A little light blogging, as there are few gigs to encourage you to go to, (well none really). BUT there are some you can watch in the privacy of your home!

Watched in retrospect. Last Friday I did watch the streamed concert from Norden Farm of Tina May. 

It did sort of rub home the problem. I wasn’t actually there! The sound quality and the visuals put out by Norden Farm were excellent. The lack of any audience reaction (applause!) was initially shocking. The fact that the gig ran without a break was a surprise (especially for my bladder!) but it was a full gig, 1 ½ hours of very good music. Tina was joined by Robin Aspland on piano, Andy Cleyndert on bass and Winston Clifford on drums.

After my mention last week of Stuart Henderson and the number of his clips on YouTube, in looking for more this week I came across a super demo of a new trumpet by him, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMRQlhkYA5E Look further for Stuart on YouTube and under videos you will see more clips.

 

As I haven’t found much of interest to go on about this week, I thought I would give you something to listen to from a Cancer Fundraiser that we held at Hedsor on May 18^th 2017

 

Disk 1

1. There is No Greater Love
2. Alone Together
3. It Could Happen To You
4. Favela
5. Move

Dropbox link https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nkbd592l1lw5344/AADTk7ByZRnXjdTC-VarSutta?dl=0

 

Disk 2

1. Speak Low
2. I let a Song...
3. Hearts
4. Old Folks
5. Ornithology
6. I’m Glad There is You
7. On a Clear day
8. Bluesology

Dropbox link https://www.dropbox.com/sh/t3eb5uwewjdx9j5/AADR-jpRornDU066HDYqBtJua?dl=0

 

Cast is Clive Burton trombone, Nigel Fox keys, John Monney bass and Martin Hart drums. Guests are Nigel Price on guitar and Vasilis Xenopoulos on reeds.

 

Yes, we used to run splendid music. The sad thing is I think we all took it for granted. BUT watch out for the possible return of some form of live music to Hedsor on May 20^th. His is subject to confirmation, so do keep an eye on the blog.

 

Thats it for now,

 

Geoff

Jazz from Geoff

No, you haven’t overslept (not that I can tell from here), it is still Tuesday, but it is a blog from Geoff.” Will wonders never cease” my old mum used to say!

I have a number of items for you to catch up on.

First.

Don’t forget to book your place in the stream for Tina May at Norden Farm. It IS this coming Friday, you can read more via https://bit.ly/321TinaMay and it will cost you £15 to watch from the comfort of your home. Yes, Tina in your front room, aren’t we lucky?

 Tina May, with Duncan Lamont at Hedsor. Some of the songs Tina will sing on Friday are by Duncan

Second.

Martin Hart has phoned through to tell me that there will be another gig, in aid of local charities, at The Great Hampden Cricket Ground, Memorial Road, Great Hampden, Bucks HP16 9RF on Sunday June 13^th from about 3 pm on wards, probably finishing around 5. You may remember if you were there last August that it did get a bit chilly going on 'till 6pm, so it looks like the organisers have brought it forward an hour. It is open air, the band has a tent, but that’s it. AS I recall, Rebellion beer was available, but no food. I anticipate that the band will be as last year, a variation on The Clive Burton Celebration Quintet, so it should be a great gig. The sound quality from the PA was excellent and the setting last year was lovely up there in the Chilterns. You will need to bring your own seating and weather protection as well as food! When I know the detail of ticket purchase I will let you know.

Last August's Cricket Club Gig

Third.

In finishing off my evenings Telly last night I came across 3 excellent YouTube clips, which, put together, will give the better part of ½ hour of Stuart Henderson and “Tolly”. All three clips were recorded at “Jazz on the Corner”, The Royal Oak in Swindon on Tuesday 27^th Feb. 2018. You will remember how we used to so enjoy their combination when they both played for us at Hedsor Jazz.

The three links are:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2f5xBwkoqg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA0AchJpN6Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa9Tf-YSkOE

Stuart Henderson and "Tolly" at Hedsor

Don’t forget that if you want to be included in my regular nagging emails about jazz you must confirm your email address at octogeoff@outlook.com

If you want to be considered for an entry pass to our socially distanced covid restricted gig at Hedsor Club on May 20^th, don’t forget to email Tracy at tracy.georgiades@gmail.com

Blog day was really yesterday and today it is a bit late, BUT there are good reasons. With no bated breath I can tell you that this morning I had my second covid jab!!

