The Young Ones @ The Black Swan jam session - Feb. 18

Alan Law (keyboards); Paul Grainger (double bass); John Hirst (drums) + Harry Keeble (tenor sax); Kate O'Niell (vocals); John Rowland (tenor sax); Ruth Lambert (vocals); Sam Toulson (alto sax); David Gray (trombone); Edgar Ho (keyboards); Oscar Ho (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums); Liam Oliver (guitar); Leah Kirk (vocals); Robert Johnson (alto sax); Lara Hopper (trumpet); Shivan Ruddick (trumpet); Paul Ruddick (alto sax); Ian Drever (vocals); Moyo (guitar); Jay Straughan (drums); Jamie Watkins (double bass); Darius (vocals); Harriett (vocals) 

Jazz is dead. Jazz isn't what it used to be. Oh, yeah? Those present at tonight's Black Swan jam session would beg to differ. Oh! Lady Be Good for starters, the house trio would play a blinder all night. Pianist  Alan Law is the man for any jam session, a great player and endlessly encouraging to those sitting in. And then there's Paul Grainger, house bassist and the ideal jam session MC. And drummer John Hirst is as good as they come.

Farewell Kenny Kirsopp

It wasn't your average  funeral - not if crowd numbers are anything to go by. We waited in the cold, the queue of mourners increasing with every beat of our hearts. It wasn't so much goodbye as a fond farewell to a much loved musician who, in a calling where  extrovert is the norm,  was perhaps the extrovert's extrovert.

We're talking about saxophonist and piper - Kenny Kirsopp (Kenny the Sax).

Album review: Eldad Tarmu - Silver on Aluminium (Queen of Bohemia Productions)

Eldad Tarmu (vibes); Marty Isenberg (bass); Michael Shapira (drums)

Considering that Horace Silver had over 300 compositions to his name, the  problem facing Tarmu was not what to play but what not to Play! In this respect he has found a good balance between the familiar and the not so familiar. It's immaterial  - they all come out  swinging.

If I'm going to be hyper critical, a horn would have added variation but it would have had to be one helluva player to keep pace with these guys!

Russ Morgan Quartet @ Blaydon Jazz Club - Feb. 17

© Roly Veitch

Russ Morgan (drums); Harry Keeble (tenor sax); Mark Williams (guitar); Andy Champion (double bass) + Zoë Gilby (vocals)

A rare February gig at Blaydon Jazz Club and a rare band for the occasion, the Russ Morgan Quartet, no less. The Black Bull's regulars turned out and they weren't to be disappointed. And what they didn't know, there was to be a guest appearance by the award-winning Zoë Gilby. At a little after eight o'clock, Russ, Harry Keeble, Mark Williams and bassist Andy Champion took to the floor. 

Across the course of two sets, drummer Russ spiced things up with a varied selection, including a couple of John Scofield numbers (step forward Mark Williams!), something by Julian Nicholas and Kenny Garrett, a Rodgers and Hart standard and Sammy Gallop and Phil De Rose's Autumn Serenade, the latter two featuring Ms Gilby. 

Album review: Alison Rayner Quintet - SEMA4 (ECN & Blow the Fuse Records)

Alison Rayner (bass); Buster Birch (drums); Deirdre Cartwright (guitar); Diane McLoughlin (tenor/soprano saxes); Steve Lodder (piano)

A timely release (March 7) as later (March 16) ARQ play the Globe which on the strength of  this album and the quintet's previous visits to the venue is one for the diary.

Espiritu Libre, presumably translates as Free Spirit and the spirits do indeed run free although not out of control. Composed by Rayner, the musicians create the illusion of frolicking in the mountains of the Basque country when in actual fact the frollicking is being done at the Vortex Jazz Club in East London.

Looking For a Quiet Place. A composition by McLoughlin, who has found just such a place to contemplate, mavbe discover the secret of life, or stumble upon a previously unknown minor chord progression. The solos and the melody lines are beautiful.

Sunday night @ the Globe: Gerry Richardson Quartet - Feb. 16

© Malcolm Sinclair

Gerry Richardson (organ, vocals); Garry Linsley (alto sax); Rod Sinclair (guitar); Paul Smith (drums)

McGriff, McDuff, Jimmy Smith, Shirley Scott and Mike Carr among others may no longer be with us but, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, Gerry Richardson is still around and delivering the soulful, funky grooves and forearm smashes beloved by his forerunners. The B3, or in this case the Crumar Mojo, is in safe hands. Last night's sold out Globe certainly wouldn't argue.

Aided and abetted by his three henchmen, who were namechecked after every solo, the Railway St. venue was transformed into a bar in downtown Philly or Detroit.  Some called it rock and roll although jazz audiences, if they like a rock number, seek absolution from Lady Day and John Coltrane by calling it rhythm and blues.

Jambone @ Glasshouse, Gateshead - Feb. 16

Jambone: Jason Holcomb (director) + 18 piece ensemble

It's MOBO time here on Tyneside. The 2025 Music of Black Origin awards are a big deal in the music world. This year, Newcastle Arena, Gateshead's Glasshouse and sundry other satellite venues either side of the Tyne are on board. The Glasshouse, Gateshead, Sunday lunchtime, noon. The concourse a hive of activity, an event was about to begin. Its full title...MOBO Song: Jambone, Jazz Attack, Quay Voices, Step Up Singing, Newcastle Youth Choir Project (NYCP). 

Album review: Caili O'Doherty - Bluer Than Blue, Celebrating Lil Hardin Armstrong (Outside in Music)

Caili O'Doherty (piano, arranger); Tamir Shmerling (bass); Cory Cox (drums); Nicole Glover (tenor sax); Tahira Clayton, Michael Mayo (vocals). 

Bluer Than Blue, Celebrating Lil Hardin Armstrong is a long overdue appreciation of Louis Armstrong's second wife. It could be argued that pianist and composer Lil Hardin Armstrong's contribution to Oliver's Creole Jazz Band and Armstrong's Hot Five were much greater than the historians would have us believe.

Pianist O'Doherty came to a similar conclusion whilst studying at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. The journey of discovery that followed ultimately led to this excellent album, updating Lil Armstrong's compositions and installing them with new vigor without losing the spirit of the originals.

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

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

Playlist 16/02/25 (repeated Tuesday 18/02/25)

Valentines: Nat King Cole, Bobby Timmons, Keith Nichols, Teddy Wilson.

Requests: Joshua Redman, Oscar Peterson, Carmen McRae.

New Releases: Jim Doherty/Louis Stewart, Rachael Calladine, Paul Taylor.

What’s happening in the NE: Emma Rawicz.

Requests/Valentine: Lee Morgan, Jeff Barnhart/John Hallam, Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, Chet Baker. 

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

Champion @ Live Theatre, Newcastle - Feb. 15

Although our principal interests are music and jazz, myself and the rest of the BSH team do have other passions. These include, art, golf, football, boxing and theatre so that when Live Theatre announced they were putting on Champion, a play written by Ishy Dan and based around the effect Muhammad Ali's 1977 visit to Tyneside had upon a somewhat dysfunctional mother and her equally maladjusted two sons, we were there 'at the ringside' so to speak.

With the stage set out as a boxing ring, the action takes place in the family's South Shields living room, the only prop being a vacuum cleaner and a transistor radio.