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

18146 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 24 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Jan. 7), 24

From This Moment On ...

JANUARY 2026

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.

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: Jam Session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, 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 15, 2011

Milestones: the Music of Miles Davis @ Gateshead Old Town Hall

Graeme Flowers (tpt), Alan Barnes (alt/bar), Ian Price (ten), Terry Seabrook (pno), Paul Whitten (bs), Spike Wells (dms).
This wasn't just a tribute band - it was a hardblowing neobop sextet that stood firmly on it's own 12 feet.
It would be sacrilege to say that Milestones was better than the original - without the original Milestones wouldn't exist! However, in the 50 + years that have passed since Miles and Co ruled the (Royal) Roost jazz has advanced and tonight's performers have absorbed those changes whilst still keeping within the unwritten rules.
This was arguably the best concert I have heard in Gateshead Town Hall since Sonny Stitt took it apart in the 1960s - Gateshead Town Hall and any other Gateshead venue come to think about it.
The music was based around Miles but at times the front-line came across almost like the Jazz Messengers with Graeme Flowers as close to Lee Morgan as he was to MD.
I wasn't complaining!
Alan Barnes is amazing - I've heard him do Johnny Hodges, Benny Goodman, Bird you name it, his technique is not only phenomenal but it is so adaptable.
I don't recall hearing Ian Price previous to tonight but I'll look forward to hearing him again he blew hard bop tenor yet, when the occasion demanded it, he could also do gentle.
Terry kept it all together on piano and had some great originals to complement the Milesian epics. Boppin For MD really hit the spot and That's What was what it was all about.
Spike on drums Paul on bass - they did the business and did it good.
A very good turn out for driving straight down the middle modern jazz.
Is it a coincidence that tributes to Brubeck, Mingus and Miles have pulled better than average audiences? Is the jazz world getting hip to the 'Emperors New Clothes'?
Photos from Pam Young.
Lance.
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