And apart from that bit of news, there are one or two other chunks to pass on.

One of the reasons the blog wasn’t written yesterday was that I was working on transcribing the email addresses of people who like to be reminded (OK “nagged” then) of the issue of a blog update.

I have managed to retrieve some of the links, following on from my Russian intruders, from a paper copy of the lists I had. This archive is probably not up to date, so I have 2 requests.

1.       Would you please send to me at Octogeoff@outlook.com your current email address, and

2.       If you don’t want to be disturbed by my emails, please email me to tell me so and you will be taken         off the lists.

BUT please do not use zt36geoff@hotmail.co.uk to communicate with me.

Obviously I am taking some measures to ensure future safeguard my pc’s wellbeing and I looked at the recommendations of “Which Magazine”. Highly regarded by them is Kasperskey, and some pretty good coverage is available for free too. I tried it out on one of the computers I am readying for Ghana, and it is easy to load, and uses much better English in it's instructions than Norton 360. I then noticed that its office base is in ......................................Moscow!!

Now for other things.

If you do want to come to May 20^th Jazz at Hedsor,  our proposed limited edition, you MUST let Tracy know via an email to tracy.georgiades@gmail.com

We are planning a covid restricted jazz event at Hedsor, with distancing rules and we are limited to a max of 30 people. Entry will be controlled, and an entry voucher will be asked for before you are allowed in. This event cannot yet be written in concrete, but we have every hope that we will be able to go ahead.

An event that will definitely NOT be going ahead is The Swanage Jazz Festival 2021. A revised date was issued today informing that  the next Swanage Jazz Festival and it will be on the 8^th to 10^th July 2022.

An online jazz event will take place at Norden Farm on March 19^th. Tina May will be performing some of the songs associated with Duncan Lamont and it will be live streamed. See https://bit.ly/321TinaMay for all the information you need.

Following on from my recollections of the late Chris Barber, more is available for you to watch on YouTube, and a very good alternative to the Big Band link I put out last week is this 1994 concert on YouTube that is out in 2 parts:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RvzqagIfB8  part one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKch6Hg4yP0 part two

Slightly more conventional, (one trumpet, one trombone), but still with great blues guitar from John Slaughter.

Finally this week I thought I would add in a few photos taken by me from Swanage Jazz Festivals past.

Ah, those were the days!!

 Hi All, another week and another blog from Geoff.

 After last weeks government road map for the future, plans are afoot, and The Swanage Jazz Festival is suggesting it will run a Festival in September (either 17^th to 19^th, or 24^th to 26^th), so do keep an eye on their website (www.swanagejazzfestival.co.uk), and on your booking for digs. Holidays in the UK will be at a premium this year, so a self catering tent might be required!

Yesterday we heard the sad news that Chris Barber had died at the age of 90. Much has already been written about him, so all I am going to do is leave a link for you to follow

https://www.jazzwise.com/news/article/chris-barber-17-april-1930-2-march-2021

but  then I can tell you why, like many who have passed away in recent years, Chris Barber was important in my jazz education.

Like many people born before WW2, the radio played much swing and jazz during my early years. We did have a wind up gramophone in our air raid shelter, and apart from “Songs of the Western Front” we did have some swing type records from before the war. The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra for one. At the wars end, my interest in jazz type music widened slightly. I can remember buying new 78’s. Sid Phillips and “Clarinet Marmalade” being one and also a couple of Jo Daniels and His Hot Shot sides too. I became aware of the Ken Colyer Band in about 1953 which was really the Chris Barber Band with a different trumpet player. 

Then in 1954 The Chris Barber Band brought out a famous 10” LP with Pat Halcox in place of Ken Colyer.

By then we had the ability at my home in Hammersmith to play LP’s, but they were expensive, and for my pocket money I still bought some 78’s. I remember my first real contact with Chris Barber was in 1954 when I went in to Doug Dobells Record Shop at 77 Charing Cross Road and bought the 78 of “Chimes Blues” almost direct from Mr Barber himself, and  he signed it on the tax stamp!!

