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Early Morning Walk in the fields beyond Billericay Cricket Club

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CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

Hello Everyone

More of our groups are starting to meet as the lockdown eases, although I know that many

of our members are still understandably wary of meeting others.

Unfortunately it may still be some time before our monthly meetings are able to resume

and I’m sure that many of you are really missing these.

If you are still isolating or not able to get out as before, see Aileen’s humorous passage on

Page 3 and perhaps contact her.

GROUP FACILITATOR’S NEWS

Well, things are starting to happen in the U3A world! Groups are planning new ways to

meet. The Petanque group has been playing for a while, after careful consideration with the

new rules about social distancing, and hopefully they are having an enjoyable time. I am a

member of the Writing for Pleasure group and we have been sharing our work over the

internet, but now we are planning to hold a meeting in the park, weather permitting!

NEW GROUP

One of our members, Martin Ryder, has offered to start a new Tennis Group. He has

suggested using the tennis courts in Lake Meadows, which are available to hire. Tennis

seems quite a sensible idea for exercise, as it is in the open air and you can socially distance

quite well. If you would be interested in joining the group, please contact me with your

details, which I will forward to Martin.

If your group would like to meet, but are not sure about the current regulations and would

like some advice, please contact me, and I will try to help you.

I would also like to say a big thank you to Peter Cubley for all his hard work in setting up a

Quiz Group and then sending out so many brilliant quizzes. We have really enjoyed these

fun activities and think we have learned quite a few new facts!

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ACCESSIBILITY CO-ORDINATOR

STRANGE TIMES!

Having just been co-opted onto the U3A committee in the role as Accessibility Co-ordinator, I was really looking forward to making the role my own. Then we were hit with ‘Lockdown’. I fall into the category of ‘very vulnerable’ so won’t be allowed out until at least August. It’s a pain, but to my mind it is a better alternative than catching Covid. I do think it was very fortunate it happened when it did, as we had the spring and have the summer to ‘look forward to’. I consider myself very lucky as I have a garden and it is looking far better tended than it normally does. To keep positive I try to think of the possible bonuses in this very difficult situation. These are the ones I thought of:

▪ Contacting neglected friends and family, all those you kept meaning to get in touch with.

▪ Getting to tentative grips with some new technology, ‘new’ to me anyway. WhatsApp, Zoom. I’m still hanging on by my fingernails but it was a partial success.

▪ Eating up all those things at the back of the cupboard that you meant to use up, although 12 year old lemon meringue pie mix and a jar of 7 year old anchovies managed to beat me.

▪ Sorting out the boxes of photos you meant to put into albums and never got round to. Re-living great times you have had.

▪ Decorating your carport to ensure you can chat with friends at a social distance, even when there is torrential rain

▪ Getting to Level 3995 on Candy Crush Saga! I do try and keep positive. I find it really helps me. Writing down these bizarre bonuses made me smile to myself at least. It would be great if we could write a list of members’ bonuses, especially unexpected ones, that have happened to you and we can publish them over the next few months. Send them to me at burgess525@btinternet.com or ring on 01277 221743. Use the same e mail or phone number if you too are still having to stay indoors and just need a chat.

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THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY THE VIRGIN, RAMSDEN BELLHOUSE

A reference to this church occurred in 1281, and it may have existed in 1066 as the lands

were owned then by the Bishop of London. Many additions and restorations have occurred

over the ages, with the oldest parts being constructed of timber. It is estimated that up to

5000 burials have happened in the graveyard during the course of the centuries. This

wooden tower has been dated to around the 15th century with many original timbers still

existing. Many more interesting facts can be found on line.

Viewpoint overlooking the Estuary, with Kent just visible in the distance. The church spire is

visible on the left of the picture with the railway line below in the middle ground. On a clear

day the tall buildings in London can be seen to the West.

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U3A THEATRE GROUP

The Theatre Studies Group have been constantly in touch over the lockdown and have been able to watch many different genres in the comfort of their own homes. We have been entertained on YouTube, Facebook and many others and below are a sample and summary of just a few.

The Deep Blue Sea (Play) Starring Helen McCrory and Tom Burke, this is Terrance Rattigan’s devastating post war masterpiece. It's a portrait of need, loneliness and long repressed passions in 1952 in West London. When Hester Collyer is found, by her neighbours, in the aftermath of a failed suicide attempt, the story of her tempestuous affair with a RAF pilot and the breakdown of her marriage to a High Court Judge begins to emerge. Great dialogue and superb acting makes for an interesting and thought provoking play.

The Magic Flute (Opera) The piece of music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was premiered in 1791 in Vienna and still is a favourite with today’s audiences. It is claimed to be one of his last and best compositions, and it takes place in Egypt, where a young girl is imprisoned by her enemies. A prince in the area is chased by a serpent, but before the serpent can bite him he faints. Three ladies kill the serpent and as they think the prince is handsome, they tell their Queen. She sends them back (with a photo of her daughter), to find him. The prince falls in love with the photo and pledges his heart to save the princess and marry her. An exceptional opera with brilliant singers and actors and vibrant costumes

The Power behind the Microphone from Civic Theatre Chelmsford. In 1920, Chelmsford was the location of a series of radio experiments that would change the world, giving rise to the BBC and the very idea of home entertainment. Brilliant engineers and inventors at The Marconi Company carried out high power speech transmission tests in the town, which led to a number of extraordinary broadcasts. ‘The Power Behind the Microphone’ tells the story of that remarkable year, when Dame Nellie Melba, the most famous opera singer in the world, arrived at the Marconi New Street works and lent her star power and ethereal voice to a live radio entertainment broadcast. It was a terrific coup for the pioneering firm, and it showed what their technology was capable of. But Dame Melba wasn’t the first woman to sing live on the radio; that honour went to a young local woman called Winifred Sayer, who took part in series of recitals that paved the way for the Melba concert.

