There is going to be a lot of jazz as part of the Abingdon Arts Festival – eight events feature jazz.

GHQ were playing at the Kings Head and Bell this evening. GHQ usually stand for the George Haslam Quartet, but tonight it was a Quintet. The drummer, who is quite a character, had brought along a bongo player as an understudy. They improvised a brilliant duo near the end. I lost faith in drum solos in the 70s but tonight I think I have re-found the faith.

GHQ are …
George Haslam baritone saxophone.
Steve Waterman trumpet, flugelhorn.
Steve Kershaw double bass
Robin Jones drums, percussion.
+ Bongo Player (not shown).

On Monday Evenings there is Folk at the Anchor.  People were singing when we got there at about 9.

(I’m sure that deer’s head was not there last time we visited. )

There were solos and sing-a-longs in the back room…

accompanied by guitars, mandalines and eukeles.

It sounded like a good way for folk to spend a Monday Evening

A South American band with a large assortment of panpipes and a picture of Machu Picchu,  were playing all day on the Market Place yesterday. Here is a short extract …

The Swingtime Big Band plus Dorothy Shaw, Piano, have been practising, in the Old Magistrates Court, for the Abingdon Arts Festival Ball .

The band plays original arrangements by Glenn Miller, Count Basie and many more stars of the Swing Era.

Just checking out their leader George Haslam on Wikipedia, and I see he is an ‘English avant-garde jazz saxophonist.‘

Born in Preston, Lancashire, he has lived longer than most of us in Abingdon Oxfordshire, where he has helped ensure that people can hear British Jazz played in Abingdon pubs and halls, and has gone on to export jazz to places like Hungary, Cuba, Argentina, and Mexico.