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Bebop Spoken There

Xhosa Cole: ''Monk was unapologetically himself". (Jazzwise, February 2025).

The Things They Say!

This is a good opportunity to say thanks to BSH for their support of the jazz scene in the North East (and beyond) - it's no exaggeration to say that if it wasn't for them many, many fine musicians, bands and projects across a huge cross section of jazz wouldn't be getting reviewed at all, because we're in the "desolate"(!) North. (M & SSBB on F/book 23/12/24)

Postage

17744 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 64 of them this year alone and, so far, 64 this month (Jan. 26).

From This Moment On ...

February 2025

Sat 01: Alan Barnes & John Hallam with the Tom Kincaid Trio @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £25.00. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - Cy Coleman’s Witchcraft. Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Darling Dollies @ St George’s Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 3:00pm. £10.00. Vocal trio.
Sat 01: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 01: Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 01: Rockin’ Turner Brothers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Western swing etc.

Sun 02: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £7.50.
Sun 02: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00.
Sun 02: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free (donations).
Sun 02: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 02: Spilt Milk @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:15-7:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Sun 02: Jive Aces @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:00pm. Sun 02: John Pope + Andy Champion + Ian Paterson @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. ‘Subterranean Explorations 1’. Three (half hour) solo bass sets.
Sun 02: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 03: Andy Watt & Dan Rogers @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance. Jazz, blues, folk etc.
Mon 03: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 04: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.
Tue 04: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Ben Phillips, Paul Grainger, Bailey Rudd.
Tue 04: Dilutey Juice + Life Aquatics Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Wed 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 05: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 05: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 06: Lewis Watson Quartet @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 06: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Latin jazz/top-rated dance bands.
Thu 06: Rose Room @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 06: Mostly Moonlight @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Helen Barber (vocals) & Alex Moon (piano).
Thu 06: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. Guests: Richie Emmerson (tenor sax); Donna Hewitt (alto sax); Kevin Eland (trumpet); Graham Thompson (keys); Ron Smith (bass). 8:30pm. Free. A Tees Hot Club promotion. The session is now monthly, first Thursday in the month.

Fri 07: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 07: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 07: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ Old Lowlight, Clifford’s Fort, North Shields NE30 1JE. 7:00pm. £15.00. + bf. www.oldlowlight.co.uk. SOLD OUT!
Fri 07: Stuart Turner Trio @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Jazz, blues, Americana etc.
Fri 07: Dean Stockdale Quartet @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Fri 07: Rose Room @ Wylam Institute. 8:00pm. £19.67.
Fri 07: John Rowland Quartet @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

Monday, December 06, 2010

Mike Gilby Funeral Arrangements

The funeral of trumpet/flugel horn player Mike Gilby will take place on Wednesday December 8 at Whitley Bay Crematorium. Friends are asked to assemble at 1:00pm for the 1:30pm Humanist service. Afterwards, Hilary, Zoe, Scott and Mike jnr. invite everyone to the Queens Head in Cullercoats where it is hoped a jam session will take place. So musicians please bring your instruments along and give this great musician the send-off he deserves. Hilary shares 'their' song with us. Lance.

14 comments :

Eric said...

I am so sorry to hear about Mike I knew him for many years - jazz clubs etc - spoke a few times and he was a gent one of the best flugel horn players Ive heard. What a miss he will be he loved for his music. Deepest sympathy to all family,
Eric M Stutt

Sid Smith said...

Although I never met Mike or talked to him, I felt I knew him somehow through his playing. In the mid-70s I saw and heard him playing on numerous occasions at various gigs and festivals.
I always loved his tone and his presence in a line-up always added real fire and bite to the music - especially his lyrical flugelhorn work.
The north-east has produced more than a few great players, and Mike, for me at least, was world class.
Thanks for such great music, Mike.

Gordon Solomon said...

Very sad news, Mike played with the River City for some months and was by any standards an excellent musician. His reading was second to none, I remember him at rehearsal using the tenor sax copy on one occasion and transposing it perfectly first time. He also helped out on electric bass on occasion and was very good at that too. I'll miss his sense of humour and his music.
Gordon Solomon

Ray Chester said...

I have many and varied memories of Mike - he did a lot of gigs with my band in the days when big bands did a lot of gigs. One particular concert stands out when we played an all - Woody Herman programme as part of the Newcastle Jazz Festival. Mike was particularly important in that gig because, not only did he play most of the trumpet solos, but he also played vibes and, in Lemon Drop, he and I sang the scat vocal. He sang the 'basso profundo' line in the last chorus while I did the falsetto. We had a lot of fun doing that and I actually have a photograph of he and I doing it on another occasion.

