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For the past seventeen years we've been updating the world about jazz in the north east of England and updating the north east of England about jazz in the world. WINNER of the Jazz Media Category in the 2018 All Party Parliamentary Jazz Awards. Contact lanceliddle@gmail.com
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Bebop Spoken There
Sullivan Fortner: ''I always judge it by the bass player: If the bass player is happy, it's going to be a good night". (DownBeat, February 2025).
The Things They Say!
This is a good opportunity to say thanks to BSH for their support of the jazz scene in the North East (and beyond) - it's no exaggeration to say that if it wasn't for them many, many fine musicians, bands and projects across a huge cross section of jazz wouldn't be getting reviewed at all, because we're in the "desolate"(!) North. (M & SSBB on F/book 23/12/24)
Postage
17822(and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 143 of them this year alone and, so far, 68 this month (Feb.25).
From This Moment On ...
February 2025
Fri 28: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. THIS WEEK ONLY JAMES BIRKETT (guitar)!
Fri 28: Luis Verde Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 28: Spilt Milk @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Fri 28: Castillo Nuevo Orquesta @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £8.00.
Fri 28: Knats @ Lubber Fiend, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £11.50. (inc bf.). Album launch gig. Support act TBC.
Fri 28: Black is the Color of My Voice @ The Gala, Durham. 7:30pm. Apphia Campbell’s one-woman show inspired by the life of Nina Simone, performed by Florence Odumosu.
Fri 28: Great North Big Band Jazz Festival: Musicians Unlimited @ Park View Community Centre, Chester-le-Street. 8:00pm. £10.00. (Weekend ticket £20.00., available on the door). Day 1/3. Musicians Unlimited in concert.
Fri 28: Redwell @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
MARCH 2025
Sat 01: Great North Big Band Jazz Festival @ Park View Community Centre, Chester-le-Street. 11:00am. £15.00. Day 2/3.
Sat 01: TJ Johnson Band @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £25.00. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. Get your funk on! Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Shunyata Improvisation Group @ The Watch House, Cullercoats. 2:00-3:30pm. Free.
Sat 01: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Billy Bootleggers. Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free.
Sat 01: Lapwing Jazz Trio @ Three Sheets to the Wind, Alnwick. 5:15pm or 5:45pm (times tbc). Part of the Alnwick Story Festival's music fringe programme: Free.
Sat 01: Struggle Buggy @ The Peacock, Sunderland. 6:00pm. Blues band.
Sat 01: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 01: Joseph O’Brien: The Ultimate Tribute to Frank Sinatra @ Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm. O’Brien & seven piece band (inc. Wendy Kirkland, Jim Corry & Pat Sprakes).
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 01: Jack & Jay’s Vintage Songbook @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 02: Great North Big Band Jazz Festival @ Park View Community Centre, Chester-le-Street. 11:00am. £10.00. Day 3/3.
Sun 02: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £7.50.
Sun 02: Nauta @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00.
Sun 02: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free (donations).
Sun 02: Side Café Orkestar @ Café Under the Spire, Derwentwater Road, Gateshead. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 02: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 02: Milne Glendinning Band @ The White Room, Stanley. 6:30pm.
Sun 02: Bella by Barlight @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 02: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Spittal Bowling Club, Berwick. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 02: Ali Watson Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Mon 03: Milne Glendinning Band @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 03: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Tue 04: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Delaval. Tel: 0191 237 3697. 12:30pm. £8.00. ‘Jazz ‘n’ Pancakes’.
Tue 04: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.
Tue 04: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 06: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: The Jazz Music of Quincy Jones.
Thu 06: BBC Big Band @ The Hippodrome, Darlington. 7:30pm. £32.00., £25.00., £16.00. ‘The Sound of Cinema’ featuring Emer McPartland (vocals).
Thu 06: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 06: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. Guests: Dan Johnson (sax); Josh Bentham (sax); Gary Hadfield (keys); Adrian Beadnell (bass). A Tees Hot Club promotion. First Thursday in the month.
Fri 07: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 07: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 07: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ Old Lowlight, Clifford’s Fort, North Shields NE30 1JE. 7:00pm. £15.00. + bf. www.oldlowlight.co.uk. Rescheduled from Friday 7th February.
Fri 07: Jake Leg Jug Band @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Reviewers wanted
Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog.
Look forward to hearing from you. Lance
31 comments :
These are some jazz photos I've taken over the years - mainly in the 1980s although I'm now adding more recent ones taken this year. My preference is for black and white as it seems to capture the essence of jazz more so than colour does. Having said that, you can't beat colour in an outdoor setting.
Any one who wants to have their say on the photos or on jazz in general please do so.
