Bebop Spoken There

Emma Rawicz: "In a couple of years I've gone from being a normal university student to suddenly being on international stages." DownBeat January 2026.

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

18219 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 73 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Jan. 24), 73

From This Moment On ...

JANUARY 2026

Fri 30: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 30: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 30: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 30: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Hotel Gotham, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Fri 30: Pete Roth Trio @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). Feat. Bill Bruford.
Fri 30: Jive Aces @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm.
Fri 30: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Northern Edge Coffee, Silver St., Berwick. 7:00pm.
Fri 30: Dan Coulthurst Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £10.00 + £1.00. bf (www.wegottickets.com). Coulthurst (trumpet); Joel Stedman (bass clarinet, flute); Nico Widdowson (piano); Fergus Quill (double bass); Theo Goss (drums).

Sat 31: Darling Dollies @ St George’s Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 3:00pm. £10.00. Vocal trio.
Sat 31: Brass Fiesta @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 10:30pm. Free.

FEBRUARY 2026

Sun 01: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £10.00.
Sun 01: Ian Bosworth Quintet @ Chapel, Middlesbrough. 1:00pm. Free. Quintet + guest Bill Watson (trumpet, flugelhorn).
Sun 01: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: Annie & the Caldwells @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £25.00. adv. Gospel/soul.
Sun 01: Jive Aces @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm.
Sun 01: Olly Styles Experience + Jenny Baker @ the Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 02: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.

Tue 03: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, Ferryhill. 7:30pm. Free.
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.

Wed 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 04: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 04: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 05: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject:Times of the Day & Trios.
Thu 05: Jeremy McMurray’s Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. Special guest Emma Wilson.
Thu 05: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

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

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Le Jazz Hot et Le Jazz Cool

Thanks to Facebook Friends I've enjoyed some video of the 1958 Cannes Jazz Festival. Dizzy, Lucky Thompson, Ella, Bechet, Eldridge, Coleman's Hawkins and Bill, Stan Getz and more. Sadly the Getz clip, which features 5 tenors - Getz, Hawkins, Byas, Barney Wilen and my personal favourite Guy Lafitte - playing "Indiana", cuts out after Getz's solo.
Click here for Ella singing "Just Squeeze Me".
Merci beaucoup.
Lance.

2 comments :

Liz said...

My goodness, wasn't she just the best with that effortless sweet voice which stayed that good throughout her life. I was listening to her "Get out of town" from the Cole Porter songbook which I first heard years ago, such clever lyrics
"Just disappear, I care for you much too much
And when you are near, close to me dear we touch too much"
Liz

Dave The Rave said...

You mentioned Guy Lafitte - Well, in my Army days, I was stationed near Bordeaux for two years aa Medic, and got to be friends with a young trumpeter / university student named Jean-George Bulcourt, whose band sometimes played at the base enlisted men's club. He made it possible for me to join a wonderful jazz club, "Le Bahut", situated in a basement which had been a 13th century wine cellar in what was once the Roman quarter of Bordeaux,where at the beginning of the night, a two-bar electric fire was required to warm up the 'cave' and its piano! I sometimes got to sing with Jean-George's band, and one night, who did appear but the wonderful tenor player Guy Lafitte! Other regulars included Gerard Olimpe, drums, and Jean-Marie Grenuolou, bass. Also a regular, whose name escapes me, was a baritone player who had played with the mambo king Perez Prado, and I felt very lucky to be alllowed into this secret world of jazz; I was only seventeen, and the eperience changed my life! They used to play "Parisian Thoroughfare", which I found out years later was Clifford Brown's! In 1976, we took a band from Newcastle, called "Friends Of Jazz" (I know, that name gets used all the time) over to San Sebastian Jazz Festival, and Jean-George arranged accomodation for all seven of us as we passed through Bordeaux, in two show houses on a brand new estate being built by the company he was working for. He also had a little get-together for us and his neighbours around his pool in Medoc, where we all played, and he even got out his old trumpet and joined in. As I said, we stayed in empty show houses, fully furnished. Imagine Scotty's surprise in the morning, to be walking around in his 'skivvies' and to have the door open and a lady estate agent come into the place with prospective buyers. "No, the drummer isn't included with the house!"

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