My interest was fired, and I started to play the trumpet along to their records. My interest in other jazz grew, Humph of course, with Wally Fawkes in these days, and with more LP’s and with school friends we all found  Buck Clayton, Duke Ellington and many many more. My understanding ballooned!

But it was the Chris Barber Band that I saw every Wednesday. By now I was an Apprentice at CAV Ltd in Action, and every Wednesday after work I would take the trolley bus to Southall and “The White Hart” for that was where the  Chris Barber Band had its regular sessions. Before “Rock Island Line” became a hit there was Lonnie Donegan, the banjo player, doing his thing after the interval. Skiffle had arrived!!

The Barber Band then introduced us all to all kinds of American Blues singers, some they even imported so that we could see and hear them live for ourselves. Champion Jack Dupree billed  as “Blues from the Gutter”!

“The White Hart” had its own blues singer, that young school teacher Ottile Patterson would sing the occasional Bessie Smith song, and then go back to marking homework on a table beside the bandstand. How could that slim lady become Bessie Smith, but somehow she did!

We did see Ottilie in a new light once at a Hammersmith Town Hall concert that had Chris Barbers Band together with Acker Bilks Band.

Ackers band were on first, and many of his fans danced, the girls being dressed in dresses made out of sacks! All very “alternative”.

During the Barber set Ottilie came on stage in a very long stylish black dress with a very full swirly skirt, so long in fact that it covered her shoes. As the music got going she lifted her skirt high enough for us all to see full length red leather boots. We had never seen the like before, wow!

My life continued, and my ability to attend live jazz diminished as married life and children took over. But FM radio came to my aid, and in 1968 I can remember listening to a weeknight broadcast of The Chris Barber Band playing a kind of musical fusion, with a blues guitar being added to the mix. I had heard a performance of the music from the record “Battersea Rain Dance” with the addition of guitarist John Slaughter!

All along Chris Barber had expanded musical boundaries, and towards the end he introduced us to “The Big Chris Barber Band” playing, with a 10 piece ensemble, the big band music of the 1920’s. Spot on ensemble playing, but all from memory. Terrific stuff.

 And so to memory. It is very sad to see that Chris Barber died suffering from dementia. I for one am glad that I can remember so much of my Chris Barber experience.

Finally another link, have a go at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpvsQSOPuxc&t=37s

All 1 hour of it! The BIG CB Band in 2005

More next week, do tell others of the blog.

 

Geoff C

octogeoff@outlook.com

OK, it’s late again, and the reason is a long story which I wont go into right now, BUT it is to do with computer hacking and the fact that I was hacked some months ago. So if you get to read this, and would like to tell others it is now out this week, please do, because I am not going to issue the usual emails to let people know it has been released, as I think that is one of the ways my PC has be “disturbed”!

DO let others share in “Jazz from Geoff” by spreading info via your email to theirs the fact that it’s update IS out. I will try to get it issued every week as near to Tuesday as I can make it.

You can still email me if you so desire via octogeoff@outlook.com

So having got that off my fingers, here’s to the next item!

We have a route out of lockdown! Maybe hesitant and fragile, but at least we have the semblance of a plan.

So put May 20^th in your diary now. Hedsor Jazz is planning to have a socially distanced jazz evening (following all the rules applicable at the time). We are allowed to have a maximum of 30 people coming to attend. We will need the contact details of those who do come, and we need to limit the numbers coming. So please tell Tracy Georgiades via email  tracy.georgiades@gmail.com  who you are, and we will send you an attendance voucher if the event goes ahead. No voucher, no entry so log your interest with Tracy and for now, mark your diary!

Over the past months I have led you to various YouTube links that I personally have enjoyed. But there are other organisations that will also lead you to areas of Jazz interest. Can I recommend that you sign up, if you haven’t done so already, to https://www.jazzinreading.com . Recent articles include mention of one of Hedsor Jazz’s favourite friends Stuart Henderson, and it will give you a link to his latest CD.

 

I know that many of you watched the TV Documentary about saxophonist  Barbara Thompson, and this week for me this has been enhanced by receiving not only the 14 CD Boxset  “Barbara Thompson at The BBC”, but also her book “the autobiographical story”  called “Journey to a Destination Unknown”.

