Thursday, September 26, 2013

Good Morning Jazz Lovers

Another Thursday, and so far no nag or blog I hear you think. True, I am, at this late stage, beginning to correct that issue!

Our regular Thursday Session at Hedsor Jazz this week will be the almost regular Clive Burton Quintet. The only addition to the Albran situation is that our drummer, Martin Hart, is being replaced for 3 weeks by our other drummer, Mike Jeffries.


As Autumn approaches it would be nice to see some of you back from your summer break. We do try to keep our entry price to £6, which doesn't always see enough money coming in per week to pay the band. If you could encourage others other than yourselves to come more often, we will have no trouble carrying on with our weekly sessions.

There are very few jazz clubs now offering a regular weekly session, some of those that do have had to increase their entry fee quite considerably. We really don’t want to do that, but even 5 more regular attendees would help to stabilise our accounts. I think we offer incredible value for money. We frequently have guest musicians playing for us who have national and international stature, the premises we are in (The Hedsor Social Club) is gradually being improved (we have been their most loyal customers now for something like 12 years), and the move last year into the bigger room has been advantageous to all of the social club members, not just us jazzers. Do think of becoming Social Club members yourselves. The turn of the year is membership renewal time, so why not ask Sarah for a membership form.

We still have some excellent guest performers in the pipeline. Our Christmas Party on December 19th will be a sell out, so when the tickets become available, do buy yours in advance. Many were turned away at our last Big Night in August. They had assumed that tickets are ALWAYS available at the door!


So let us rejoice in another season of mellow jazz. Keep live jazz ALIVE!

Geoff C


Wednesday, September 18, 2013

A Brief “Nag” 

To let you know that this weeks guest at Hedsor Jazz is internationally renowned vibes player Alan Graham.

 
Alan Graham, with John Monney and Martin Hart

He will be playing alongside Clive Burton on trombone and our regular rhythm section.
 
All well worth the admittance price of just £6. Why not come and bring some friends along too? After all, with Alan in our midst, you are only one away from Frank Sinatra!
 
Geoff C

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Good Evening Jazz Fans,


I have already given you an idea of who is coming to play for us on Thursday by email, BUT I really should duplicate it here for those who get to my blog via another route.


What I emailed out to my regular ignorer's was:-

This Week at Hedsor Jazz we have a band made up of:-
 
Stuart Henderson on trumpet and flugel horn, Mike Wills on all the reed instruments he can carry, Nigel Fox on Roland the keyboard, Phil Berry on string bass and Martin Hart on percussion!
 
A Wonderful Amalgam of Talent and all yours for just £6 paid in to the Red Tin at The Hedsor Social Club on Thursday 12th September. The music starts at 8.30 pm, but the bar will be open from at least 7pm, and a pint of Rebellion Beer can be had for £3!
 

Come out, you know it makes sense.

So its now your turn, those who are the great unblogged, to ignore saving jazz by being an audience instead! If you have yet to actually come to Hedsor Jazz you will be astounded by the high quality of the jazz music we put on EVERY WEEK.

May see some fresh faces tomorrow then? Oh, and as our regular taker of money into the red box is on holiday I WILL BE TAKING YOUR MONEY!!


Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Good Evening England,

And to the first Blog of Autumn! Yes there are only 112 days left to Christmas!!

I really must get my Christmas shopping done soon!! Oh, and yes, I must print off the tickets for our Christmas party on December 19th!! No kidding, it will all come in a rush!!

But to get there, we have to time travel through this coming Thursday evening to Hedsor Jazz. This week we have the regular quintet. Starting from 8.30 pm we will have our regular reed man Mike Wills back with us. I wonder if the railings he has been detailed to paint are black or white?

After an admission price of £6 you can always ask him yourself!!

Looking back on last week it was really nice to have Simon Spillett back with us again. Some terrific playing by everyone concerned, and a reasonable number in the audience which obviously encourages everyone. My favourite tune of the evening was "Love for Sale". Some great off the cuff harmonies were generated by Clive and Simon, with lead swapping and counter melodies to boot. It's live jazz, and we are so lucky at Hedsor Jazz to have such quality in such regular profusion.

It also nice to see so many of our regulars cueing up to buy Simon's latest CD too. It is only available at gigs, from himself, and for double the price you can get a 12" vinyl of it as well! It is well recorded with some innovative tunes and well worth cueing for. His best yet!


This week I have listened to a very good recording of a BBC broadcast from the 2011 Gateshead Jazz Festival now released as BCLB001. Now this seems to me to be a first release, perhaps on a private label because those letters might stand for The Buck Clayton Legacy Band, who are performing under a title called "Claytonia".


There are some very well know British Jazz names on this release, including Alan Barnes, Alyn Shipton, Martin Litton and Norman Emberson, plus a few others (see the artwork for a full list) and my initial listen was to see how they all played, and to my surprise I thought it was a typical ensemble arranged for a Jazz Festival. BUT I have gone back to it three times in the last week, and the more I hear it the better I think it gets. All the tunes were written by Buck Clayton, and it really does sound like one of the Jam Session LP's from the past.You can by it on-line for around £11, but do make sure your search includes the words Buck Clayton Legacy or you will be directed into the garden!


That's about it for this week. Tell your friends about this blog, and about Hedsor Jazz or it will all end in tears and the only excitement left will be East Enders!!

TTFN

Geoff