Last month I gave a talk to a Jazz Appreciation group in Preston Park. It was the first in a series of six entitled, ‘Jazz Contrasts’. This was a follow-up to add detail to my previous series, ‘Six Studies in the Art of Jazz’. The first major contrast was between Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke. I am sure you will have heard of Louis, but Bix who? In the late 1920s Bix Beiderbecke was a much admired jazz cornet player. He was almost a cult idol. Featured with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, he was adored by both fans and fellow musicians, among them Bing Crosby. He was still in his twenties, but his health was already in decline. In 1931 he died. Continue reading Who’s for a Swim?→
I went to an old friend’s place on the northern beaches last weekend; the weather was beautiful and the numbers of fellow attendees huge – because this was Paddy’s wake and despite him not being Irish, it was the best way to send him off – to be sure. Continue reading Justin Simpson’s ‘Letter from Australia’→
As I reach my twilight years, I find myself more and more inclined to look back on my life, and question some of the choices I made. However, this is not with any kind of morbid regret, but rather, with a sense of curiosity, and I am reminded of that famous poem by Robert Frost, ‘The Road Not Taken’. Continue reading Choices→
I first met Robert at one of his WHCA local history lectures in West Hill Hall. It would have been shortly after I moved to Terminus Street in 1986.
Despite having barely considered the past of the sundry towns and cities I’d lived in previously, Robert instantly brought to life for me the churches, pubs, shops that had once flourished so close to my new home in the West Hill Conservation Area. Many of these buildings, of course, he’d known himself. He was a natural educator, with skills honed in the Army’s Education Corps towards the end of World War 2. I was hooked. Continue reading Robert Gregory (3.1.22 – 7.10.18)→
Rita (right in photo) is a volunteer with the Impetus Neighbourhood Care Scheme (NCS). She has been visiting Stella (left) each week for the last 18 months. Stella is in her 80s and lives alone near Hove Park. Continue reading Neighbourhood Care Scheme→
Everything you ever wanted to know about life in Brighton (OK, and Hove)
The Whistler 