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

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.

Thu 15: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. Quartet + guest Paul Donnelly (guitar).

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

Monday, February 21, 2011

Paul Edis Sextet @ The Bridge. Sunday 20th February

Paul Edis (keyboards), Mick Shoulder (double bass), Adam Sinclair (drums), Graeme Wilson (tenor saxophone), Graham Hardy (trumpet & flugelhorn) & Chris Hibbard (trombone). The opening bars of Put a Lid On It were pure TS Monk.
This was going to be one of those nights.
Softly, As In a Morning Sunrise (arr.M.Shoulder) featured mature solos from Graeme Wilson and bassist (and arranger) Mick Shoulder. Folk Tune and Sharp 9/8 highlighted the front line's beautiful harmonic interplay (of brass band standard and that's a compliment). A Paul Edis composition - Administrate This - had a shuffle quality similar to R.Veitch's Job Shufflebottom with trumpeter Graham Hardy blowing the roof off leaving 'bone man Chris Hibbard to repair the damage.
Band leader Edis took the honours on Dorian Gray and was that possibly a fleeting reference in the coda to A Love Supreme? A favourite composer of Edis is Donald Brown so Being With You was given an outing as was Bud Powell's Un Poco Loco (arr.G.Wilson). An ambitious suite, nominally titled Three Piece Suite, from the pen of Edis, was given its premiere at Splinter @ The Bridge last year. A year on and we heard part three of the work now known as Elegy. Edis said it has an elegiac quality. Quite so, with excellent flugel from Hardy.
The last number of the night was another Edis tune - Blues For Dad - full of bop phrases, solos from Edis, Wilson, a round of fours with the highly inventive Adam Sinclair and Hardy on trumpet seeing it home. Cue vociferous applause Encore won, we got Graham Wilson's Up Late. This was a great jazz gig; great writing, great playing, great band.

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