On Saturday evening 12 February I attended a jazz evening at St Edmund's Church, Katherine Road, organised by Monega Residents Association.  It was a great event, and the place was full to capacity.

The evening was funded by a bequest left in her will by Mary Massey, the Association's long serving Secretary.  I knew Mary well.  When I first lived in Newham, in the early 1980s, I was a regular visitor to "All Things New", a Christian bookshop at the north end of Green Street, close to the current police station.  It was run by a uniquely warm and hospitable husband and wife team, Joseph and Clare Kough.  Joseph was from Burma.  Clare had been a missionary in India, where they met.  Joseph has since died but Clare still lives in Upton Park.  Their home was always full of visitors, and food was being served constantly - though I'm not sure how many books they sold.  Mary Massey was one of the people I met there.  She had been a missionary in Pakistan.  Her Pakistani husband, Israel Massey - a stalwart of Race Equality in Newham - was at the jazz evening.

The jazz evening featured great songs of the 20th century - from "Tea for Two" (1925) to "What a Wonderful World" (1967) and "I Can See Clearly Now" (1972).   The musicians were singer Sarah Ellen Hughes, vocalist with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra until 2008, bass player Michael Edmunds who grew up in Forest Gate, sax player Robert Goodhew, impressive 16 year old semi professional pianist Chris Neill and drummer Michael Cuthbert.  They gave us a superb evening.

We could do with more organisations like Monega Residents Association.  It attracts a large and growing membership to regular meetings at St Edmund's, recently much pre-occupied by worries about the new controlled parking zone.  I did wonder if it was going to survive the death of founding chair Jim Coe, whose achievement is marked by a tree planted in his memory in Plashet Park; and then the loss of Mary Massey.  In fact, under new Chair Bob Rush, it has thrived - as the attendance of 70 people at the jazz evening showed.  An impressive spread of food was provided at the interval by Association members, and Happy Shoppa in Katherine Road were very helpful in distributing the tickets.  

Bob - together with Martin Pike, Vijay, Ruksana and Karen - is due great credit for bringing the community together for the evening, and for the Association's wider programme.  He has been planning a musical evening for some time.  He initially hoped it could be funded from a donation to the Association from Thames Water, in thanks for help with community liaison over severe disruption from long running sewer reconstruction work along Katherine Road. However the donation wasn't enough - in my view Thames Water should have been more generous.

At a time of change in Newham, Monega Residents Association is showing how we can build our community together and make the most of opportunities over the next few years.