It was very pleasing for the Ryedale Jazz band to be invited in August to make its third appearance at Leeds Jazz Club. To play again at such a prestigious trad jazz club gives a good indication of the standard our musicians achieve, and how well they are received by the Leeds audience. Also in August we had a great night playing for the local Yorkshire Cancer Research branch fundraiser at Pickering Memorial Hall. It was nice to see that a large proportion of the audience were our regular jazz club members, giving us their support at this event. Perhaps others, who saw us there for the first time, will decide to join our ‘second Wednesday of the month’ meetings at The White Horse.
We have a new hostess, licensee Leanne Shutt, and host, chef Simon Buckley, at The White Horse. Fortunately for us they took over between club meetings so that when we arrived for our October session everything was ready for us. And the best news is that they welcome the Jazz Club using the Function Room. This comfortably holds the jazz band and an audience of 60, and is separate from the bar and dining area – ideal for our purposes. We wish Leanne and Simon a very successful stay.
        There are plans already in place to run Junior Jazz 2009, again a project for 6 – 11 year old young musicians in the area. We are currently looking for sponsorship and I’ll be able to give more details later if our applications are successful.
        We have lost one of the jazz club’s strongest supporters, Dave Clitheroe, who died in October. In 2000 Dave located our first premises, The Beansheaf, when a local jazz club was still only an idea. From our first tentative night with 4 musicians and audience of 11, he hardly missed a session. He ran the raffle from when we moved to The White Horse in 2006, and further helped the fundraising with his wonderful ‘Sarah Vaughan engraved’ glass decanter that I told you about in the Summer 2008 Beacon. His efforts helped to put the jazz club in the strong position it now holds. He will be greatly missed.

Wilson Hepplestone, secretary.