Music in the Garden

During the summer of June, back in 2009 to be exact, my daughter suggested we go to The Stables to see John Dankworth, or rather listen to his new group Tugboat. With Alan Barnes they would be playing some great jazz. Now for the American followers The Stables is to be found near Milton Keynes and is a small but internationally known Jazz and Music venue; a very popular centre for entertainment in the Old Rectory. The house is the residence of Cleo Lane which she shared with her husband.

At The Stables they hold performances in the gardens, and if the weather is fine then you can picnic while listening to the music.

They will hire you a gazebo, and provide a picnic if you don’t wish to bring your own.

This was to be our first visit to The Stables and having bought and listened to the John Dankworth music over the years we settled down to await the performance. There were some nice old chaps fussing around cameras take you in closer to the subject and with it came the realization that the nice old codgers on the stage were actually Johnny Dankworth and Alan Barnes

Yup, I was getting older and had been listening to Sir John Dankworth and Dame Cleo Lane for more years than I like to remember. I like to remember the music, but not think about how many years.The Jazz was great, the music was great; as they say - real cool. It was a pleasure to see the performance live and we resolved that this would not be our last visit to see John perform. We now have our memories of that day almost two years ago but sadly we shall be unable to repeat our visit to see him perform again. He left us to enjoy his music on record, and no doubt he is playing on a higher level.

To go there with my wife – daughter – granddaughter made it a lovely visit.

Stables is still a great venue for a varied choice of entertainment and I can only recommend that you log onto the web site and see if there is something you can go and see either in the gardens or in the theatre.