Bebop Spoken There

Ethan Hawke (starring as Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon): ''Larry [Lorenz] Hart would be so happy that his music and his words and his poetry are still alive.'' - The Northern Echo 27 November 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

18000 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 964 of them this year alone and, so far, 73 this month (Nov. 24).

From This Moment On ...

DECEMBER 2025

Sat 06: Sarah Spencer’s Transatlantic Band @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 06: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £27.50. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. Minor Swing. Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 06: Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 06: NUJO Jazz Jam @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £3.76 (inc. bf).
Sat 06: Kaberry Big Band @ The Seahorse, Whitley Bay. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £15.00. (inc. hot buffet). ‘Christmas 1945’. Kaberry Big Band, formerly Vermont Big Band.
Sat 06: Smokin’ Spitfires @ Platform 1, Bedlington. 7:30pm. £6.00. Rhythm & blues.
Sat 06: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. Xmas Party with buffet.
Sat 06: The Jive Aces @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 8:00pm. £22.00., £20.00.
Sat 06: Brass Fiesta @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 10:30pm. Free.

Sun 07: Ian Bosworth Quintet @ Chapel, Middlesbrough. 1:00pm. Free. Feat. special guest Donna Hewitt (sax, clarinet).
Sun 07: Finn-Keeble Group @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00.
Sun 07: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 07: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 07: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 2:30pm. Free. Trio + Ruth Lambert.
Sun 07: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 07: Jason Isaacs Big Band @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 5:15pm (4:00pm doors). £21.50 (inc. bf).
Sun 07: Paul Skerritt @ 3 Stories, High St. West, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 07: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Support set from Play More Jazz! course participants. Note earlier start.

Mon 08: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 09: Jazz Jam Sandwich @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm

Wed 10: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 10: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 10: Jam Session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 10: Mike Lindup Jazz Trio @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £26.50 (inc. bf). Lindup, Yolanda Charles (bass), John Sam (drums).
Wed 10: Bold Big Band @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £12.00.

Thu 11: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: West Coast (cool ) / Wordsearch (cool) Cool Jazz or ‘Cold’, ‘Cool’, ‘Hot’, ‘Warm’ in the title or lyrics.
Thu 11: George Robinson @ Prohibition Bar, Albert Road, Middlesbrough TS1 2RU. 7:00pm (doors). £5.42 (inc. bf). Vienna’s Voice charity evening featuring ’15 year old singing sensation the ‘Redcar Crooner’ George Robinson’. Over 35s only.
Thu 11: Paul Skerritt @ Chakh Dhoom, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Indian restaurant. Skerritt w. back tapes.
Thu 11: Ransom Van @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Thu 11: Down for the Count Swing Orchestra @ Middlesbrough Town Hall. 7:30pm. £37.70 (inc. bf). ‘Swing into Xmas’.

Fri 12: Pete Tanton’s Chet Set @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 12: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 12: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 12: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 12: Milne Glendinning Band @ Northumberland Club, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £15.00. ‘Xmas Soiree’.
Fri 12: A Jazzy Xmas @ St Cuthbert’s Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £15.00. Paul Edis (MD, piano); Jo Harrop (vocals); Vasilis Xenopoulos (tenor sax, soprano sax); Matthew Forster (alto sax, clarinet); Sue Ferris (flute, piccolo); Graham Hardy (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jason Holcomb (trombone);Emma Fisk (violin); Andy Champion (double bass); Matt MacKellar (drums). SOLD OUT!
Fri 12: Tony Hadley: Xmas Big Band Tour 2025 @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm.
Fri 12: Alexia Gardner @ The New Ship Inn, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. 8:00pm. Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy, Abbie Finn.
Fri 12: Jive Aces: Swingin’ Xmas Show @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 8:00pm.

