Press release: NCRO - Annual concert at New Venue

A quick reminder of our annual concert at Gosforth Trinity Church & Centre, High Street, Gosforth NE3 1JZ on Saturday 20 June at 7.30pm.

Once again our special guest on piano is Martin Litton, an internationally renowned musician, arranger and bandleader, specialising in all the classic styles of jazz from ragtime to swing.  Also joining us will be our good friend Nick Ward on vintage percussion, Steve Andrews will present the show, and not forgetting our very own Caroline on vocals!

 

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool - BBC Four tonite!

This evening (Friday 29), the Beeb's week of all things Miles Davis (tv and radio) culminates in 'another chance to see' Stanley Nelson's biopic of Miles Davis, Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool. First broadcast on BBC Two in March 2020, rare archival footage of Miles makes it compelling viewing. 

Album review: Sam Braysher - A Sinner Kissed an Angel (Fresh Sound Records - New Talent)

Sam Braysher (alto sax); Linus Springer (guitar); Darryl Hall (bass); Eric Ineke (drums)

A truly international quartet led by an English saxophonist, an Amsterdam based German guitarist, an American bassist living in France and a Dutch drummer playing a selection of lesser known tunes and making them, if not their own, at least joint share-holders.

Leader Braysher has been well represented within these pages both on record and live. On this, his latest album, the sound of the alto sax has the warmth of Johnny Hodges, the creativity of Charlie Parker and the bite of Phil Woods - a potpourri of urbane sophistication well-suited to the opening track. 

Album Review: Jan Harbeck Quartet – Conversation (Stunt Records)

Jan Harbeck (tenor sax); Henrik Gunde (piano) Eske Nørrelykke (bass); Anders Holm (drums)

This is a lovely album of solid blowing, pretty firmly in the mainstream and all the stronger for it. Harbeck’s influences include many of the old masters (Webster, Getz, Gordon) and he’s backed by a solid rhythm section and it all makes for a hugely enjoyable forty or so minutes. Gunde’s piano can be fluid and melancholy or Monk-ishly angular and he adds all sorts of rills and thrills to his wide spectrum playing.

As a group they can romp effectively through the lively numbers and can slam on the brakes for something bluesier. Opener, Passing Clouds, is a dark lit/late night club of a tune and the third piece, Odd One Out is in a similar vein. Harbeck’s slides and elisions draw you into the emotions in these songs, and, by the end of the latter piece you can see, in your mind’s eye the desperation of our imaginary protagonist. It’s crying out for a good lyricist and a blues voice. Nørrelykke is solid at the back whilst Holm adds minimalist brush strokes.

Sting likes Knats

In an interview on ITV news in the Tyne Tees area, local boy made good, Sting,  talked about the forthcoming London presentation of his shipyard based musical The Last Ship.

Without actually mentioning their name, he also managed to slip in a plug for Knats, a north east, London based, band who are being heard in all the right places - just as Last Exit were some 50 years ago.

Nice one Gordon (Sumner) - Lance

Album review: Heidi Martin – Attunement (self)

Heidi Martin (vocals); Marc Carey (piano); Michael Bowie (bass); Eric Kennedy (drums) + Elijah Easton (tenor sax tks 2, 3); Ethan Bailey Gould (guitar tks 3, 4, 8)

There is something deeply courageous about an album like Attunement. In an age where so much music feels designed for instant consumption, Heidi Martin has instead chosen patience, reflection and total immersion. What began as two years of academic research into the estate of Abbey Lincoln at Rutgers University slowly evolved into something far more personal than a traditional tribute record. This album is not interested in recreating the past. It is an album that attempts to sit beside it, listen to it and absorb its spirit.

Martin’s time studying Lincoln’s journals in chronological order clearly left a profound mark on her writing. You can feel it throughout these songs. Not through imitation, but through atmosphere, philosophy and emotional honesty. There are moments on Attunement where it feels as though Martin is less concerned with performance and more concerned with emotional alignment, trying to understand what it means to create from a place of complete truthfulness in the same way Lincoln always did.

Sonny et moi

This is the closest I ever got to meeting the late Sonny Rollins - Paris circa 1980/81. Lance
 

Stockport Jazz

This Sunday Stockport Jazz welcomes the Munch Manship Quartet to the Moor Club, featuring Munch on tenor saxophone with Richard Wetherall (piano), Dave Lynane (bass) and Dave Hassell (drums). 

Sunday 31st May 2026

8-10pm, doors open at 7.30pm

£5 entry on the door, all welcome

The Moor Club, 35 Heaton Moor Road, Stockport SK4 4PB  (next to the Elizabethan PH)

Jazz at the Lit & Phil: Noel Dennis salutes Miles Davis - May 26

© Ken Drew

Noel Dennis (trumpet); Harry Keeble (tenor sax); Dean Stockdale (piano); Mark Williams (guitar); Andy Champion (double bass); John Bradford (drums) 

My first attempt to sally forth since my recent mishap was well worth the effort. How could it not be when a team of north east big hitters got together to perform the  music of Miles Davis?

The 2 x 45 minute sets touched upon several different periods of the trumpet legend's career ranging from the 1949 groundbreaking Birth of the Cool album through to the jazz/fusion of  Bitches Brew with, naturally, a couple of numbers from, Davis' legendary best selling jazz album Kind of Blue. And it was with So What from that latter album that the concert began. Champion's extended bass introduction setting the mood for the solos that followed.

Album review: Callum Au - Sing Seven Seas (ECN Music)

There is something deeply reassuring about hearing a record like Sing Seven Seas at a time when so much modern music feels disposable almost before it has landed. Callum Au’s ambitious new large ensemble project arrives not simply as another big band album, but as a statement of intent from one of the most in-demand arrangers and orchestrators working in Britain today. Known for shaping music behind the scenes for artists as diverse as Michael Bublé, RAYE and Josh Groban, Au finally steps fully into the spotlight here with a body of work that feels intensely personal, wildly ambitious and overflowing with musical imagination.

What immediately strikes you about Sing Seven Seas is the sheer scale of it. Written for an expanded ensemble of more than eighty musicians across two volumes, this is music that constantly shifts shape. One moment it swings with the swagger and elegance of classic big band writing, the next it opens into sweeping orchestral colours, contemporary jazz textures or cinematic passages that feel almost transportative. Yet despite the scale, there is warmth running through everything. Nothing here feels academic or distant. Even at its most complex, the music breathes.