I can recommend both, having been a fan since the early 70’s when the LP of her  band  “Jubiaba” came out. I saw her, and her better known band “Paraphernalia”, many times until she was forced to stop playing after succumbing to Parkinson’s disease.

I consider her to be one of Britains great talents, her saxophone and flute playing being flawless, and her ideas making you think “why doesn’t everyone say that” over a tune or a phrase.

 

I have yet to play all of the 14 cd’s (yes, even in lockdown!), but I have played CD No 14. I chose it to play first because it was recorded in Marlow Football Club in 1989. According to the CD notes, that’s the Marlow in Berkshire!! Culled from a Radio 3 “Sounds of Jazz” broadcast and introduced by Peter Clayton, it just shows what a great performer she was.

She was of course married to drummer Jon Hiseman, (also on many of the CD tracks) who first came to my attention in the band “Colosseum”, another great ground breaking band but in a different musical genre. Sadly Jon, who had become Barbara’s carer, died in 2018 of complications after an operation on a brain tumour.

 

I met both of them once when I and my family were on holiday near “The Forest of Dean”. We had discovered that not far into Wales there was a pub running a jazz night, so we all went. To my utter astonishment there buying her family a round of drinks was Barbara Thompson. So I asked “what are you doing here” , or words to that effect, to which she replied,” a bit like you, we are on holiday”. The jazz group were an amateur trio, and she didn’t sit in, but the drummer of the group did ask Jon if he would, and he did! Amazingly nice people!

The book and the boxset are obviously worthwhile additions to my collection, and would be to yours too. If you are unsure of her band “Paraphernalia” do check out a sample at

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiHzruN_YTvAhXVtHEKHf2cC48QwqsBMAF6BAgDEAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DqgKqXLDOgnc&usg=AOvVaw2nQkgctZeGqIrVbj_YAiDJ

Unless your German is fluent you may want to miss the first minute and a half!

For details of the boxset see

https://www.repertoirerecords.com/artists/barbara-thompson/barbara-thompson-live-at-the-bbc/

For the book, go to her website https://barbara-thompson.co.uk/product/journey-to-a-destination-unknown/

That’s about it for today. Don’t forget tell people about the blog and I apologise for not putting out nags about it’s release. I will try and find a safer way of letting you know when it is updated.

Dont forget to email Tracy about May 20^th, and me at octogeoff@oulook.com for anything else. Updating your email address does come to mind!

TTFN

 

Geoff

 

Good Wednesday Morning England, and welcome to another rambled Jazz from Geoff.

 

With no live Hedsor Jazz to report I thought today I would point you at a number of sources of entertainment.

Firstly YouTube, which by now you must have discovered, and I hope you have at least watched some of the sessions that have been put on YouTube by Ronnie Scott’s Club to name but one organisation. DO check out their collection of previous live streams that have been left “up there” for you to watch.

 

I managed to catch the Swedish Singer Emilia Mårtensson’s session the other night and it is still there to watch (even in the afternoon!!) by clicking the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUQyzJ7j8rM&t=2125s

 

It has an interesting version of “Dat Dere”, a song that we used to hear from singer Lynn Garner occasionally.

 

There is a lot more stuff to get your eyes on via Ronnie Scott’s streams, but as I have mentioned before much more is on YouTube. That well known sender out of jokes, and sometime drummer Dave Simms enthused about some Django style jazz with a YouTube link and a comment thus:-

 

I just think that anyone who can sit still when this kind of music is playing has something fundamentally

wrong with the way their brain is wired….. 

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=WqawqSF4xs8&feature=share 

I have always liked this kind of jazz, having promoted it in the past, with a session at both the jazz festivals I have organised in the days when loosing money was in fashion. I kind of riposted to him with a link to another manouche band from an unlikely place:-

“Have you caught up with the Hot Club of Detroit?  Yes Detroit USA! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zT_xxvdcQc.”

You can now go and have a look as well!

This past week I had another reminder of jazz past when David Wade-Smith emailed, reminding me of the jazz played at “The Cookham Tavern” at the tail end of the 1990’s.

