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JUNE 2025
Sun 15: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 15: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Pasadena Roof Orchestra @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:00pm.
Sun 15: Under the Wellie @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 15: Hannah Brine Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Mon 16: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.
Mon 16: Giles Strong Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.
Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.
Wed 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 18: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:30pm. Free. Concert performance (open to the public)..
Wed 18: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 19: Gareth John & the SOS Big Band @ The Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:00pm. £25.00.
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: David Gray's Flextet @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm. £21.50. ‘Time After Time’.br/>
Fri 20: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm.
Fri 20: King Bees @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Superb Chicago blues band.
Sat 21: Milne Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 21: Red Kites Jazz @ Staithes Café, Dunston. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Sat 21: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Reviewers wanted
Friday, February 18, 2011
Alister Spence Trio w. Raymond MacDonald @ The Lit and Phil, Newcastle.

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February
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- Tonight @ The Cherry Tree
- HAQ @ Splinter @ The Bridge. February 28
- Alex Welsh photo details wanted.
- Didn't HAQ it tonight - HAQ @ The Bridge
- Jammin' @ The Jazz Café
- THOSE PORTHOLE BLUES AGAIN by Keith Armstrong.
- Ossie Riani by Peter Riani
- I WENT TO CHURCH ON FRIDAY – TO HEAR THE JAZZ RASCALS
- Elaine Binney & The Jazz Rascals @ Durant Hall
- HAQ
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- If You Gotta Get a Dep Get the Best
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- First Gig of a new residency for the Maine Street ...
- You can buy just about anything on eBay
- SHE’S GOT SWING! Cherry Tree Restaurant
- More Edis tonight at the Cherry Tree
- Paul Edis Sextet @ The Bridge. Sunday 20th February
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- Matt Monro - We`re Gonna Change The World
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- Don't Miss Out on This One!
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- Hank Mobley on Jazz Library Today
- Alister Spence Trio w. Raymond MacDonald @ The Lit...
- Rendezvous Jazz @ The Porthole.
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- Some Reporters Have Priority Issues - Grammy Awards
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- 1939 DownBeat Readers Poll
- Zoe Gilby Quartet @ Ashington Jazz Club Feb 2.
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2 comments :
I think I concur with the general thrust of your argument. There was some blistering playing but, perhaps as the photograph suggests, something was absent.
Russell
It wasn't easy for me to lever myself out on Friday having, like poor Russell, the head-cold from hell. Add to this my reaction to Alister's performance at The Cluny last year which didn't really move me, so I impressed myself that I GOT to the Lit n Phil. Of course I knew how much Chris Calver had riding on this 1st jazz gig and wanted to show my support, not to mention that I won Alister's FIT album in the raffle at the Dr Chad gig last year.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. Why?
I sat as close to the drum kit as HSE guidelines recommend, finding Chris Cantillo's percussion flea circus absolutely compelling. I handed him a butterfly nut that had fallen off the bass drum - he nodded and added it to the array of prayer bells on the snare drum - ting!
Then there was the inimitable Raymond MacDonald, who stepped forward from under the portrait of Gene Hackman's grandad with Babaresque determination and stance to match - his blend of circular breathing chromatics and contrasting lyrical phrasing had the cobra of my interest well and truly charmed!
Joe Williamson's devotion to his bass gut strings - plucked and bowed - combined with his Joe 90 specs also had me enthralled - cool but essential in his improvisational technique.
In all honesty I think we have Alister to thank for bringing these 3 together and providing the string percussion. He's a bloody good piano player but he's Legion - now Keith Jarrett, now Cecil Taylor, now Keith Tippett - for me he needs to come out, on his OWN side!
As a jazz venue, the room was brightly incongruous with the ghostly portraits of the Lit & Phil's literati looking disapprovingly down. Raymond's swaying Soprano sax however turned the one red spotlight by the piano into my own personal disco strobe, which added to the surreality of the happening.
Let's face it, I haven't really forgiven Alister for not knowing who Peter Sculthorpe is!
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