Ray Chester

Ray Harley said...

So sad to hear of Mike's passing. I always liked to be in Mike's company on the stand or in the pub, he was a great inspiration to me and everybody he worked with. I thought some of his best moments were with Sid Warren's quintet, but I heard him do some great features with the big band. He was a very good arranger and his copying immaculate. The devil in me found him particular susceptable to windup to rage condition, a truly great musician and man's man,
Ray Harley

Liz said...

How generous to share "their" song, & it's a lovely number which I am sure holds many memories, Sometimes it takes a certain lyric to convey feelings for a special person that would be otherwise difficult to convey. My condolences even though I don't know the family, I know of them through these columns
Liz

Roly said...

Sad news.
Great memories of those weekly Corner House sessions with Sid Warren's Quintet.
Roly

George Milburn said...

Silence descends,
Like a deep shroud of snow,
When I think about arrangements,
Although I never met him,
I think about Mike Gilby

Andy Hudson said...

Mike Gilby- Trumpet section and Flugelhorn Solo - Newcastle Big Band 1974-8

Mike could be grumpy! And the lunacy and sometimes the concentration on fun and occasion and not musicianship that underpinned the success of the Newcastle Big Band, was the sort of thing that could make Mike grumpy.
There were though, those times when, for whatever reason the Big Band, just clicked - perhaps our collective Sunday morning hang-overs were, for once less interventionist. On those such mornings on a Flugel horn solo, Mike Gilby was unsurpassable. He made such a wonderful soft almost hissing round broad sound in solos such as in Neal Hefti's L'il Darlin - you just HAD to listen…beautiful! Always to rapturous applause (Big Band audiences were brilliant and incredibly appreciative) Mike would give a quiet nod to the audience - a wry grin at the floor - blow out the dribbles from his horn and was grumpy no more.
Our paths never crossed when I returned to the North East more recently. My sympathies to his family.
As we know his mellifluous legacy carries on through Zoe.
Andy Hudson

Eric said...

So sorry I cannot make the funeral Zoe we are looking after grand children in the morning and Budvivar has the Chilli gig in the evening I would have loved to play in the pub at Cullercoats. Deepest sympathy again. Regards
Eric m Stutt

Mal Maddock said...

So sorry to hear this sad news..... Another great Musician gone that was a big part of my musical education.....Mal Maddock

Bill and Anne Harper said...

So sad to hear of the passing of our old mate Mike Gilby who was a friend & colleague of many years standing. He was the architypical
Glaswegian, fiery & awkward almost to the point of being perverse at times, but always passionate about his music.We worked together harmoniously & successfully for many years in the Sid Warren Quintet & the Art Mowatt Big Band where we both shared an interest in writing for the Quintet.The quality of his writing & arranging was always superb & exciting to play & I learned quite a few pointers from him in my own writing.We also shared a "black" sense of humour for substitute song titles & I can still remember some of the titles on his Songs for Swinging Scotsmen compilation--"Gorbals,Bangles & Beads"--"Fly Me To Dunoon"--"Peebles Will Say We're In Love"--"Mighty Like Montrose"etc. He had an exceptionally good sensitive sound on flugel but if the spirit moved him,he could really "burn"as we say.Anne & I were aware of how much he missed being involved in the music scene due to his degenerative illness but he was able to give help & support to his daughter Zoe in the formative part of her career.He was extremely proud of Zoe & her subsequent success
Mike was a unique "voice"who will be greatly missed & not forgotten
Deepest sympathy to Hillary &the family.
Bill & Anne Harper

Hil said...

Thank you all for your generous comments. Hope a few folks can join us tomorrow afternoon? Michael, Scott and Zoe have decided they would like to talk openly about their Dad. I promise those who are there it will be both funny and sad. Most important of all it will be full of honesty.

Love and peace, Hilary Gilby

Anonymous said...

Hi Lance,
I did see Mike many times with some top notch visiting American musicians, at the Corner House,and many times,with that other great sideman, now gone, Syd Warren, I was young and loved what they did, that was a great era for me, growing up in Newcastle, with all those great local musicians around, very sad that many are now gone, Mike was a great soloist, and another bit of our Newcastle jazz heritage gone, but not forgotten.
Colin Aitchison
(Hong Kong)

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