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

Friday, March 26, 2010

DAMMING JERRY - and THE SPATIAL AKA ORCHESTRA



The evening started with the best of intentions. Rather than go to see the Stan Tracey Octet with all the serious jazz fans I know, I took my family to see Jerry Dammers and the Spatial AKA Orchestra. The  five star review in The Guardian had promised an accessible mixture of jazz, ska and reggae, ideal for the jazz resistant men in my life. 
Well the concert started with ‘After The End of the World’ and went down from there. Too many songs were based on repetitive, monotonous grooves, with the undoubtedly talented musicians occasionally released for solos, with their attempts to releave the tedium occasionally resulting in ear splitting self-indulgence. Quite often, this was followed by the rest of the band joining in to create a cacophonous conclusion, which I quite liked the first time round, but then it got predictable. 
There was no subtlety, even Ghost Town was too slow, and the Batman Theme was ponderous. So many talented jazz musicians grossly underused.  After a long evening, it was quite a relief to hear we’d got to the last number Space Is The Place. Maybe we’ll get some interesting lyrics, I vainly hoped. Actually those were the entire lyrics, continually repeated for around 15 minutes, when the musicians eventually left the stage and carried on playing in the concourse. By the time we left, most of them were lying on the floor still grooving  with ‘Space Is The Place’ around the Sun Ra-like Denys Baptiste. 
They really should have made the effort to develop the song into something more meaningful. I managed it in a few seconds in the car on the way home. 
Space is the place. It’s in your face. What  a ...
Debra.
Pictures above are by official Sage photographer Mark Savage and are not for use in events unrelated to The Sage.
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4 comments :

Lance said...

I missed this one Debra - look forward to hearing from others.

Saturday, March 27, 2010 11:28:00 am
Russell said...

Debra, I too missed the Stan Tracey concert (I had a ticket) in favour of the Jerry Dammers' gig. I'm as a big a fan of Stan Tracey as anyone (I've heard him live on many occasions) but after much thought chose to go to the Dammers' gig. Why? Well, it was likely to be a one-off never to be repeated experience or as Lance said, a happening. It was a band full of top flight British players, the Sun Ra legend was another factor and it promised to be good fun. The Guardian's promise that it would be accessible, should, I suggest, have been read with caution - after all the words Sun Ra and accessibe are rarely written in the same sentence other than this one and maybe in the The Guardian! I agree that their was much repetition.To an extent this is what Sun Ra was all about - the trance inducing music (Space Is the Place) of the self-appointed alien mystic. All nonesense of course but good fun. Ghost Town is Dammers' own tune so I guess he can take it at the tempo of his choosing! If I hadn't gone to the gig I could never have imagined the stage set and costumes. You are right that the musicians weren't particularly stretched but they were more than willing participants. I bet the money was good! See you at the next Stan Tracey concert.
Russell

Monday, March 29, 2010 4:53:00 pm
George Milburn said...

Shame Debra & Russell seem to have regretted going to this gig - I love Stan the man too, but I was charged with the fun of it all the way through and dancing to the chant in the main concourse to the end - with many others who appreciated this joyous tribute to Sun Ra. Having experienced Sun Ra's Solar-Myth Arkestra live over 20 years ago I wondered if Dammers could pull it off - for me he did. By the way, Herman Poole Blount may have been an American but just consider the achievement of a black jazz pianist & composer born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1914, who manages to maintain a fantastic Saturnian mythology around him and gain the respect of some of the best jazz musicians of our time - he died in 1993 and probably went to Saturn where he continues to run rings 'round the more pedestrian planets! There WAS more to those lyrics by the way Debra : "Space is the place WHERE space is the place" Poetry n'est-ce pas!

Sunday, April 04, 2010 3:35:00 pm
Anonymous said...

I can't agree - I loved this gig! Dammers has brought together a lot of serious jazz musicians, and he let them get on with it. Sure, they set up a groove - but what a groove! Too bass heavy for me, perhaps, but it sounded great. The soloing was excellent.

Saturday, April 24, 2010 4:49:00 pm

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