25 November 2007 21:45
Monday nights these days are spent at the Side Café down on Newcastle Quayside. The room is small but the atmosphere big and the music modern and generally superb.
25 March 2008 08:27
Couldn't get Becky's version of 'You're a Lucky Guy' out of my mind. I've been singing it all day. Listened to 'Pops' version also Ruby Braff/George Barnes. Ruby does a later version on Youtube. I'd like to here the versions by Billie and Maxine (Sullivan).
Relaxation with Bill Evans' trio at Village Vanguard. Okay but he's not my type of piano player - too introvert!
27 March 2008 22:04
A couple of guys have recently told me about a Roland Kirk tape that once was circulating locally. Recorded surreptitiously at a Newcastle Jazz Festival concert back in the 1970s, because of its elusiveness, it has now taken on a significance similar to that of the legendary Buddy Bolden cylinder. Does anyone know of its continued existance?
30 March 2008 20:35
It would be unfair of me to comment on tonight's session at the Side. The audience seemed to approve so who am I to say they are wrong?
31 March 2008 22:14
Listening to Coltrane's 'Giant Steps' and other tracks from 'The Atlantic Years' makes me realise just how awesome a musician he was. I remember seeing him at the City Hall in the 1960s and being totally confused. Maybe in 40 years time last night's music might seem as normal as Trane's does now!
Maybe.
Nice one Lance. I don't get to see many live shows now but how about a get-to-gether on some Monday Night. Although my leaning is with the traditional jazz sounds, what the Hell, I'll give it a go.
George
Hi George,
How's Mrs Anonymous these days? Love to meet up one Monday. April 21 would be up your alley; Zoë Gilby; a fine interpreter of the Great American Songbook (see link to Zoë's Place for a taster.)
02 April 2008 12:19
Tonight I 'Took it to the Bridge' or rather the Chillingham Arms where my old buddies Dave Weisser and Ian Trewella hold court. Excellent session with a few sitters in to add to the mix.
Loved the photos. Lots of memories from Corner House.
Wandered into my local charity shop to check out CDs; you never know...
Today was a big one. Dakota Staton, Morgana King, Anita O'Day, vintage Joe Venuti 99p each. There was also a Carol Kidd and an Erroll Garner but I already had those.
Dakota singing 'You've Changed' does it for me.
I shouldn't be allowed inside record stores! Today I noticed HMV were having a sale so, as it was snowing, I sought shelter inside. Horace Silver; 'Songs for My Father'. The legendary Blue Note was going for £4.
Well worth it. A classic album.
BBC Big Band playing Bob Florence's arrangement of 'Chicago' caught my ear today. Same arrangement they played at Sunderland last month.
Knockout!
A barnstormer of a night at the Side Café. Splinter, a 'splinter group' from the Voice of the North Jazz Orch blew an impressive couple of sets and the room was deservedly SRO.
For the record: Graham Hardy, Noel Dennis (tpt), Chris Hibbard (tmb), Graham Wilson (ten), Paul Edis (pno), Jamie McRedie (gtr), Andy Champion (bs), Adrian Tilbrook (dms) John Warren (leader & arranger).
Anita O'Day singing "I'm With You". This is a rather wonderful tune written, I believe, by Bobby Troup. Why hasn't it been picked up by anyone other than the composer and Miss O'Day whose 1956 recording is superb.
Anita O'Day, Art Pepper and Charlie Parker, to mention but three of many, produced some wonderful music. Was this because of, or despite their, addictions?
Cannonball Adderley's 'Something Else' is, pardon the pun, something else. Miles on trumpet, Hank Jones piano, Sam Jones bass and Art Blakey drums are the others on the date which just happens to be 9 March 1958 which just happens to be my birthday (not 1958).
Just been on the Hebburn website www.hebburn.org where there is a thread going as to who the 'World's Greatest Guitarist is or was.' In an amazingly long thread the only jazzers mentioned were Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt and probably the most mentioned guitarist was good old Bert Weedon!
This may sound ludicrous to us guys brought up on Wes Montgomery and George Benson but in fairness to the much maligned Bert there weren't many gigs he couldn't handle.
Listening to Buddy Greco singing 'They Didn't Believe Me' it occurred to me that the Jerome Kern song, written in 1914, is possibly the oldest standard in the Great American Songbook. I'm open to contradiction on this one.
Every so often a song title comes along that catches my fancy. Such a one is "Lady, You're Husband Is Cheating On Us." It's on the Dakota Staton CD mentioned a few days ago and composer credits go to one D.Lasalle
Bebop wasn't spoken here. I'm talking about the two piano gig at the Saville Exchange, North Shields. Not that that diminished the performance of Keith Nichols and Martin Litton. They gave a masterclass in stride, ragtime and boogie woogie piano that led to a standing ovation. Bass and drums would have been superfluous with these two-fisted players.
