Last Monday

Monday was another fine night with a full house in the Ellerbrook Suite. There are a few photos and even with the limitations of a small compact camera it’s still possible to get a flavour of the evening. Many thanks to all concerned

Thanks also to Tony Owens who brought an excellent selection of Altamira guitars for us to admire and play. Tony is an old acquaintance from many years ago (long before Beaufort Jazz) and it was very good to see him again.  Since we last met up Tony has started his guitar business Go to guitars and is now a distributer for a growing number of brands. Good luck to him.

As announced our featured musicians for our next Beaufort evening on Monday May 7th will be Diminuita, a renowned swing trio from Greece. It is their first visit to the UK as part of their European tour and we are obviously very pleased that the first two dates they agreed were ourselves and Le Quecumbar. More details to follow shortly.

Samuel C Lees and Trez Fez with special guest Daniel John Martin

Samuel C Lees

Tomorrow night looks like being another memorable occasion as we once again welcome the delightful guitar skills of Samuel C Lees to Beaufort Jazz. Sam will open the evening with our own Trez Fez as a special event before they appear at Djangology on May 19th. If that was not enough we will also have a very special guest appearance from the excellent violinist Daniel John Martin. It goes without saying that there is a lot of musical ability in this line up.

When Sam last joined us he performed material from his widely acclaimed album All About Time, which has a mix of Sam’s own material, well-known standards and some very interesting arrangements of quite recent songs. Coincidently Daniel plays violin on some of the album tracks. One of the stand out moments of Sam’s last Beaufort appearance was a version of Minor Swing which is still talked about. A number of Beaufort regulars are hoping that we might tempt Sam in to giving us a repeat performance.

Since appearing at our 100th celebrations we are very pleased to welcome Daniel back as a special guest. Being based in Paris it is not often that he is able to appear in the UK so we are very pleased that he chooses to play our Beaufort evenings when he is in the country. The last time we caught up with Daniel he was performing at the Lantern Theatre with John Wheatcroft where they performed late into the night to a very appreciative audience.

Last but not least, Trez Fez will complete the featured line up for tomorrow bringing their own melodic style to the performance. As well as appearing at Djangology, we understand that Trez Fez will be performing a special charity gig in Ormskirk at the beginning of July. As many of us know, Trez Fez are very generous with their time supporting charitable causes and this is a gig that they have played and supported for a good number of years. Hopefully there will be an announcement about the gig on Monday and that the event can be well attended.

Needless to say this will be an excellent evening of music. As usual it is an 8pm start in the Ellerbrook Suite at the Briars Hall Hotel. Entry is only £1 to cover costs and new faces are always very welcome.

Look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Image © Samuel C. Lees, Grey Trilby and NGPhotography

Gig update

One regular event which we always try to mention here is the International Guitar Festival of Great Britain, which stands tall  amongst the regions musical events. Not many festivals could justify such an imposing title, but this one can, due in no small part to the ceaseless efforts of Rob Smith, the long-term festival director of this excellent event.

Understandably it came as a surprise when we learnt that Rob has decided to call it a day. But nothing is forever and Rob has passed his duties over to a new director Kate Carpenter – who on the one hand has inherited something special, but on the other has a hard act to follow. Best wishes to Kate who has been involved with the festival for a good few years and will no doubt keep it in safe hands.

A number of musicians who have supported Beaufort Jazz are appearing at the festival.

Gary Potter – 7.30pm Sunday 6th November – Birkenhead Priory

Modjango  – 11.30am Sunday 13th November – Woodside Terminal

Esmond Selwyn – 12.30pm Sunday 13th November – Floral Pavilion Plaza

Adam Palma – 12.30 and 6.30pm 26th November – Floral Pavilion Plaza

Another popular venue for us here in the North West is Parr Street in Liverpool where excellent jazz music is to be found every Tuesday night. Petrus will be appearing on Tuesday 15th November at 8pm and we would expect a number of Beaufort regulars to be attending.

Finally a classic gig is in prospect at the Lantern Theatre in Liverpool when John Wheatcroft and Daniel John Martin team up for An evening of Gypsy Jazz on Friday December 2nd.

Many will remember when we celebrated our 100th Beaufort Jazz evening in February earlier this year and welcomed Daniel John Martin as our featured artist for the evening. More recently John Wheatcroft performed the featured spot and it has to be said that both evenings were outstanding.

The Lantern is a relatively new venue and its website can be found by clicking the link here. It is positively minute compared to most theatres as it probably holds less than a hundred people. That’s less than the Ellerbrook Suite at the Briars Hall so this could well be a full house.

Enjoy

October review

Difficult as it is to believe it’s now 18 months since we moved from the Orangery to the Ellerbrook Suite. How time does fly. For one of our last Orangery evenings we enjoyed a visit from Samuel C Lees and his band, who were on that occasion accompanied by Eva Gray on vocals.

Samuel C Lees trio

Having traveled from the other side of Manchester we endeavoured to give them a warm welcome and made sure that they had a decent slot in which to perform. We were well rewarded with a very enjoyable evening from some fine musicians. It was pleasing that they had taken the effort to search us out and we hoped that they would return someday.

