Tired out at the Red Lion, Isleworth.

I must admit I'm fairly stressed out at the moment - still trying to organise our wedding (or at least watching Robyn do it!) with only two weeks to go.

We were able to get to The Red Lion, Isleworth for some Jazz but I was tired out.

Here are Quentin Collins on trumpet, and Nick Weldon very expressive on bass;

I really enjoy Dave O'Higgins on sax as well as Leon greening on keyboards who was hiding like Trevor Tomkins on drums.

The Music was great - 'Hackensack' by Thelonious Monk, for example, is always a favourite of mine and Robyn won a CD in the raffle.

But boy was I tired!

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
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Taking a chance on a Monday night.

I'm still ill but we decided to go to our Jazz club anyway.

It may not be sensible (it's getting colder) but it's therapy, in a way.

We aren't having a great week - the TV broke. It's a huge and heavy old fashioned monster of a set and we've no idea how we are going to get rid of it.

It's just sitting there, looking hurt, watching us instead.

It's very unfair, it only needed to last a bit longer. So at the moment I'm sulking and watching a tiny old portable.

I think my laptop has a bigger screen.

Even the pub where we go to see Jazz is under threat from developers. It means a lot to us; it's where we met.

For me there have been whole periods when I've had to fight to get there, to snatch a short while away from caring from my Mum or struggling in when I've been ill.

Always an achievement to get there.

Once again, it only needs to keep going a bit longer!

Last night was fabulous, a great quintet.

Trevor Tomkins on drums was backed up by Alec Dankworth on bass - I wasn't agile enough to catch them.

This is Quentin Collins on trumpet and Dave O'Higgins on sax, both in full flight;

Meanwhile Robyn was getting fed up with me because I always fail to get a picture of Leon Greening who plays tends to hide, hunched over the keyboard in a corner.

He's one of our favourite keyboard players so she borrowed my camera for this shot as I'd given up;

 

 

Leon has his own band and we keep promising ourselves we'll catch him in the limelight.

 

Meanwhile, we spent an evening enjoying some of the finest sounds of Modern Jazz - Ronnie Scotts regulars at pub prices!

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

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Ow!

 

 

This week we made it to the Red Lion jazz Club - which is getting to be the exception these days - it's a struggle.

 

 

It's also a struggle perching on a bar stool all evening. By the time I got up to take this picture my back was screaming.

 

Here you can see Quentin Collins one of my favourite trumpet players and to his right Theo Travis on Sax. I haven't heard him play before and I wasn't disappointed.

 

 

Robin Aspland was on keyboards as you can see while out of sight was Trevor Tomkins on drums and Andrew Cleyndert on Bass.

 

Good music but a struggle.

 

On the way home we stopped off for curly fries......mmmmmmh!

 

Oh and to my surprise, a number of you have e-mailed me having worked out where we are going to be spending dawn on Midsummer's day morning.

 

I'm not going to tell the rest of you as I'd rather keep it a surprise and it's always possible we may not make it.

 

I must be getting very predictable!

 

Neil Harris

 

(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me:  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 

Back at the Red Lion.

We made it again!

Last week was the first time we got back to my Jazz club after I got ill....we made it back again.

And it was good; Quentin Collins was electrifying on the trumpet and Dave O'Higgins is one of my favourite saxophonists. It is fair to say that I do have a number of favourite saxophonists.

 

 

 

They pl;ayed a couple of my favourites too; Thelonius Monk's 'Hackensack' and Horace Silver's 'Barbara'.

 

 

These nights are booked by Trevor Tomkins (drums) and on bass was Dave Green, keyboards John Horler.

 

 

The best in British modern jazz.

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

 

Home:   helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

 

Contact me:  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 





Back to The Red Lion.

Monday night and we were back at The Red Lion, Isleworth. We hadn't been there for a couple of weeks - this was a star studded cast; Alec Dankworth was on bass;

And Quentin Collins was stunning, as usual, on trumpet and flugelhorn.