Woolf Works (Ballet) In 2015 Wayne McGregor choreographed this ballet based on the works of Virginia Woolf, after Max Richter had written the musical score. Virginia’s novels are exceptional, as was this ballet and the musical accompaniment. An enjoyable experience to watch this piece.

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PHOTOGRAPHY GROUP

The zoom meetings are going well for the Photography group, and we are now holding meetings on the same days as if we were meeting in person, but instead of our monthly picture taking outing, I have started to provide tutorials. Last month I explained some of the functions of Photoshop to help members improve their photos. Now I know many people think of Photoshop as “cheating”, but if you speak to anyone who developed their own film in a dark room they will tell you that there were ways to brighten, darken and improve their images in lots of ways, so Photoshop just provides the modern equivalent. Photoshop also provides a way to be creative with our images. Much to my eternal regret I cannot draw or paint, but I can create my vision with a camera and some digital enhancement! Anyway, the group’s challenge this month was to take a picture of just one flower, but in a creative way either at the taking or the editing stage. We had our best month yet with some great images taken from a variety of angles and some great reflections. I’m sorry that space does not allow me to show images from all members, but here are just a few.

Passed its best! –

Arum Lily -

Courgette –

Reflection –

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JAZZ APPRECIATION GROUP

BILLIE HOLIDAY (1915-1959)

Billie Holiday is widely recognised as the finest female jazz singer, her influence on succeeding generations of singers can hardly be overstated. The experience of hearing her sing is unique, her sound grainy and sassy, surprisingly joyous but with an underlying melancholy edge. It has a rhythmic and melodic playfulness, her voice seeming to float over the beat, the lyrics timed with the instinct of a great actress, creating music which is as absorbing as it is enduring.

Influenced originally by Louis Armstrong she said she wanted to sound like a jazz horn. She had a narrow vocal range without the purity of tone of Ella Fitzgerald or the technical mastery of Sarah Vaughan but had an instinctive, intuitive, ‘jazz feel’. Jazz musicians, notoriously tetchy about singers, adored her. Artie Shaw said ‘she has a sense of time that is jazz in the best sense of the word’.

Despite her undoubted artistic achievements most accounts of her life, including her own ghosted autobiography, and the Hollywood biopic ‘Lady Sings the Blues’ starring Diana Ross, dwell on the hardships, personal problems and tragedies in her life.

Born in Philadelphia in 1915 the illegitimate daughter of unwed teenage parents. Her father played no real part in her upbringing, her mother Sadie was often compelled to leave her with neglectful family members whilst she sought employment out of town. At the age of 10 she was the victim of a rape and because of extensive truancy was sent to a Catholic house for coloured girls. Her time there was not a happy experience.

Sadie had moved to New York where Billie joined her there in 1929 and for a time worked alongside her in a brothel. It was here in NY that Billie began to sing in clubs where she attracted the attention of musicians such as Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. The jazz writer and talent spotter John Hammond arranged for her to record with Benny in 1933 and in 1935 inaugurated a series of recordings with small groups comprised of the finest jazz musicians around, under the direction of the pianist Teddy Wilson. The combination of Wilson’s elegant piano, great soloists, and her wonderful vocals put these amongst the finest jazz recordings of their time.

Her career continued with spells with the Count Basie and Artie Shaw orchestras. Her time with Shaw ended when she tired of the indignities and routine racism of being a black American in a white band. Unable to stay in the same hotels or use the same restaurants as the other members of the band, even in NY, she quit. Later she confronted these issues with her definitive recording of the coruscating song ‘Strange Fruit’ about the lynchings of

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Negroes, common in the southern states of the US. The recording caused a sensation being barred from many radio stations.

Her career flourished, including 2 sell-out concerts in Carnegie Hall, but was increasingly hampered by her unreliability as drug and alcohol addiction took their toll. Together with a chaotic lifestyle, a succession of husbands and relationships characterised by abuse and exploitation, including a spell in prison for narcotic offences. These abuses were reflected in a deterioration of her voice such that her late recordings can make for difficult listening.

She died at the age of 44 in a NY hospital, her room sealed off by police as she was under arrest for drug offences. Having earned a fortune over the years her estate amounted to just $1500.

Suggested listening: - The classic sides with Teddy Wilson are the place to start. ‘What a little Moonlight can do’, The Way You Look Tonight’, ‘I’ll Get By’, ‘Mean to Me’, ‘Strange Fruit’, etc or on YouTube ‘Fine and Mellow’ from a 50’s TV show with some A list jazz musicians

Newsletter Contributions Again, we hope there will be a Newsletter in August, as many groups are finding new and varied ways to keep in touch and continue their activities. Let’s hear what you are doing.

If you do have any items please send them by 12.00 Noon on Wednesday, August 19th

I am always happy to receive your report or comments at any time before the cut-off date. Please send all items in editable format to bbu3anewsletter@gmail.com If you are sending photos please send them separately in JPG format. Only send photos that you have taken yourself. We cannot use photos or pictures that have been downloaded from the internet, unless copyright free. All contributions will be acknowledged. Current and past newsletters can be viewed on our website https://u3asites.org.uk/bb Please note that, in the interests of security, all details of individuals (name, address, phone number) have been redacted from the on-line versions.

Editor