A little gem.
Back in the 1960s, Georgie Fame was always jazzier than his contemporaries. I don't think the Beatles ever played a jazz riff in their life whereas just about everything Georgie Fame did was drenched in jazz and blues.
I'm pleased to say he hasn't changed and is, if anything, jazzier than ever. At Durham's Gala Theatre, accompanied by sons James (dms) and Tristram (gtr) he had a full house shouting for more. Songs were linked with amusing anectdotes and his piano playing carried on in the tradition of last night's Nichols/Litton gig at North Shields. The voice may not be as smooth as it once was but when he boots that Hammond B3 the joint rocks.
All in all a good night.
I first heard Tina May on a CD entitled 'I'll Take Romance'. With Nikki Iles on piano and some fine tenor from Scott Hamilton (They steered clear of 'UMMG') it is a CD I have played over and over again. Waxing eloquent over the lady to my good friend Jim Mcdowell I was a little surprized at his failure to nod his head in acquiescence; I wondered if he was suffering from a stiff neck. Today however, all was revealed and his reticence understood after listening to another CD by our Tina. 'A Change of Sky' has the same Ms Iles on piano but unfortunately no Scott Hamilton; nor anyone else for that matter. Lieder may be an admirable form of song when performed by a Bavarian contralto and accompanied by a second generation product of the Hitler Youth Movement (cultural division);it was pretty damn good when Ella Fitzgerald and Ellis Larkins liederised Gershwin back in the 1950s. Tina isn't Ella , Nikki isn't Ellis and none of the songs are by Gershwin so, despite the presence of a few standards that have been done better elsewhere, this is definitely a try before you buy CD.
The Story of Tina came up when we discovered she is to appear at the Custom's House doing a tribute to Piaf. The mind boggles; unless there is a third string to her vocal chords, whichever mode Tina is in Mme Piaf May turn in her tombe.
Another attempt to blog!! whilst I cannot reallly claim to know the Instrumentalists that lance so clearaly does..I do love all the standards which he mentions. I am a great one for words, and being brought up with Jazz, from my father, I had an early appreciation of the great American songbook. I can get a song in my head, and like Lance it just stays there until another jumps in. Talking of "I'll take romance" I adore the Eydie Gorme version..great vocalist!
Spelt "clearly" wrong, sorry, and this is from
Liz!!
Welcome Liz, don't worry about spelling (check out my attempt at anecdote in an earlier post) what counts is enthusiasm for music and by music I certainly include words. Many tunes would be nothing without the words and many lyrics would be inane but for a strong melody. My own favourite version of 'I'll Take Romance' is by June Christy on the legendary 'Something Cool' album
Really missing "thejazz" on my Roberts DAB, on my kitchen window sill. I used to have it tuned all day long, and boy did it make those chores seem easier! I know it can be heard on line, but not for me, as I want to hear it whilst I am moving around downstairs, and the PC is up!!A huge loss. Just bought my son 2 CD's of the Rosenberg trio for his birthday present, I know he is gonna' be thrilled with them. Got them from Amazon
Liz
Yeah Liz those Rosenbergs have got the Django thing off to a tee. Brilliant.
Good guitar at the Side tonight. Nick Pride and the Pimptones (honest!). A very funky, dancy groove; not that there is much room for dancing at the Side. Still, an excellent and imaginative band; David Wilde (sax/flute), Alex Leathard (tmb), Nick Pride (gtr), Ian Paterson (bs/gtr), Oz Cassidy (dms).
Having been impressed by Nick Pride at the Side (poetic) I journeyed via my bus pass to Durham where Nick and Graham Hardy were the wallpaper at the Gala Theatre bar/restaurant. Very pleasant but far removed from the funk of the Pimptones and the fiery trumpet that is Graham's norm. Still it probably suited the blue rinsed diners and I did enjoy the bus ride.
More to my taste was the Blue Note cd of Lee Morgan's - 'The Sidewinder'. Despite being recorded over 40 years this was the first time I'd heard the disc in its entirety and it was worth the wait. Joe Henderson was an awesome tenor player.
I don't know these musicians of course Lance, but since you mentioned blue rinsed diners,presumably lunch time, perhaps the mood was tempered by the time of day. Still Durham is a lovely city, and the free ride appealing! I believe that Sondheim is featured on Elaine Paige's essential musicals today. It is Maria Friedman's choice I think. So for once I shall be tuned in with high expectations
Liz
Correction, it is next week for Maria Friedman. This week it is Liza Minnelli's essential musical.
Liz
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