Joe Sullivan meets Lennon and McCartney

Listening to a very pleasant Joe Sullivan CD. It's part of the Chronological Classics series and is, in the main, Joe Sullivan piano solos recorded in 1944 and 1945. However, there are four quintet tracks by Sullivan with Archie Rosatie (clarinet); Ulysses Livingston (guitar); Artie Shapiro (bass) and Zutty Singleton (drums).

One of the tracks is Night and Day and Rosatie plays a clarinet intro the opening phrase of which sounds not unlike the Beatles With a Little Help From my Friends, Probably it's coincidence as I doubt if, 20 years on, John and Paul were listening to Joe Sullivan  but, one never knows does one? Lance

Album review: Rich Derosa - Wisdom: The Music of Rich Derosa at North Texas (Juno records)

Rich Derosa (composer, arranger, MD); UNT Lab Band. Soloists include: Gregory Newman (trumpet); Nathan Davis (trombone); Will Nathman (tenor sax); Georgia Barger (vocal); Joel White (guitar); Abbi Berry (vocal)

American drummer and composer, Rich Derosa has been resident at the University of North Texas since 2010 as a tenured professor of Jazz Composition and Arranging. His 2026 CD, Wisdom, compiles a decade of his music, which is negotiated magnificently by various  “lab bands” at UNT. An innovative institution that provided tuition in jazz studies and awarding it degree status. Led by educator, Leon Breeden, in the early 1950s this  was considered quite a bold and controversial move at the time when jazz in the higher education circles did not have the credibility of being recognised  academically.

Harry's first backyard ultra

Harry is doing his first backyard ultra to raise money for the amazing charity Help Musicians. They've helped us out loads in the past, and so many other musicians we know. Here's the link - https://www.justgiving.com/page/harry-keeble-4 Abbie

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

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

Playlist 16/08/26 (repeated Tuesday 18/08/26)

Seasonal: Joe Pass, Mahalia Jackson, Nina Simone.

RIP: Abdullah Ibrahim.

Memories: George Shearing, Stuff Smith, George Melly, Tommy Smith, Bill Evans.

Requests: Billy Hart Quartet. 

What’s on in the NE: Andrzej Baranek.

Seasonal: MJQ + Branford Marsalis.

PEACE: Tim Boniface - Peace on Their Lips, Malice in Their Hearts. 

Aycliffe Radio is available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington area or via your smart speaker.  

Bold Big Band @ Pilgrim, Newcastle - Aug. 14

© Sylvia

Jacob Lightfoot, Max Storey, Georgia Corrin, Molly Clibbett, Brian Wicks (MD) (saxes); Billy Bradshaw, Josh Skyrme, David O'Farrell, Asim Iqbal (trumpets); Alex Utting, Bertie Marks, Thomas McDonald, Ciáran Skipper (trombones); Marcus Dawe (keys); Anya Daley (guitar); Ifede Osiyemi (bass); Josh Weir (drums); Cara Britton (vocals); Chiara Todisco, Lulu Perren, Joel Lai (backing vocals) + Ross Cantrell, Olly Styles (guests); Ed Moore (support)

The main event hit the stage fashionably (unfashionably for Pilgrim) late. The queue was already forming when we arrived in, or so we thought, good time. Truth is the queue was ever-increasing so, rather than disappoint anyone, the happenings didn't happen until everyone was watered and primed for what was to follow which was a short set by singer/guitarist Ed Moore whose pleasing, Nashville orientated, voice possibly wasn't heard to its best advantage. 

© Sylvia/Lance (collage)

The BBB kicked off their first set with Buddy Rich's iconic West Side Story Medley. It's a demanding arrangement and would probably been better to have placed it later in the set when the horns were warmed up and the lips were in. Corrin, Utting and, of course Josh Weir took the solos. Brahm's Hungarian Dance no. 5 was an unusual choice but the BBB made it swing as if Brahms had combined with Liszt.

Gerry Gibbs and His Dream Band @ Birdland, New York - July 22

Gerry Gibbs (drums); Randy Brecker (trumpet); Gary Bartz (alto sax); Cyrus Chestnut (piano); Buster Williams (bass)

There are jazz clubs you visit to hear music, and there are jazz clubs you visit because somehow you feel you ought to have been there at least once in your life.

