Charlie Parker on Dial

If you are a long-time reader of the Washminster post, you'll know that I have a love of jazz. One of the attractions of living in Milton Keynes is The Stables - a venue set up by Johnny Dankworth and Cleo Laine. Last night I treated myself to a visit - to see 'Charlie Parker On Dial'

In 1946 and 1947 Parker made a number of recordings on the Dial Label. The evening involved Alex Webb (who was also on the piano) giving us the background to those recordings. The band were good - with Nathaniel Facey on the alto sax and Steve Fishwick on trumpet. There were some superb vocals from Vimala Rowe. I recommend the show.

Alex finished by recommending that the audience listen to the original recordings - I will be getting out my "Bird" CDs!



There's more jazz coming up at the Stables. Next Sunday the Georgina Jackson Quartet are playing at the "Sunday Sessions" which kick off at 11.30am. On Sunday 18th, there is an evening dedicated to Tubby Hayes.  The first half will see a screening of a film about Hayes - the second well see the Simon Spillett Quartet play some of the music associated with him.

Jazz

As it is a Bank Holiday - I don't intend to spend the day working. The one of the nice things about living in Milton Keynes is that there is so much to do here. In recent days we've cycled the "Millennium Cycle Route" - the route in detail is available here; walked through a number of the parks - further details of parks here and visited a number of places to eat and drink - my favourites are Starbucks, the Hub; Las Iguanas; Zen Garden; The Secklow Hundred and Furzton Lake.

Within Milton Keynes Jazz is performed - of course there is The Stables - which hosts "Jazz Matters"; and sometimes at the Madcap in Wolverton; If I'm staying in - I listen to Jazz on CD, and increasingly on my iPhone. I now have an app for TSF Jazz - a french station which - "est la seule radio cent pour cent jazz" - I can listen live if there is wifi, or listen to the podcasts I have downloaded.

One of my favourite pieces of music is the July 1956 version of Ellington's "Diminuendo In Blue" with Paul Gonsalves superb sax solo

The line up was - Duke Ellington (piano); Cat Anderson, Willie Cook, Ray Nance, Clark Terry (trumpets); Quentin Jackson, Britt Woodman (trombones); John Sanders (valve trombone); Harry Carney (reeds: baritone sax); Paul Gonsalves (reeds: tenor sax); Jimmy Hamilton (reeds: clarinet); Johnny Hodges (reeds: alto sax); Russell Procope (reeds: clarinet, alto sax); Jimmy Woode (bass); Sam Woodyard (drums)

Short Holiday ending soon

Today is the last day of the short recess. Both Houses of Parliament return on Wednesday 2nd June, to continue their debates on the Queen's Speech. Next week legislative business commences.

As you may know from earlier posts, I enjoy listening to music - especially jazz. On Sundays from September to May I regularly spend the mornings at The Stables, Wavendon where "Jazz Matters" is held. We have one live performance a month - with talks (accompanied by music on CDs, & even vinyl). In June and July the music moves to the garden of Dame Cleo Laine and the late Sir John Dankworth. This year I have started a blog - and you are very welcome to visit it. I'll be posting every few days - and as the season starts, friends will be contributing their comments on performances they attend.

The blog can be accessed here.

Do drop me a line if you are coming to any of the events.

What Day is it?

The last few days seem to have merged with each other. My first post on election day was written before I set out to deliver the last few leaflets. Later posts came from the committee rooms on "Coffee Hall", an estate in Milton Keynes, where I was based for the 15 hours that the polling stations were open.

I went straight from there to the count at Milton Keynes Stadium. It was a long night - and I only got to leave at 8am (Friday). I was back for 9am to be ready for the start of counting in the local elections.

