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

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

Playlist 14/12/25 (repeated Tuesday 16/12/25).   

This is the 300th edition of the programme so I have exercised the privilege of choosing five tracks!

In Memoriam: George Lewis.

Requests from Darlington New Orleans Club: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Midnite Follies Orchestra.

A Jazzy Xmas @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. Dec. 13 (evening)

Paul Edis (MD, piano); Jo Harrop (vocals); Vasilis Xenopoulos (tenor sax, soprano sax); Faye Thompson (alto sax, clarinet); Sue Ferris (flutes, piccolo); Graham Hardy (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jason Holcomb (trombone); Emma Fisk (violin); Andy Champion (double bass); Matt MacKellar (drums)

Following on from a review of the same band playing the same tunes, even at a different venue, is a two-edged sword. So said BSH Editor-in-Chief, LL. Well, here's a third review in twenty four hours of the same show. 

Familiar as most with Hall Two, in taking a seat your correspondent did the usual: Excuse me, thanks. Excuse me, fellow concert-goers rising from their seats. Squeezing past, glancing at the seat numbers, something wasn't right. The penny dropped. Wrong seat! Wrong row! Cue the Excuse me routine in reverse. Slaloming through the cabaret table layout - the lights were about to go down - the seat was over there, wasn't it? Excuse me, thanks. Excuse me. Nope! Wrong seat! Wrong row! The house lights down, it was too late to go in search of the elusive seat. Let's sit down and bluff it...

A Jazzy Xmas @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. Dec. 13 (afternoon).

© Sylvia

Paul Edis (MD, piano); Jo Harrop (vocals); Vasilis Xenopoulos (tenor sax, soprano sax); Faye Thompson (alto sax, clarinet); Sue Ferris (flutes, piccolo); Graham Hardy (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jason Holcomb (trombone);Emma Fisk (violin); Andy Champion (double bass); Matt MacKellar (drums)

Following on from a review of the same band playing the same tunes, even at a different venue, is a two-edged sword. Do you agree or contradict? It's difficult but someone has to do it and when it's a show of this quality then who's contradicting?

Unlike Crook, the Glasshouse didn't have a raffle and nor were there  any Cadbury's Roses going free. However, the music more than made up for it - this was Quality Street.

Winter Wonderland: Dressed in a white gown Jo looked every bit the Angel of the North that MD Edis described her as - move over Anthony Gormley. The voice too was angelic but not without the suggestion of  a devil lurking inside. Soloists abounded during the course of the afternoon Graham Hardy's being the first.

“Where everybody knows your name…” A Jazzy Xmas @ St. Cuthbert’s, Crook - Dec. 12

© Chris Whittle

Paul Edis (MD, piano); Jo Harrop (vocals); Vasilis Xenopoulos (tenor sax, soprano sax); Matthew Forster (alto sax, clarinet); Sue Ferris (flutes, piccolo); Graham Hardy (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jason Holcomb (trombone); Emma Fisk (violin); Andy Champion (double bass); Matt MacKellar (drums).

 A long heading: a short(ish) review. As always, I rely on Russell and/or Lance for more insightful comments when they’ve seen the show. I’d like to start with the venue as my headline suggests.

 Since I started my mid-life jazz education I have been to scores of venues and Crook truly is unique. The tables are never bare – there’s always nibbles (or last night chocolates - Cadbury’s Roses, no less) with big wedges of pizza in the interval (turkey and stuffing buns last night complete with cranberry sauce to add, if required!). The tables are always decorated too, and last night the hall was aglow with candelabra, cribs and Christmas glitter with fairy-lights on the mic stands (where musical stars also shone!). 

James Pearson & Nikki Iles – A Bill Evans Celebration @ Yamaha Piano Rooms, Wardour Street

James Pearson, Nikki Iles (pianos)

There are concerts, and then there are evenings where the room feels like a living archive – a space where stories, memory and music become inseparable. The Bill Evans celebration with James Pearson and Nikki Iles at the Yamaha Piano Rooms on Wardour Street was entirely in that spirit: intimate, intelligent and full of affection for the pianist who transformed the emotional vocabulary of modern jazz.

From the outset, Pearson set a relaxed, humorous tone, welcoming what he called an “exclusive Ronnie Scott’s audience, here to celebrate 50 years since Evans first played Ronnie’s”. Within minutes he was telling stories of Evans’ first visit to Ronnie’s in 1965, gently weaving history into the atmosphere of the night. Instead of a formal tribute, this felt like a salon: musicians, listeners and anecdotes sharing the same breath.

 

Late Night Chicago Radio w. Denny Farrell (Dec. 11- Dec.17)

Dave Brubeck: Take Five.

Art Blakey: Moanin'. (Shout out to Lance and Bebop Spoken Here!)

Miles Davis: All Blues.

Mel Tormé: Moon Song.

Barney Kessel: Just Friends.

Diana Krall: The Look of Love.

Stan Getz/Bill Evans: Night and Day.

Bette Midler: Tenderly.

Andy Brown: It's the Talk of the Town.

Listen 24/7.

Report on the 36th Bude Jazz Festival - 2025

The 36th Bude Jazz Festival was held from August 26 to August 29. It was another successful festival, and the Committee are finalising arrangements for the 37th festival in 2026.

The format was similar to recent years with all the venues in walking distance of each other, two or three gigs at each venue per day, and staggered intervals so that festival goers could move around without encountering breaks. Most of venues were the same as in recent years and included the Falcon Hotel, the Ivor Potter Hall in the Parkhouse Centre, the Methodist Church, the Carriers Inn, and ‘Upstairs Social’. The bar and catering at the Parkhouse centre, by ‘Outside Inn’, were again very well received.

Press release: Ronnie's new 'Upstairs at Ronnie's' to open in February 2026

Following a year-long redevelopment, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club is set to open its new upstairs music venue: Upstairs at Ronnie’s.

The space has been completely transformed as part of a major revamp of the entire building. Rebuilt as a purpose-designed, intimate auditorium, it honours the club’s six-decade legacy while looking firmly to the future. More info HERE.

Full details of upcoming concerts at Upstairs at Ronnie’s can be found HERE.

Gordon Goodwin RIP

Nick Mondello created this image of Gordon Goodwin who passed away at the age of 70 on Monday (Dec. 8).

Thank you Nick a fitting graphic tribute. Lance

Album review: Chris Hodgkins & Lenore Raphael - Pennies from Heaven (Bell CD523)

Chris Hodgkins (trumpet); Lenore Raphael (piano)

The most delightful piano/trumpet duo recording  I've heard since Ruby Braff and Ellis Larkins met up in the Vanguard Studio back in the 1950s.

Pennies From Heaven is Hodgkins and Raphael's second album together. The previous one, Live at Pizza Express (2018), included American guitarist Wayne Wilkinson making it a trio album - I reviewed it HERE.

The sparks flew on that first album, Just as they did for Braff and Larkins back in the day. This time around, even without the safety net of a third player the flame shines brighter than ever. It's in safe hands.