After a year and a half there was some considerable satisfaction when we were able to announce that Samuel C Lees would be our featured musician for October. It wasnt entirely straightforward for Sam as unfortunately both his brother on bass and Paul on rhythm guitar could not make the date. Undeterred Sam called upon John McMahon and Steve Renshall to accompany him for the evening.

Not that you would have known that this line up had been assembled at short notice as the trio preformed a number of Gypsy Jazz standards as well as some of Sam’s own compositions from his CD –  All About Time.  Worth a mention was the composition There you have it which features on the CD accompanied by the splendid Daniel John Martin on the violin.

End of evening jam

As the set drew to a close there were many requests for an encore. It turned out to be Minor Swing and  it has to be said that it was as good a version as any we have heard in a long while. All three musicians deserve great credit for this set. It would have been easy to rearrange – but instead a hastily arranged trio gave us a first class performance. Well done. The evening once again finished with the usual jam with a set from Ted Hanley inbetween.

Next month the featured artist will be Wheesh Cunningham and there will be more information in the next few days.

Footnote – eagle-eyed readers will notice that Guitar Retreats posted a couple of comments here on the blog to announce that Sam was giving a Gypsy Jazz workshop in Cornwall this weekend. Whilst it was posted a little late for many to take advantage of it might be worth noting for the future.

Century celebrations

100th Beaufort Jazz celebrations

What an evening!  It was standing room only  in the Ellerbrook suite  as musicians and audience, old and new came to celebrate our 100th Beaufort Jazz evening.  It’s doubtful that we have ever had a better one. Needless to say there is a lot to report and there will be a full review on this blog in the next few days.  In the meantime many thanks to all the musicians who played and apologies if you didn’t manage to get to play on stage. It was such a packed and hectic evening that time just ran out even with the 11.30 finish.

Many thanks also to many people who got involved in the organisation of the event. It probably goes without saying that these occasions do not organise themselves and it takes a lot of time and effort to put on a voluntary music event such as Beaufort Jazz. Well done.

A special thanks is also needed for Aladdins Cave in Ormskirk who very kindly donated our special “100th” balloons to decorate the evening. Many will know them as suppliers of fancy dress but they also have a balloon decoration business for weddings and functions. If you are having a function, please check their website out here and give them a call.

One of the bands that didnt get to play on Monday was Trez Fez who gallantly stood down in order to allow other musicians to perform. Not to worry however as Trez Fez will be playing a special charity event this Saturday (12th Feb) at Aughton Village Hall. It is in aid of our local Queenscourt Hospice which is a tremendous local charity and throughly worthy of your support. The event starts at 7.30 and is only £6 entrance which is payable on the door. We understand that Polly Douglas and Douce Ambience will also play. Please make an effort to attend. If you need any further information, please call 07837 692 628. If you want to help promote the event please download the event leaflet here.

Enjoy!

The 100th Beaufort Jazz Evening! – Featuring Daniel John Martin

Daniel John Martin

Following our eighth anniversary towards the end of last year, someone casually asked what our next milestone might be? It was a good question and  after a little discussion and some maths we calculated that the February event would in fact be our 100th Beaufort Jazz Evening. It didn’t seem possible, but it is the case and Monday 7th February will be 100th time we have got together to enjoy our friendly evening of Gypsy Jazz.

It’s doubtful that we will get a telegram from the Queen but we are hoping for a full house. It would be good to see old faces again that havent managed to attend the last few evenings but might want to make a special effort for this one. Newcomers are aways very welcome,  just roll up on the night and take a seat – it’s that easy.

For our 100th celebrations we are very pleased to announce that Daniel John Martin will be our featured musician. Daniel is the Paris based jazz violinist and vocalist who has worked with some very familiar names during his career. If you have seen Daniel in France it could well have been at one of the popular jam sessions which he hosts alongside Angelo Debarre. These sessions have welcomed some splendid musicians over the years and they have been joined by Boulou and Elios Ferre, Moreno, Patrick Saussois, Rodolphe Raffalli, Andreas Oberg, Ludovic Beier and Kiyoshi Kabayashi – and many more.

Daniel is also well-known for his appearances at The Birmingham International Jazz Festival, The City of London Festival and many major French Jazz Festivals as well as finding time to record and appear at many of the recognised Jazz venues in Europe.

In his younger years Daniel spent many years travelling and living in South Africa before moving to Paris and studying violin at the Parisian conservatories. It was during these years that he “met up with jazz” and it has been his main musical interest ever since. Originally born in Congleton in Cheshire, his visit to Beaufort Jazz is therefore almost a homecoming after many years of travelling and performing. Please give him a very warm Beaufort Jazz welcome on what will be a unique and special evening.

Daniel’s website can be found by clicking here. There is also a promotional poster for the evening which can be found by clicking here. If you able to help to download the poster and promote the evening – it is greatly appreciated.

If you havent managed to make recent Beaufort Jazz events why not come down and share in our 100th celebrations? We will be back in the newly refurbished Ellerbrook Suite at the Briars Hall Hotel so there will be plenty of room for everyone to have a seat for the evening. As usual we will start promptly at 8pm with doors opening at 7.45pm. Entry is the usual £1.

Look forward to seeing you on 7th!