 

Every Thursday there was a Jazz session in the Cookham pub that is now Costa’s Coffee Bar. “Century Jazz”, founded by drummer Keith Vitty, was the regular band, and as many of you know, over a period of time, “Century Jazz” became “The Clive Burton Quintet”, moving first to Hedsor’s “Garibaldi” pub and then to “The Hedsor Social Club”.

 

In 1999 one of these regular pub sessions was recorded by David onto a DAT recorder, and broadcast on Cookham Summer FM, a community Radio Station run from a studio that during normal times was Cookham Railway Stations waiting room! Some time later I managed to borrow the tape, and using a Phillips CD Recorder (remember them) I copied it to a cd.

Having had my memory jogged, I have uploaded it all to DropBox, where you can download and listen, together with a sleeve for you to put it in if you want to generate your own CD!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ftvxrdrpan2kso3/AABOryIDcUfa-hIO9hzb44vDa?dl=0

It is not a very polished transfer, but does enable you to be reminded again of what a fine trombone player Clive Burton was.

 

Those of you who are unaware of the announcer on the recording, the late Charles Benson,  he was until his death, the “Titular Leader” of Cookham’s fabulous Shirtlifters. A very popular, very “trad” band. The singer was/is Mr John Brooks, onetime singer with that same band, Equity card holder and pantomime dame! The full list of performers is on the sleeve artwork of the cd.

 

Yes, I have provided links. BUT a bigger organisation is doing just that almost every week. I recommend that you go and have a read of the London Jazz News, and sign up for a regular weekly email from them. Check them out via 

https://mailchi.mp/londonjazznews/9bknmwnk4m?e=0cdccbfe18

Please don’t forget that my DropBox links are only “up” for about 1 month, so if you want it, get it! IF after some time you realise that I had put up one of the Hedsor Jazz recordings that you did want but you didn’t download at the time, do email me via Octogeoff@outlook.com, and I will re-establish a link and email it back to you.

Well, its loony tune time, so farewell. I know I am having distribution problems, so do pass on a link to this blog to anyone who either used to get it or would like to know about it. And all this for no extra charge!

 

Keep safe

 

Geoff

 

 

 Another week of lockdown, perhaps with the snow outside again, probably a good thing!

If any of you clicked on my link to James Pearson’s Ronnie Scott concert last week, you will have by now seen the really interesting performance of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”. A very interesting performance, especially considering the size of the orchestra, which was nothing like the size of the original Paul Whiteman Orchestra that first performed it. But they gave it one heck of a go nonetheless and all credit must go to all who actually played on the night.

Credit is probably a good word to use. Don’t forget that you can still contribute to the finances of all who put on the show by clicking on the links on the Ronnie Scott YouTube page and donating MONEY.

Watching from the comfort and financial security of your home will have saved you the cost of travel, entry, and the house drinks prices, so a donation is a reasonably request!

I was drawn having watched it to a performance of “Rhapsody in Blue” performed on CD by The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra with arranger and saxophonist Tommy Smith, (but more importantly for this piece of music),also with Brian Kellock on piano. This is an extended extrapolation of Gershwin’s piece, lasting nearly 54 minutes, with a full jazz orchestra and I would highly recommend that you go find it. STS013 is the number on Spartacus Records and it was released in 2006. No longer in print, but it can be purchased second hand, or you can search via Amazon Prime, Spotify or similar music search engines.

The Amazon sites write up (below) of the piece is even more glowing, but it is well worth a listen.

Orchestrated by saxophonist Tommy Smith, this Rhapsody in Blue of the 21st century was written to feature Brian Kellock and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra's 'Rhapsody in Blue' takes George Gershwin's classic jazz age concerto on an unprecedented adventure. Re-orchestrated by SNJO director, saxophonist Tommy Smith, it was written to feature Scotland's world class jazz pianist Brian Kellock, who played the original Rhapsody as a music student in Edinburgh in 1981. Familiar themes, including the iconic clarinet glissando and Gershwin's heartbreaking nostalgic refrain, have been used - respectfully - as source material and reworked into a fifty-two minute epic that flows through exciting uptempo movements, rhapsodic blues passages, a sensational Cuban fantasia and hard swinging jazz choruses, showcasing SNJO's magnificent ensemble playing and top class, creative soloing. The piece was premiered at Edinburgh Jazz Festival 2006, going on to further acclaim at London Jazz Festival, Brecon Jazz Festival and in concerts throughout the UK.