It's a pity that the cameras can't record what happens as the count is proceeding. Staff (many of whom will have been working at polling stations from before 7am) first open the ballot boxes and sort the ballot papers into bundles of 25. This is known as verification. Ballot Papers which have been put in the wrong boxes have to be taken out. (There were two ballot boxes at each polling station - one for the parliamentary and one for the council - but some people didn't separate the papers as requested). Postal votes also had to be added in. Then the number of ballot papers needed to be reconciled with the number of ballot papers given out. On the other sides of the tables representatives of the candidates sat. At this stage most were noting the way people had voted. For each box opened it was possible to "sample" the votes - I was noting how the votes were cast by threes - so if I noted 2 Conservative & 1 Labour - I noted that on a printed sheet. the next sample might show 1 Lib-Dem 2 Labour - and so on. By the time the box had been emptied, I had a fair sample showing how the votes were distributed. So we knew fairly early on what the likely result would be.

Only when the verification had been completed could the counting begin. The unsorted bundles of 25 were now sorted into piles for each candidate. The party observers were watching to see that no votes accidently ended up in the wrong piles - and that when these were counted there were 25 in each new bundle.

Finally the votes were added up - and finally a result was announced.

During the night, the political staff would pop out for a break and to watch the national results coming in. It can be an emotional time - as one learns of the loss of personal friends.

Now the focus has moved to the national scene. I arrived home a little after 2pm on Friday. I had a nap of about 20 minutes - but spent the rest of the time watching the news channels (and prepping for a live-to-air interview I was due to do after 5pm. I finally went to bed about 9.30pm. On Saturday I bought a huge bundle of newspapers - and spent some time watching the TV - but joined my daughter for a relaxing morning in central Milton Keynes (and a couple of coffees at Starbucks as we read and discussed the results). I had another snooze in the afternoon - then lots of chats with friends over the telephone.

Today I am relaxing. In a few minutes I will head off for the Stables at Wavendon, for Jazz Matters. Then Milton Keynes City Pathfinders will be playing American Football in Bletchley. Tomorrow it's back to work - and I hope that the regular pattern of Washminster posts will resume - but who knows what the next few days will bring?

I often put up news stories on Twitter and Facebook.

The Sir John Dankworth Story

Another superb 'Jazz Matters' yesterday morning at The Stables. Peter Vacher gave a presentation on the life and work of Sir John Dankworth. He began by playing "Three Blind Mice", the chart-topping piece which involves variations on the famous childrens' song. I particularly liked the way that Peter Vacher illustrated the way that Sir John's music developed and the sheer range of his abilities.

The transtlantic influence was discussed. Sir John was a clarinetist before (and after) taking up the Saxophone. Benny Goodman was a key influence. Mr Vacher described how Laurie Morgan brought back 78s of 'be-bop jazz' from New York - and shared them with budding British jazz musicians such as Johnny Dankworth and Ronnie Scott. British be-bop then developed. In the late 1940s Johnny Dankworth was one of the jazz musicians who played on the transatlantic liners. They would perform on the crossings (all styles of music, not just jazz) - and then head for the jazz clubs in New York where the leaders of the be-bop movement, such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, were performing. Mr Vacher illustrated with recordings of Sir John how he both learned from these masters and developed his own style.

The presentation finished with the theme from "Tomorrow's World" - composed and performed by Sir John Dankworth.

Sir John Dankworth

My posts over the weekend indicated that I intended to celebrate American Football, and Jazz - with the Superbowl featuring the New Orleans Saints. Sadly this weekend will be remembered for the loss of a British Jazz giant.

On Saturday, Sir John Dankworth passed away. He had been ill for some time - but we are very sad to lose him. Over the last year my wife and I have been attending the Sunday morning "Jazz Matters" at the Stables in Wavendon. John, whose baby the Sunday sessions were, really brightened those mornings up. He had a wonderful sense of humour - and was such a gracious gentleman. He was a giant of British jazz, a genius (as Jamie Cullum testified on Sunday) and a superb sax & clarinet player - but he was also a really nice guy who didn't have the arrogance that some 'celebrities' have. He had a real passion for educating people about jazz and music generally. I learned so much from his comments - as well as the sessions themselves - in "Jazz Matters"

My condolences to his wife of 51 years, Dame Cleo Laine and their talented children Alec Dankworth and Jacqui Dankworth.

Sir John was a prolific composer as well as a great performer. Thankfully through video and CDs we can continue to enjoy his work.