Bebop Spoken There

Donovan Haffner ('Best Newcomer' 2025 Parliamentary Jazz Awards): ''I got into jazz the first time I picked up a saxophone!" - Jazzwise Dec 25/Jan 26

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

18122 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 1086 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Dec. 31), 100

From This Moment On ...

JANUARY 2026

Wed 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 07: FILM: Blue Moon @ The Forum Cinema, Hexham. 2:00pm. Dir. Richard Linklater’s biopic of Lorenz Hart.
Wed 07: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 07: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 08: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject: Jazz Milestones of 1976.

Fri 09: The House Trio @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Fri 09: Nauta @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £5.00. Trio: Jacob Egglestone, Jamie Watkins, Bailey Rudd.
Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Warren James & the Lonesome Travellers @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Fri 09: The Blue Kings @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. (£8.00. adv.). All-star band.

Sat 10: Mark Toomey Quintet @ St Peter’s Church, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:30pm. £12.00. (inc. pie & peas). Tickets from: 07749 255038.

Sun 11: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Eva Fox & the Sound Hounds @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 12: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.

Tue 13: Milne Glendinning Band @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £11.00. Coquetdale Jazz.
Tue 13: Jazz Jam Sandwich @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

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

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Felled again!

Somebody up there doesn't want me down there in Low Fell. Last Friday, Roy Williams was at Jazz At The Fell with the Vieux Carré Jazzmen but I didn't find out until the following Wednesday.
Tonight, I decided to listen to the New Century Ragtime Orchestra at the Dryden Centre in Low Fell. Now Dryden Road is a well known road in the area and it seemed to me that Dryden Road would be the logical place to site a Dryden Centre.
Wrong!
After driving up and down the long and winding road several times, I failed to uncover any Drydenic Centres. Asking the natives proved to be equally futile. Their responses were uniform; shaking of heads, narrowing of eyes, scratching of heads, widening of eyes. Where they differed was in their solutions. One sent me to a snooker club, another to a care home, yet another to a former hospital. It appeared that nobody in Dryden Road had a clue where the Dryden Centre, presumably a civic amenity, was.
By now, stomp off time had passed and the Ragtime Orchestra would probably have already played a few cakewalks and The Midnight Choo Choo may well have left for Alabam (where my honey lamb, am - beautiful triple rhyme!). Cold and frustrated, I gave up and went home.
Checking the flier, given to me by Ragtime Dave Kerr, I discovered that the Dryden Centre was actually in Evistone Gdns - a Buddy Bolden ff away from Dryden Road.
My own fault, I know, I should have ascertained the correct geographical location before leaving and I was tempted to return and catch the last set but, by this time, I'd made myself a coffee, fed the cat, put a Hank Mobley CD on the player and felt myself returning to normality.
Catch you next time guys - promise.

1 comment :

Anonymous said...

Sat nav time Lance?

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