 

 

 

It's not been the greatest of breaks for me but I have a few things planned for the last few days, just wait and see!

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home:   helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

 

Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

 



Chilling.

That’s Jazz!

Monday night. Chilling with Charley Parker and Horace Silver and a premier line up of musicians from Britain and the States.

 

This is Stan Sulzman from America, a big man who plays a very delicate saxophone.

 

And that’s Quentin Collins, the renowned trumpeter playing flugelhorn.

As if that wasn’t enough, on keyboards was Ross Stanley a constant feature on the London jazz scene and a busy accompanist and session player. On the back row Trevor Tompkins on Drums and Dave green on bass.

Nice night.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

A not bad Monday night.

Monday night and I struggled off to my Jazz Club at The Red Lion, Isleworth and the celebrations for its third birthday. It was time to take my thrombosis out for the night.

To mark the occasion they had a sextet – that’s two more than I would want but then I’m in a minority of one on that.

Also I had to swallow all my prejudices as the excellent Mark Nightingale was playing his trombone – not one of my favourite modern jazz instruments.

 

 Dave O’Higgins plays a fine saxophone and duetted well with Quentin Collins on trumpet and flugelhorn. Trevor Tomkins drums and Tim Wells on bass made up the line-up except for a late substitution pianist whose name I’m afraid I didn’t catch.

Six musicians are frankly hard to fit into the cupboard that is the Red Lion stage but on several numbers they took full advantage of Mark Nightingale’s arrangements to revel in a big band sound from a small ensemble.

 

For the real Big Band sound, The Riverside is hosting an 18 piece Big band in a fortnight – more on that nearer the time. It’s a sound that isn’t heard these days – you need a lot of money or a wealthy sponsor to play that kind of music. Famously, Charlie Watts the Rolling Stones drummer fritters away his earnings to support his Big band and the BBC can afford to do the same every once in a while.

With The Riverside, the band is being charitable to us as I suspect their fee would barely cover the travel expenses for 18.

It’s going to be a good night and I’ll be plugging it!

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

6 instead of 4.

I went out early Monday night – hoping to find a new hat on the way to the jazz club. The shop was shut as I got there, actually it was shutting, a security guard on the door keeping me out.

In any case I need a special hat and I didn’t really expect to find it. A hat with a little jaaaazzz in it, a cool hat. Somehow, although I have no idea how I am going to get away to do it, I need to get up to London. We’ll see. My current hat, well, it’s just not where it’s at. It needs to be a really baad hat.

It wasn’t a cool day; it was high summer at last. Hot n’steamy long into the evening but after last Thursday’s moonstomping, I wasn’t looking for slow ballads or introspective noodling, I was looking for some bounce. I wasn’t sure I was going to find it, but it’s always worth looking.

www.red-lion.info

Meanwhile, to celebrate the end of winter, people had rediscovered alcohol and the beer garden. Shell-shocked drinkers wandered to and from the bar. As the night went on they got more and more wasted, the conversations more surreal.  One large gentleman was carrying a poodle wherever he went. Very strange.

Every number started off quite slow, then they’d forget themselves and race away with it. My kind of night.

Leon Greening, a last minute replacement on the keyboards – each time he’d start off on a bluesy thoughtful mood, then he’d hunch, the bluenotes would hit in, then his head would get closer and closer to the keys and the race was on again.

Tonight Quentin Collins trumpet just lay back and screamed. Even the mellow, quiet flugelhorn got a hammering when it came out.

 

 Theo Travis was new to me – his Sax would be looking for a quiet ballad, a quiet stroll amongst quiet leafy lanes – moments in and the ghosts of bebop took over. Trevor Tomkins was grumbling that he’d spent all day in the studio – he’ obviously had a good time, you could hear it. Mick Hutton’s bass was hammering out an inner city rhythm. It was hot.

Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker. Jobim.

“An old standard but in 6 instead of 4”.

A hot, sultry ill-tempered sort of night. At the all night kebab shack, the handcuffs were out.

Good sounds though.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

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