Bebop Spoken There

John McLaughlin: ''It was then that Coltrane came along and single-handedly brought this dimension of spirituality into jazz. It was a pivotal experience to me.'' (DownBeat September, 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

19,012 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 876 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Oct. 16) 55.

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

From This Moment On

October.

Sat 17: SunOrbitUs @ Culture House, Sunderland. 11:00am - 5:00pm. Closing event in a year-long piece of music. 11:00am-1:00pm Improvisation workshop w. Faye MacCalman; 2:00-5:00pm Collective Improvised Performance by Sunderland residents. SOLD OUT!
Sat 17: Tees Bay Swing Band @ Blacksmith’s Arms, Hartlepool. 1:30pm. Free. Open rehearsal.
Sat 17: Martin Taylor @ Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle. 7:30pm. £48.72; £43.37. Solo guitar. SOLD OUT!

Sun 18: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 18: Creakin’ Bones & the Sunday Dinners @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Jump jive.
Sun 18: Guisborough Big Band @ Redcar Rugby Club. 5:00-8:00pm. ‘Charity Big Band Birthday Bash’ in aid of Parkinson’s UK & Young Sounds UK. Free (donations on the door).
Sun 18: Martin Taylor @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £23.30. Solo guitar.
Sun 18: Ben Crosland Quartet with Steve Waterman @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 19: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 19: Sue Ferris Quintet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 20: Alan Law @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 2:00pm. Free. Alan Law (piano) w. Pete Tanton (trumpet, flugelhorn).
Tue 20: Graham Hardy’s Eclectic Quartet @ Queen’s Head, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £11.00. Tickets from Tully’s, Rothbury. Coquetdale Jazz. Note change of venue.
Tue 20: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law, Paul Grainger, Scotty Adair.

Wed 21: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 21: FILM: Blue Moon @ Washington Arts Centre. 1:00pm. £4.50 (inc. bf). Biopic of lyricist Lorenz Hart.
Wed 21: De'Sean Jones’ Urban Art Orchestra @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £10.00.; £5.00. student, unwaged; free to Mercury Awards ticket holders. De'Sean Jones (tenor sax, EWI); Tjoe Man Cheung (guitar); Mikele Montolli (double bass) + others TBA.
Wed 21: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 21: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 21: Roby Glod-Steve Sewell Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Thu 22: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, Mill Rise, South Gosforth, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 22: Mercury Prize @ Utility Arena Newcastle. 8:00pm. £60.25.; £48.75. Line-up inc. Knats.
Thu 22: Dean Stockdale Trio @ Bandstand!, Exhibition Park, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Tickets: £10.20 (inc. bf) via Instagram. Dean Stockdale (piano); Mick Shoulder (double bass); John Bradford (drums).
Thu 22: Olly Styles Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £7.75.

Fri 23: Sara Oschlag w. Arnie Somogyi Trio @ The Lit & Phil. 1:00pm. Sara Oschlag (vocals); Ben Lawrence (piano); Arnie Somogyi (double bass); John Hirst (drums). SOLD OUT!
Fri 23: Emma Fisk’s Hot Club du Nord @ Gala Theatre, Durham. 1:00pm. Durham Jazz Festival. SOLD OUT!
Fri 23: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 23: Maja Bugge & Dave Evans @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. Durham Jazz Festival.
Fri 23: Knats @ King Street Social Club, North Shields. 7:00pm. £17.00., £14.70., £11.30., £5.50. SOLD OUT!
Fri 23: King Bees @ Billy Bootleggers, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Superb Chicago blues band.
Fri 23: Sara Oschlag & Arnie Somogyi w. Ben Lawrence @ Ship Isis, Sunderland. 7:30pm. Sara Oschlag (vocals); Ben Lawrence (keyboards); Arnie Somogyi (double bass).
Fri 23: Ronnie Scott’s Soho Songbook @ Redhills, Durham. 8:00pm. James Pearson (piano); Sam Burgess (double bass); Chris Higginbottom (drums); Alex Garnett (sax); Polly Gibbons (vocals). Durham Jazz Festival. SOLD OUT!
Fri 23: SwanNek + Jacob Egglestone @ Fabio’s Bar, Durham. 9:00pm. Durham Jazz Festival.

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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