Album review: Bill O'Connell - Touch (Jojo Records)

Bill O'Connell (piano); Santi Debriano (bass); Billy Hart (drums)

A lovely album full of sensitivity, excitement, rich harmonies and compositions, both standards (3) and originals (8), that tug at the heart, the feet and the brain - particularly the brain as O'Connell gives you plenty to think about.

Touch, the contact between fingers and piano keys that separates the artist from the ham-fisted piano player who can physically de-tune a piano in approximately 32 bars down the pub on a Saturday night (back in the day when they had ham-fisted piano players down the pub on a Saturday night). O'Connell is certainly not in that latter category!

Even when the rhythm becomes rockier, as on Herbie's Maiden Voyage, or the fast, technically brilliant, Around and Around, that touch prevails. It's like a sax player's magical reed, a trumpet player's favourite mouthpiece or a gig where the drummer isn't given a drum chart.

The Great North Big Band Jazz Festival - Friday, Feb. 28

In its 22nd year, the Great North Big Band Jazz Festival returned once again to Park View Community Centre in Chester-le-Street. As is tradition, the opening Friday evening concert featured Teesside's Musicians Unlimited. Many of the region's big band fans were in attendance - this is the event they don't ever miss! 

GNBBJF director Bill Watson introduced the band (Bill also plays in the band's trumpet section!) and the action got underway with a sparkling take on I'm Beginning to See the Light (Dan Johnson taking the first of several impressive alto sax solos). Neal Hefti's arrangement of Satin Doll went down well (any Hefti arrangement does!) and later in the evening we heard the band playing the late Dave Connolly's arrangement of Georgia, featuring the terrific vocals of Paul Skerritt. 

Knats in March issue of Jazzwise (twice!)

The March issue of Jazzwise not only devotes a full page interview with the rapidly rising, born in the north east, band Knats, but also gives their eponymous debut album a four (out of five) star rating which bodes well for their future.

Congratulations from all at BSH. We saw the band's potential in the beginning so I hope you'll excuse us for patting ourselves on the back for having the foresight to realise that Knats were something special. 

On the cover of the magazine Knats (bottom left hand corner) may be in smaller print than Ron Carter but so is Jim Mullen which isn't bad company to be in. Onwards and upwards! Lance

Preview: The Sound of the BBC Big Band, Darlington Hippodrome (Thursday March 6)

The Sound of Cinema is coming to Darlington! On Thursday evening, the world class BBC Big Band will be in concert at the Hippodrome to perform numbers from some of the silver screen's most iconic movies including Breakfast at Tiffany's, Meet Me in St Louis, Mission Impossible, The Pink Panther and more - what a treat for big band aficionados and cinema-goers alike!

Directed by Barry Forgie, the BBC Big Band comprises many of the British jazz scene's big hitters. Join Barry, the band and vocalist Emer McPartland for an unforgettable evening, curtain up at 7:30pm. Book now at: www.darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk.  Russell   

Angie Stone (1961 - March 1, 2025)

For many - myself included - Angie Stone has been the greatest soul singer of the last thirty-five years and (with Anita Baker in the eighties) the only one who can justly stand with the many great songstresses of soul music's golden years of the sixties and seventies. With influences from Aretha Franklin and Betty Wright in particular, she retained all of the qualities of classic soul while tastefully incorporating elements of hip-hop, to ensure her relevance to a younger audience.

I had two encounters with her BC (before covid); neither entirely successful, though through no fault of hers but the respective venues: the Ritz in Manchester and the Roundhouse in Camden. 

Sunday night @ the Globe: The Ali Watson Quartet March 2

© Sheila Herrick

Ali Watson (bass); Matt Carmichael (tenor sax); Alan Benzie (piano); Greg Irons (drums)

What I love about music and jazz in particular is the variety of sub-genres and the ever evolving new directions that it takes as it explores previously undiscovered shores.

During the course of the music's evolution, styles and genres were usually pigeon-holed geographically thus, in America, we had New Orleans, Chicago and Kansas City and  then west coast (L.A.) and east coast (NYC) all, generally, easilly identified by a knowledgeable enthusiast.

Apart from the rock/pop explosion that occurred in Liverpool in the 1960s no such regional variation has taken place in the UK - that is until now!

Jazz Time Aycliffe Radio - Sundays 6.30-8.00pm (repeated Tuesdays 8.00-9.30pm)

 https://www.ayclifferadio.co.uk/listen/

 Aycliffe Radio is available on DAB in County Durham & Darlington Area.

Playlist 2/03/25. (Repeated Tuesday 04 /03/25)

Requests: Charlie Barnet, Harry James.

Seasonal:  Clifford Brown & Max Roach.

Mardi Gras: Wynton Marsalis Quintet, Harry Connick Jr..

Requests: Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington/Mahalia Jackson.

Memories: Glenn Miller, Barrett Deems (Bing Crosby & Louis Armstrong), Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Barney Bigard.

What’s On in the NE: The Jake Leg Jug Band, Zhenya Strigalev's.

Back to New Orleans for Mardi Gras: Duke Ellington & Johnny Hodges, Chris Barber.

And All That Shakespeare.

Over the years, albeit not so often lately, the Immortal Bard has provided inspiration for jazz musicians and composers of popular music. Classical theatre meets classical jazz (and of course classical music but that's for another day in another place).

In 1938 a Rodgers and Hart musical, The Boys From Syracuse, made its debut on Broadway. Based on The Comedy of Errors, it included such future jazz standards as Falling in Love With Love, This Can't be Love, You Took Advantage of me and Sing For Your Supper. A couple of years later (1940 it reached Hollywood starring Allan Jones (Jack Jones' father) and Martha Raye (an early inspiration for Ella Fitzgerald).

Luis Verde Quartet @ Gala Theatre, Durham - Feb. 28

© Malcolm Sinclair

Luis Verde (alto sax); Joe Steels (guitar); John Pope (double bass); John Hirst (drums)

On a spring-like day the Gala's studio space attracted another capacity audience. Relocating from Spain to the north east of England, Luis Verde made a big impression sitting in at Newcastle's Black Swan jam session. It didn't take long before our alto saxophonist picked up gigs across the region - Newcastle (including a cameo appearance at the Newcastle Jazz Festival), Gateshead, Hexham and Darlington. Most of the Jazz at the Gala regulars would be hearing Luis for the first time. 

Book review: Paul Alex Bacon - The Mississippi Dreamboats

If you're a fan of New Orleans jazz then you will find interesting reading in this account of the life and times of the Mississippi Dreamboats and the band's co-leaders the husband and wife team of Paul  and Liz Bacon.

Their dedication to the music they have devoted their lives to over the years is well documented depicting their undiminished enthusiasm in an ever-decreasing world of jazz clubs and musicians au fait with the music.

With Paul playing drums and Liz on clarinet they formed the Mississippi Dreamboats in 1975 gigging around the Newcastle jazz clubs and, as they became established, further afield. The eponymously titled book, Paul Bacon's fifth*, relates many anecdotes of life on the road and the frequent hazards of the seemingly simple task of getting from A to B. The author describes the book as being about his wanderlust, meandering journey, playing jazz and discovering that the journey is often as important as the destination.