Mark Williams Trio @ Blaydon Jazz Club - May 18

© Roly Veitch

Mark Williams (guitar); Paul Susans (bass); Rob Walker (drums)

More than a quarter of a century ago guitarist Mark Williams arrived on Tyneside from Belfast to study for a music degree. Our man stayed on and has long since been a mainstay of the regional jazz scene. 

On a mild May evening, Blaydon Jazz Club's faithful duly turned up to welcome Williams' established trio - bassist Paul Susans and drummer Rob Walker. The Black Bull crowd would be treated to an evening of original compositions. A man of few words, copies of his albums - Last Bus to Bensham and Long Way Out - were in his car parked outside the venue, clearly the 'hard sell' isn't Williams' style!

Album review: Terry Waldo & the Gotham City Band - Treasury Volume 3 (Turtle Bay Records)

Terry Waldo (piano,vocals); Mike Davis (trumpet, vocals); Colin Hancock (trumpet); Jim Fryer (trombone, vocals); Evan Arntzen, Ricky Alexander (clarinet); Jerron Paxton (guitar, banjo, vocals) Nick Russo, Arnt Arntzen (banjo); Brian Nalepka (bass); Jay Lepley (drums, vocals).

Treasury Volume 3 is pianist, historian Waldo's third* and final exploration of early jazz and ragtime and, like the previous two, features the best of Gotham City's hot musicians working in and around NYC.

It's a stomping, strutting, shimmying Dixieland clambake that's a potent mix of Chicago, New Orleans, Frisco and Whitley Bay. Yes, Whitley Bay deserves a mention as Fryer, Davis and Hancock are not unknown at the Classic Jazz Party (see right hand column) and it was only last week that Paxton was just up the road at Gosforth Civic Theatre.

Jazz on the Tyne Welcomes Alexia Gardner & the Hexham Jazz Weekender 2026

In the latest edition of the podcast, presenter Colin Muirhead talks with acclaimed vocalist Alexia Gardner, ahead of her quintet’s appearance at the inaugural Hexham Jazz Weekender.  Along with music by Alexia, you’ll hear tracks by the Chris Coull Quartet with Imogen Ryall, Abbie Finn, Paul Edis, SwanNek, Threeway feat. Ben Crosland, Modern Vikings, and Joe Steels, all of whom will be playing in Hexham. Colin also previews Courtney Pine’s gig at the Glasshouse in Gateshead.

You can listen to the show anytime HERE.

Plus, you can request music for future programmes, pass on news or leave feedback by emailing Colin at jazz.tyne.hive@gmail.com or by heading to www.jazzonthetyne.org.

Julian Lage @ Royal Festival Hall – May 15

Julian Lage (guitar); John Medeski (Hammond organ, piano); Jorge Roeder (bass); Kenny Wollesen (drums) 

There’s something about the walk along the South Bank towards the Royal Festival Hall that makes it feel as though the evening has already begun long before you reach your seat. London, in all of its colour and sound, slowly unfolding around you like an overture. The Thames catching the last of the early evening sun, the London Eye rotating gently against a softening sky while, across the river, the newly restored Elizabeth Tower glistens gold in the fading light. Overhead, triple sevens make their slow descent towards Heathrow Airport, banking low across the skyline, while below by Festival Pier the rhythm of a reggae band drifts upwards from an impromptu riverside performance that has stopped passers-by in their tracks.

And somewhere in all of that movement — the river traffic, the distant conversations, the hum of trains arriving and departing across the city — Stephen Sondheim’s words quietly come to mind: “Another hundred people just got off of the train…” London carrying on exactly as London always does. Alive. Restless. Beautifully chaotic.

Yet inside, another kind of listening waits.

Vince Dunn Quartet @ the Moor Club, Stockport - May 17

© Jeff Pritchard

Vince Dunn (drums); Mike Hughes (vibes); Richard Wetherall (keyboards); Dave Lynane (bass)

Although Vince Dunn was listed as the leader  of this group he delegated the announcements of tunes to his band-mate Mike Hughes - a vibes player from The Wirral who was also a person I had not heard before. The rest of the musicians were very well known to me and I suspect to the rest of the audience. The tunes played this evening were an interesting selection . 14 in total. Some familiar jazz standards and some great ballads you do not hear too much these days in jazz venues. There were some feedback issues during the opening number the Mike Gibbs composition Gentle Rain  but they soon got it fixed and by the time the second tune got under way things were ok soundwise. 