Not a lot more to go on about so far this week. I hope you are keeping warm, staying a safe distance apart from whoever you don’t live with, and are beginning to enjoy lunchtime TV!

One day I hope we will be able to see, hear and touch again, but in the meantime, keep searching out those jazz nuggets, and keep sharing them!!

Geoff

 

Jazz from Geoff 3.2. 2021

Today I have to start with piece of sad news. We seem to be surrounded by news that isn’t always glad, and this blog must begin by mention of the passing of pianist Frank Toms, who died at home on 27^th January of a heart condition.

Most of us who listened to Hedsor Jazz have probably heard, or heard of, Frank, although I don’t think he ever played at Hedsor. 

For around 50 years Frank has been the keyboard player for Marlow Jazz, in all of its manifestations. "The Firefly" in Bourne End, "The Cross Keys" in Marlow, and for the last few years "The Royal British Legion Hall" in Marlow. He had such a long link with Michael Eagleton and his jazz promotional work that he is survived by his son Elliot, who frequently played drums in Marlow Jazz’s later venues alongside his father, and certainly at The Marlow British Legion Club. 

Many of you will be saddened by his passing, his family and also Michael Eagleton as well. I know how it feels to loose someone you have worked with so closely for such a long time and my sympathy goes out to his family and to all who worked with Frank, and certainly to Michael.

Another friend of both Marlow Jazz and Hedsor jazz has written a better tribute to Frank than I can, and that is Simon Spillett. Do check out his piece for The London Jazz News

https://londonjazznews.com/2021/01/31/frank-toms-1937-2021-a-tribute-by-simon-spillett/

Michael himself emailed with the above photo saying The picture attached is Frank’s 10 piece band “Conkers” at Marlow Jazz Club. 

Also there will be a tribute in Marlow FM’s Jazz Show “Swing That Music” Sunday 7^th along with his best known composition “Danielle And The Holly Tree”, and, the following week, “Alfie”, both with the Quartet co-led with Pat Crumly - “Edge”.

Marlow FM:  97.5FM or on-line at www.marlowfm.co.uk 

There is a song by George Harrison (yes, he of the Beatles) that sums up something about our darker days:-

Sunrise doesn't last all morning
A cloudburst doesn't last all day
Seems my love is up
And has left you with no warning
But it's not always going
To be this grey
 
All things must pass
All things must pass away
 
Sunset doesn't last all evening
A mind can blow those clouds away
After all this my love is up
And must be leaving
But it's not always going
To be this grey
 
All things must pass
All things must pass away
 
All things must pass
None of life's strings can last
So I must be on my way
And face another day
 
Now the darkness only stays at night time
In the morning it will fade away
Daylight is good
At arriving at the right time
But it's not always going
To be this grey
 
All things must pass......

One other thought from me about loss and dark days.

There are millions of stars, but you can only see them when it’s dark.

I personally am glad for starlight!

 

 

Something that can contribute to our light are musical experiences 

that can be viewed on YouTube. 

On Feb 1st Ronnie Scotts club did a live stream featuring 

the music of George Gershwin, introduced by pianist James Pearson. 

There are nearly 2 hours of performance for you to watch, and it is 

well worth your effort to do so. 

A really interesting session. See 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L893s87neQ&t=1851s

One final bit to finish on. Last week I wrote about Charlie Watts at 

Scotts with a large Big Band. Mike Wills, Hedsor Jazz’s reed player, 

emailed me with this story:-

Your mention of the Charlie Watts Big Band reminds me of a couple of stories which might make you smile!