Birdland is most definitely the latter.

It had already been following me around New York. Weather Report’s Birdland was on the playlist I had put together before the trip, and the club’s name had appeared countless times on albums and in the stories of musicians I had listened to for years.

Then suddenly there I was, Brooklyn beer in hand, surrounded by photographs of the people who had helped create the music in the first place.

There was an immediate familiarity about it. For anyone who spends as much time at Ronnie Scott’s as I do, Birdland feels like a New York relative. Different city, different history, but very much the same spirit. Tables gathered around a small stage, subdued lighting, conversations dropping away as the musicians prepare to play and those wonderful photographs on the walls reminding you that plenty of remarkable people have occupied these rooms before you.

And Birdland certainly has history.

Nigel Price Kickstarter

There are 17 days until this Kickstarter finishes, and there is still a fair way to go. Surely there must be a couple of hundred people in the UK who want to be a part of this???

This is basically just a ‘pre-order’ and it will ultimately be cheaper for you to get hold of the album this way.

Lorne Lofsky/Nigel Price Quartet ‘Live at The Globe’.

£10 - Download.

£12 - CD + Download (inc UK P&P)

£15 - Signed CD & Download

£25 - Pair of tickets to a UK show & CD & Download.

https://www.kickstarter.com/.../live-at-the-globe-lorne...

**N.B. This is ‘all or nothing’. If it doesn’t hit the target by August 26 at midnight then no pledges are taken, and I just revert to raising the funds myself**

Press release: Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music 2026 Sept. 24-27/ Sept. 30-Oct. 4

We’re absolutely delighted to announce funding has been secured for Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music 2026 and gratefully acknowledge Arts Council England along with our partners and investors for their support. Tickets are now on sale.

More than 67 musicians will feature over 26 performances in nine days across seven of the region’s top music venues including Gosforth Civic Theatre, The Cluny, The Cumberland Arms, The Globe, The Lubberfiend, The Lit and Phil and Glasshouse International Centre for Music.

We’ve commissioned Manon McCoy and Emmy Lambert to create our festival interludes, Jon Bradley will make two performances at the historic Edith Adamson Carillon, and two great workshops lined up with Rachel Musson and Free The Aanimals. It’s an absolutely fantastic programme with so many twists and turns, can’t wait to see you there!

Preview: Tonight @ Pilgrim - Bold Big Band w. guests

Tonight, tonight won't be just any night - at least not at Pilgrim which will be the place to be. The Bold Big Band that, back in the day, in the mid-west (USA), might have been described as a territory band, provide an evening of swinging jazz and its various tributaries that should please all.

As well as the band and delectable vocalist Cara Britton, there's guest appearances by ace tenor saxist Olly Styles and multi instrumentalist Ross Cantrell and, if your cup still ain't yet full and running over, there's a support set from Ed Moore!

Showtime 8:00pm (doors 7:30 pm.) Lance

Album Review: Oliver-Smith Incomparables – Stomp Your Stuff (Turtle Bay Records) - Take two.

Andrew Oliver: piano; Hal Smith: drums (1-9, 11-13); Colin Hancock: cornet (1-4, 7-9, 11-13), alto sax (7); Andy Schumm: clarinet (1-5, 7-9, 11-13), cornet (3); T.J. Müller: trombone (1-4, 7-9), 11-13); cornet (6), vocals (6); Jacob Alspach: guitar (1,2,4,8), banjo (3,7,9, 11-13); Dan Anderson: string bass (2-4, 7-9, 11-12), tuba (1, 13)

Over the last few years, there’s been a significant revival of jazz music of the late 20s and early 30s. Marvelous performers such as Bria Skonberg, Terry Waldo, Ricky Alexander, Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks et al, have successfully mined the vast amount of music published during that era. With Stomp Your Feet, the Oliver-Smith Incomparables dive deep into the treasury of music from Chicago’s famed Melrose Publishing - at that time a key player in the genre. And, by brilliantly incorporating these here arrangements and orchestrations in the style of Jelly Roll Morton, the Incomparables provide listeners with a baker’s dozen outstanding selections.