester Brown (pictures are below). It was sad because we had hoped to be celebrating 94 years of a musicians life with vibraphone player Alan Graham. Due to his ongoing health situation, we had to postpone this at quit short notice. Thank you Frank for stepping in.

My recording of the evening can be found by following my DropBox link

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/enwzg624yo3u2pf/AAAdAWsOCmFEePaf2DREkeCua?dl=0

As I write this I also know that our Christmas Concert will have to be rearranged as singer Tina May is no longer able to be with us. Again, this isn’t a cancellation on her part, just a postponement, so do keep referring to this blog from time to time to see what our rearrangements will be.

This week, Thursday October 21^st, Frank Walden is coming to be with us again, but this had already been in our diary. With him will be a welcome return to Hedsor of trumpet maestro Stuart Henderson.

Another part of this week’s sadness has been the news that that well know leader of a big band and also a saxophone legend Willie Garnet passed away last Friday. Willie played for us at Hedsor a couple of times and was a great friend of Ken Rankine. He was a lovely man and will be greatly missed. The photo below shows them both at Christmas 2011.

To finish off October we have coming on the 28^th “our” Lester back with us and he is also back with saxophonist Mark Aston. A great paring. The last time they were both with us they provided some excellent jazz. Together they make a sum greater than their constituent parts!

Two other players who make a great team will be starting off our November gatherings. Ian Smith (the trumpeter, not the ghost of Rhodesia Past) will be paired with saxophonist Ollie Wilby. Dont miss it. The Smith verbal links to each tune are as good as his music! Do look out for him on the BBC Sounds app. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0174gkd

Don’t forget all live music needs an audience.

TONIGHT, October 19^th, Marlow Jazz has Stuart Henderson’s “Back to Blue Note”, (https://www.marlowjazz.co.uk/autumn21events.pdf) .

 Christ Church Marlow has “Celebrating Hoagy” on Friday October 29^th.

 

The Woodley Theatre has Alan Barnes on October 30^th, with a pianist and a drummer you may well recognise. https://www.woodleytheatre.org/

I hope to see YOU somewhere amongst the crowd!

 A short Tuesday blog, as I did my best nagging best on Sunday!

Sadly our celebration with and for Alan Graham has had to be postponed this week, October 14^th, but we will be welcoming saxophonist Frank Walden to Hedsor Jazz to play alongside Lester Brown, so a fun evening is still very much in prospect. Sadly no buffet, but Christmas is coming, and so, I hope, are you! 

I thought today I would add a postscript to my mention a couple of weeks ago of Scottish pianist Brian Kellock.

 I have finally got my hands on a copy of the actual CD “Bidin’ My Time” which has Brian exploring solo piano, (and some stride playing all at the same time) on a Bosendorfer grand piano. He makes a wonderful sound on it, and his improvisations are well worth paying attention to. Try “I Got Rhymn”. 

All the tunes will have you keeping time with your feet (or hands or w h y) but  I. G. R. will make them ache! A truly wonderful exploration of melody (which is well know to all) and of rhythm itself.

It’s a cd with more than one tune to listen to as well. I was pleased to see “Sunset and a Mocking Bird” from Duke Ellington’s “Queens Suite”, a delicate tune beautifully played.

The only time I ever saw Brian play he was in a group with saxophonist  Don Weller. Don got a bit shirty with Brian, as Brian’s solos were a bit lengthy!

DO take a look at Don’s footware, especially his laces!

 

But that's jazz!

PS The piano that is used for concerts in Marlow’s Christ Church URC is also a Bosendorfer grand piano!

 

IMPORTANT ALTERATION

For our Hedsor Jazz program for next Thursday we had hoped to celebrate with Alan Graham and his friends the fact that he has reached 94 years of age, MOST of them as a very well respected musician. 

Sadly at the moment Alan is not too well, and we are postponing (but not cancelling) this evening of celebration. Alan is still keen to do this, and at some point in the future we hope to “inject” this evening back into our program.

For this coming Thursday (October 14th) we have therefore had to rearrange our guest list, and at Lester Browns request, we have secured saxophonist Frank Walden. I think this will be Franks first visit to Hedsor Jazz so do turn out to welcome him to our slice of jazz heaven!

Back in the day when we started Hedsor Jazz we were sponsored by a lovely man called Ernie Evans. He paid for our fun from a bank account called “Jazz Heaven”! THAT is why some of you now subscribe to “Jazz Angels”!

