Bebop Spoken There

Christian McBride: ''I believe we are living in a historically embarrassing moment in American history.'' - Downbeat December 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

18061 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 1025 of them this year alone and, so far, 39 this month (Dec. 14).

From This Moment On ...

DECEMBER 2025

Fri 19: Fraser Urquhart @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT! .
Fri 19: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free..
Fri 19: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free..
Fri 19: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00..
Fri 19: Castillo Nuevo @ Hotel Gotham, Newcastle. 5:00pm. Free. .
Fri 19: Alexia Gardner @ FIKA Art Gallery, Morpeth. 6:30pm. Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy..
Fri 19: Paul Skerritt @ Middlesbrough Town Hall. 7:00pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes. .
Fri 19: Giles Strong Quartet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. Old Black Cat Jazz Club..
Fri 19: Creakin’ Bones & the Xmas Dinners @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm. £13.01 (inc. bf)..
Fri 19: Mark Toomey Quintet @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 20: Jazz Attack @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 11:00am. Free.
Sat 20: Alexia Gardner @ FIKA Art Gallery, Morpeth. 6:30pm. Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy. SOLD OUT!
Sat 20: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. CANCELLED!
Sat 20: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 20: Hoodoo Blues @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:15pm (doors). £14.25, £11.55. Dance class, social dancing, live music & Xmas Party. Live music from 9:00pm - Ruth Lambert, Giles Strong, Ian Paterson & John Bradford (jazz and blues).
Sat 20: John Pope Quintet @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 7:30-8:30pm. £7.70 (inc. bf). Album recording session.

Sun 21: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. ‘Xmas Swingalong’. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 21: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00-5:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ o2 City Hall, Newcastle. 6:00pm. £35.80., £33.25., £31.00.
Sun 21: The Globe Xmas Party @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Live music.
Sun 21: Tweed River Jazz Band @ The Barrels Ale House, Berwick. 7:30pm. Free.

Mon 22: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 23: Paul Skerritt @ Chakh Dhoom, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Indian restaurant. Skerritt w. backing tapes.

Wed 24: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 24: Alexia Gardner @ The Townhouse, Bridge St., Morpeth. 1:30-4:30pm. ‘The A Capella Sessions’. Gardner, Paula Gardner, Alexia Hope Gardner Diamany.
Wed 24: Paul Skerritt @ Mambo Wine & Dine, South Shields. 1:30pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes.

Thu 25: Alexia Gardner @ The Townhouse, Bridge St., Morpeth. 1:30-4:00pm. ‘All About the Bass Sessions’. Alexia Gardner, Paula Gardner, Jude Murphy.

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, May 07, 2010

Bobby Carr Info wanted.

A request for info on the late trumpet player Bobby Carr comes from Steve Grant and Bobby's son James.
Photos, memories anything that will be of interest.
Reply via this post or direct to myself.
Lance.
at

8 comments :

Lance said...

I'm surprised I haven't had a wadge of people replying to this post. Indeed I'm disappointed as Bobby Carr was a larger than life trumpet legend and a pivotal figure on the north-east jazz, dance band, club scene for many years.
My connection with Bobby Carr was when we were both part of the Newcastle Big Band's legendary Sunday morning sessions at Newcastle's then University Theatre.
With Mike Gilby and Alf Parker blowing alongside him they made a formidable brass team and his feature on 'I Remember Clifford' lingers still.
He also did a Working Men's Club act. Holding his trumpet up so the audience could see it he would say - "This is a trumpet. You'll be surprised to note that there are no wires attached and it doesn't plug into an amplifier. What you see is what you get."
Bobby would then recreate solos by some of the greats - Louis Armstrong, Harry James, Bunny Berigan etc.
He was, I believe, married into the Vaux brewing dynasty. I recall handing him a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale which of course was brewed by Scottish and Newcastle .
"Do you want to get me divorced?" He asked.
There must be many more stories out there. Dig down into the Windmills of your mind.

Saturday, May 08, 2010 8:39:00 pm
stevegrantleeuk said...