Sunday night @ the Globe: QOW Trio - May 17

© Dave Sayer

Riley Stone-Lonergan (tenor saxophone); Spike Wells (drums); Eddie Myer (bass)

Pronounced ‘cow’ from a tune by Dewey Redman, in case you were wondering. An evening of celebration in tha Toon as Newcastle score 3 for the first time, it seems, since Adam was a lad and from the same ‘Adam was a lad’ time scale we have, on stage, legendary drummer Spike (Michael to his mother) Wells and from a more recent era, Riley Stone-Lonergan, here along with Eddie Myer on bass and pleas to buy the new album they are touring The Rule of Three. The title track of which opens proceedings.

It rolls along nicely, mid-paced with an edge and lovely fluid runs from Stone-Lonergan, the others steady and solid behind him. The spare trio format throws all the attention on the sax, with Myer providing a prodding bass whilst Wells is on manoeuvres before an exchange of solos with Myer sharp and pointed, Wells bombing and snapping with delicate cymbal punctuations.

Cheltenham Jazz Festival: Camilla George @ Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham, May 3

Camilla George (alto sax); Daniel Casimir (bass); Renato Paris (keyboards, vocals); Rod Youngs (drums)

Camilla George is one of the leading lights of the current generation of movers and shakers that emerged from the Tomorrows Warriors/Jazz Jamaica nexus led and guided by Gary Crosby and Janine Irons. (Well-deserved OBE recipients both). Of her band this afternoon, only Paris is unknown to me. Casimir brought his own large ensemble to Cheltenham last year. George is another of the current generation who look directly to their own personal African roots as a source of inspiration and energy for their work, more than they look to jazz’ roots in America.

Album review: De-Phazz - belooped (MPS)

There’s a point somewhere deep into the evening — the last cocktail glasses catching the low light, conversations beginning to dissolve into the room’s soundtrack — where De-Phazz have always made perfect sense. Not in the traditional jazz-club way where audiences sit motionless in reverential silence, but in those beautifully blurred spaces where rhythm, atmosphere and memory seem to move together.

That has always been the magic of De-Phazz.

 And with belooped, that world collides with another equally distinctive one.

Taking the legendary MPS catalogue — recordings tied to the immaculate sound of Hans-Georg Brunner-Schwer and performances by artists like Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald and George Duke — and threading them through De-Phazz’s unmistakable electro-organic aesthetic could easily have become heavy-handed. Instead, it feels strangely natural, as though these recordings had been waiting patiently for someone to open a different door into them.

The Kaberry Big Band @ The Seahorse, Whitley Bay - May 16

The Seahorse is home to Whitley Bay FC's supporters' club. The clubhouse/pub is open to all and this evening the Kaberry Big Band would entertain an enthusiastic full house. Formerly the Vermont Big Band, the change of name honours the late Chris Kaberry, the band's much-missed MD.

Two sets, an interval with a free hot buffet (curry!), convivial company, what's not to like? Drummer Michael Mather, not unknown to BSH readers, is the ensemble's new MD and would direct affairs from behind his kit. Billed as 'Plays the Rat Pack & Sinatra', this evening's concert would, indeed, deliver what it promised on the tin/poster. 

The day the APPJG lights went out...

APPJG (All Party Parliamentary Jazz Group) voting forms were to be submitted by the midnight deadline on Friday (May 15). It's mid-afternoon Friday, right, let's make a start. Lots of time. And then...

At approximately 3:20pm the lights went out, metaphorically if not literally (it was broad daylight). Yes, a power cut or, as our American cousins might say, an 'outage'. Northern Powergrid estimated the electricity supply would be restored by 6:30pm. Damn! At half past six it would be time to set off to a gig. Oh, well...

The gig, the interval. A Northern Powergrid update suggested the power supply would be restored between 2:00 and 3:00am (Saturday). Oh, well, there is always the 2027 voting form...