Last weeks session with Sue Greenway and Mike Wills was lovely musically, great tunes, all associated with saxophonists, but our audience was a bit thin on the ground. Not too many people for the musicians to look at!! Yes, I do call my blog a nag, so that’s what I’m doing. No audience will mean ultimately no jazz. We have been running Hedsor Jazz every week now for over 20 years, it would be very sad to stop.

So, I look forward to seeing you ALL on Thursday for Lester Brown and Frank Walden with our regular rhythm trio, at our regular start time (8.30pm) and our regular entry charge (£10)

The alternative is Allbran!

 For those of you who enjoyed Vasilis Xenopoulos last week, you might like to see his gigs for October.

I have culled it from his Facebook page.

Doesn’t time fly? I know that as I get older, refreshing sleep does seem to occupy more of the 24 hours allocated to each day than it used to, but somehow I find more things need doing than there is time allowed to do them in!

However, first things second.

Tuesday Night 5^th October. Bourne End Community Centre is hosting JAZZ, led by people we know quite well.

Mike Jeffries sent me this information:-

“"In The Pocket" is a slightly Funky Jazz group run jointly by Mike Wills and myself, we play a variety of stuff with a funky feel as well as a few swingers thrown in, (much like the audience) and you can take that in any way you like!!

We have a slight change to the band this time, instead of Jez Cooke on guitar we have Terry Hutchins who I am sure will fit in like the proverbial glove. The Bass player will be Steve Riddle on Bass Guitar instead of his upright one, which is still in need of repair, any donations to rectify this will be appreciated I am sure, and on Piano and Vocals we have Martin Pickett. It will be great to see as many of you as possible there, the entrance is £7.00 and the gig starts at 8.00.”

Next, Hedsor Jazz this week (on Thursday October 7^th) has a return of  Sue Greenway on reeds. She is joined by Mike Wills also on as many reed instruments as he can carry. Behind them will be Ken McCarthy on keyboard, Terry Davis bass and Martin Hart on drums and occasional microphone.

So two visits to Bourne End for Mike Wills this week!

Last week we had a return visit from someone who now lives locally. Vasilis Xenopouls came with his long time associate, guitarist Nigel Price, to play for us at Hedsor Jazz. Both are now stars in their own right and to get them to come back to Hedsor was really rather special, and my goodness didn’t they play a rather special gig. There were times when the hairs on the back of my neck rose up it was so tingling good.

I had remembered that some years ago they had played for one of my August birthday concerts and on that occasion they played “One Note Samba” as a duet. So I requested it again! Not part of their normal repertoire they had a little discussion as to whether they could do it again, but they did, and it was AMAZING!! Thanks guys. When we have saved up some more pennies we will ask you back again!!

A musician who has entertained people for longer than most is percussionist and vibes player Alan Graham. 

Alan Graham at 94

We celebrated his 94^th birthday earlier in the year just after the lockdown was slightly relaxed. 

On October 14^th we are giving Alan the chance to celebrate again with some of his musical colleges from his long years of being a leader in the music business. When we celebrated his 90^th birthday we had at Hedsor Jazz some of the glitteratzi of the music business with us, and we will just have to see if they are free to come again. We will be providing a buffet, so make a note in your diary to come too. 

Some of the Musicians at Alan's 90th Birthday

It will be the same entry fee as normal, just £10.

One final mention for now.

A new album is being released on October 8^th that I have been invited to pass comment on. As some of you know, I do like lady singers. Yes I know it isn’t a universal taste, but the album being release on Friday is by a pretty (yes she is) good lady singer born in Durham called Jo Harrop. It is an album of songs all composed by her during the last 16 months or so of lockdown.

Many of us have had time to reflect on life and what it all means during this time. We missed friends and family and felt powerless in the face of “that” virus, but Jo used that reflection, and the time of forced inability to sing before an audience to compose an album of reflective songs in a very jazzy idiom. No great extemporised solos from anyone, but great accompaniment with people such as Christian McBride and Jason Rebello throw into the mix. The 13 songs are only of around the 4 minute duration each, and “The Heart Wants” is a good musical reflection on life. She has good diction, and a voice that is a bit like brown coffee! Do look out for it and try and have a listen. It is on a label called Lateralize Records.

But for now its goodbye from me!