Fishermans Cottage Kennetside Reading.......Thursday 24th Sept. 8.00.....10.30 Jazz Trio.....free.


Hedsor Jazz Festival St. Pirams School Maidenhead.....Sat 26th Sept....5.30...7.00 Qtet....adm.fee.

Griffin St. Peter's Hill Caversham....Sun 27th Sept.......3.30......6.00...Trio.....free.

Fishermans Cottage Reading........Thurs 8th October.....8.00....10.30....Jazz Trio.......free.

Griffin Caversham......Sun 11th Oct....3.30....6.00....Jazz Qutet with trumpet star DENNY ILETT...free

FISHERMANS Cottage Reading.

FISHERMANS Cottage Reading .....Thursday 24th Sept...8.00....10.30 pm jazz trio......free.

Hedsor Jazz Festival St.Pirans Sch. Maidenhead.....5.30...7.00pm......jazz Qtet......adm fee.

Griffin Caversham....Sun 27th Sept.......3.30......6.00......jazz trio........free.

Fishermans Cottage....Reading.......Thursday 8th October....8.00....10.30....jazz trio.....free.

Griffin Caversham......Sun 11th October.....3.30.....6.00....jazz qtet....featuring trumpet star DENNY ILETT........free.

Django Reinhardt Festival Samois-Sur-Sene

In 1990 I went with my son Nathan to the Django Reinhardt festival in Samois-Sur-Sene near Fontainebleau about 40 miles south of Paris.  I read that Django’s guitar was in the Paris Conservatoire, so a train to Paris was on the agenda.  We bought our tickets which covered the metro as well, on entering the centre of Paris we thought it would be a good idea to get a taxi to the Conservatoire.  The cab driver said which Conservatoire? There are 16 conservatoires in Paris!!  After choosing one only to find they had never heard of Django let alone his guitar!! We called into a small hotel to ask for advice; the receptionist phoned every conservatoire in Paris for us only to find that his guitar had recently been taken away by Django’s son Babik!  That receptionist was wonderful, she didn’t charge us a penny (or a franc) for all she did, a fine example, and to anyone who don’t like the French……she was great.  After a day roaming round the music shops we decided to make our way back, and at the last metro station that took us to the overland train station, the machine swallowed our tickets!  Thinking no more of it we jumped on the train which started to pull away, after a short while I spotted an armed guard at the far end of the carriage checking the tickets!!......ironically my son gave me the same advice as Ian did years before in Maidenhead…….pretend that you are asleep!!!  I looked behind and there was another guard checking tickets starting from the other end!!.........we were doomed!!..............the Bastille beckoned - or worse still the Guillotine!!  We happened to be sitting right in the middle of the carriage and as the two of them met we were the last to be checked………fate took a hand as the family opposite us didn’t have any tickets either !! so they carted them out of the carriage and didn’t come back, goodness knows what happened to them, but on our part it was totally un-intentional, the tickets we bought which included the metro stops did not include a return fair.  Perhaps Django was smiling down on us that day after all.

With Gary Potter at Samois Sur Seine 1990