The first one concerns my mum – who was once cuddled by Charlie Watts!  There’s a bit of preamble to this – so here goes.  I grew up in Southgate, North London, and our next door neighbour was a guy called Roy Sidwell – who was a pro sax player (and incidentally gave me my first couple of lessons – so he’s got a lot to answer for!); he was a really lovely guy and a really good player.  Anyway, for a period in the early 80s he was a member of Charlie Watts’ Big Band, and during that time they went to the States to play at the Newport Jazz Festival.  It so happened that at the same time my mum was in Toronto in Canada visiting my sister Claire, and Roy knew this and managed to obtain some tickets so that my mum, Claire and her husband George could see the band at Newport Jazz Festival – which indeed they did – George drove them down and they had a great time.  After the gig Roy invited them backstage, and introduced them to Charlie, who (having had a few bevvies by this point) was very friendly and delighted to see my 80-year old mum and gave her a big cuddle!  Anyway, when my mum got back home I asked her how she’d enjoyed it – she said it wasn’t really her sort of thing, but she said that Roy was wonderful (although I doubt very much whether he had a solo all night, with the other stars in the line-up!) – and then I asked her who was top of the bill that night – and she said “Oh I don’t know, some bloke with a saxophone”.  I went next door later and asked Roy who that “some bloke” was – and he said it was Stan Getz!!  I was forever jealous of that, because I never saw Getz – but my mum was obviously not impressed!

The other story was one I heard concerning Stan Tracey, who as you say was in that band.  I think for a lot of the time there were also two drummers – I believe that was because Charlie was quite modest about his jazz playing ability and wanted a bit of insurance so he hired a pro jazz drummer as well (I forget who it was just now).  Anyway, apparently they were rehearsing at some point and someone asked Stan if he could play a bit more on the beat – and he said “Sure – but which fucking one?”!!

One more Charlie Watts CD to dig for, this time with someone else’s Big Band

TTFN

Geoff
PS, the background light and dark that appears in some of the above text is beyond my understanding or control!! Sorry if it makes it less easy to read on your device.

 

 Good Morning England

another jazz blog from Geoff with not a lot of NEW jazz or LIVE jazz to talk about.

But I have found things of interest from the past. Some of that past has been my collection, and some of the past has been a record companies collection!

First during the weekend I pulled something from my collection. 

Some time ago I talked about the Rolling Stone’s drummer Charlie Watts and his Big Band recording made at Ronnie Scotts (Watts at Scott’s) in 2004. 

He was after all a lifelong jazz fan. 

I knew he had made a recording at Fulham Town Hall in 1986, as I have the LP (!) and I had transcribed it to CD some years ago for easy storage, so I pulled and played it.

It isn’t the greatest recording, but it’s one of the biggest big bands I have ever come across with 31 in “The Band”. With so many to organise the sound does get a bit messy, but do have a listen (see below). There are some of the UK’s most unrepresented players on this including Annie Whitehead on trombone, and also some of the UK’s very best players too, like Stan Tracy as the piano player. One of the players amongst the throng has also played at Hedsor, saxophonist Willie Garnet.

Willie with Charlie Watts

The late Ken Rankine and Willie were great friends and Willie sat in during one of our Christmas parties.

The recording was released by CBS in 1986, see

https://www.discogs.com/The-Charlie-Watts-Orchestra-Live-At-Fulham-Town-Hall/release/1126702

The event was also filmed and broadcast by the BBC, and that is available on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAU2SSZPiqs

Its pretty low res, but as a piece of history, and as you may have some spare time, do take a look.

The other find was that of a record company that is still in business, but is also having a sale.

Do take a look at https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/products.php?cat=377

a small sample of their offerings

You will see that they have a pretty interesting selection of jazz recordings for you to indulge yourself with. Dig a little into their selection and you will find that many are on sale for only 99 pence. Post and packing will add £2 but if you buy more than one that price should drop.

One of the CD’s I have ordered was of Radio Luxembourg’s 208 Rhythm Club recordings from broadcast made in 1961 by the early Chris Barber Band with, again, Ottile Patterson. 

These recordings were actually made in London by Landsowne Records and their producer Denis Preston who made many of the early LP recordings by both Chris Barber, Alex Welsh and Kenny Baker on the Nixa “Jazz Today” label. If you look at the Dutton catalogue closely you will find many of them here (or should that he “there”?)

If you brows what Dutton Vocalion do have, you are bound to find some things you might like (and can afford!), and no, I’m not on commission! 

Well, enough for now. 

I think it is clear from the current state of the pandemic that an early return to any sort of sociability, let alone live jazz, does appear to be months away. Do let me know what you are doing to swage the pangs of the reduction in jazz intake. Try emailing me at  Octogeoff@outlook.com 

Stay safe, if you get bored try growing lerts!