Lance,
Thank you for your reply and recollection of Bobby Carr. As I said I knew him through his son James who I went to school with. I also knew him as a friend of my Grandfather who was very active also on the working mens club scene. His name was Freddie Miller and as well as working as a singer and comedian he ran a club booking agency in North Shields called Wandafield. I am sure some of your readers will have worked with him either on the club scene or at the old Hofbrahaus in Newcastle where he was compere for some time.
He too sadly is no longer with us having passed away in 1982.
Ref the brewery connection with Bobby Carr, I am not sure why he would have objected to the Newcastle Brown as it was actually S and N that he was married into! His father in law was Colonel George Brown who was a leading light in S and N at the time.
Hopefully some more readers will pass some more comments. I am afraid I am too young to remember him on a musical level but can certainly remember him as the larger than life figure you mention.
Many thanks
Steve

Sunday, May 09, 2010 12:02:00 am
Lance said...

Whoops! I got the breweries the wrong way round! Substitute Double Maxim for Brown Ale
I remember him at the Hoffbrau House - think George Laing was in that band - come in George.
I seem to recall the band wearing Leiden-hose - now someone must have a photo of that!

Sunday, May 09, 2010 6:35:00 am
Steve Andrews said...

I knew and played, occasionally, with Bobby, who was a nice man, and a hell of a bebop trumpet player - streets ahead of anyone else around here at that time. Here's a story I got secondhand from the late Brian Fisher.
Bobby played pro, in his youth, for tenor player Johnny Gray's band in London. They were rehearsing a new number, and Johnny gave the trumpet solo to Bobby. Bobby gave it his all; pulled out all the stops. After the first run through, Johnny called it again, then stopped the band after the trumpet solo and said to Bobby: "Bobby, son, less of the ooblee!"
Happily Bobby ignored that advice, and kept ooblee -ing for years to come.

Sunday, May 09, 2010 9:51:00 pm
Roly said...

My memories of Bobby are from Peter Gascoigne's Vieux Carre sessions at The Golden Lion at Winlaton Mill in the late 70s.
They were very popular and the room would be packed. Sometimes he would come over and sit in. I particularly remember his 'Bunny Berrigan' styled version of 'I can't get started'. He had a magnificent tone, a natural lyricism and commanding stage presence too. Those cameo appearances of his are part of some really great memories from that time.
Roly

Sunday, May 09, 2010 11:08:00 pm
Anonymous said...

To Steve Grant

I do have more info re Bobby Carr. I knew him well in the mid 50s to 1962. Met him when he was touring with the Platters. Contact Lance for more info.
R

Wednesday, July 28, 2010 1:33:00 pm
Anonymous said...

Hi Lance,
What a wonderful trumpet player Bobby Carr was, once again, Bobby in the hayday of The Wheatsheaf, New york, was a regular, once I asked him what he uses on his valves to keep them going, he opened his case and handed me a can of FLIT (Some sort of fly spray) and of corse in his case always had a bottle or two of Newcastle Brown Ale, like you Lance, I do remember him in the Newcastle Big band playing I Remember Clifford, but also some wild nights at The Hoffbrau House, with a band led by Billy Young (Drums) and Grahame Shephard (Reeds) now living and playing in Spain, can not remember the rest of the band, but fun nights with Bobby and the guys.
Coin Aitchison
(Hong Kong)

Thursday, August 19, 2010 4:28:00 am
Tommy Henderson said...

Hi Lance, I knew Bobby Carr very well and did a few gigs with him. He occasionally brought his trumpet to Greys Club and sat in with my band playing beautiful muted trumpet in the Latin numbers and then he would do one of his special solo numbers while wandering around the customer's tables serenading the ladies.
Wherever he played, in the break, Bobby always ordered two pints for himself.
I also remember him in the Eric Delaney Big Band.
A great guy and a great trumpet player
Regards TOMMY HENDERSON (BASS PLAYER)

Saturday, August 21, 2010 4:42:00 pm

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