A meeting of the generations...

I've been rather lax of late in posting here, largely due to work pressures. One thing on my to-do list has been the annual Herts Jazz Festival, which took place last weekend in Bishop's Stortford (back after a year's break due to Covid). I'm part of the team who organise the Festival. 

After lockdown, it was such a joy to hear live music, and of such a high level of creativity and beauty. One aspect that the Festival (and the Herts Jazz Club who put on the Festival) encourages is bringing together veteran players and the new, up and coming generation of musicians. It is wonderful to see how both sides are inspired by this creative meeting of musical minds.

Today's picture captures a moment from the Festival that illustrates this perfectly. In the foreground is the great Art Themen on tenor sax; now in his 80s, he is still playing with youthful energy and still dazzling us with his melodic invention and audacious harmonic ideas. He is a musical hero of mine. He has had a long and respected playing career while also carrying out his day-job as an orthopaedic surgeon!

Looking at him playing his solo is the young Alex Clarke on alto saxophone. She is a prime example of a cohort of young players coming on the scene who are showing the kind of maturity of musicality and nuanced understanding of jazz which points to a very promising future for the artform.