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

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

The Stu Brown Sextet - Twisted Toons: the music of Raymond Scott

The Stu Brown Sextet animates village halls in Wark, Corbridge and Whittingham with an evening exploring the weird and wonderful music of ‘the man who made the cartoons swing’. Raymond Scott was a little known band leader, composer and inventor, whose wacky, hyper-animated, eyeball-popping ‘cartoon jazz’ is most widely recognisable for it’s use in the Looney Tunes cartoons from the 1940’s onwards and, more recently, in Ren and Stimpy, and The Simpsons. The evening will feature offbeat compositions, performed by Stu’s brilliantly orchestrated sextet - Brian Molley -Tenor Sax; Martin Kershaw – Clarinet; Tom MacNiven – trumpet; Tom Gibbs – piano, Ray Percy – double bass and Stu Brown on drums.

The show opens with a specially commissioned eight minute documentary film about Raymond Scott, made by his son, Stan Warnow. The sextet then take over with tunes such as ‘Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals’ and Square Dance for ‘Eight Egyptian Mummies’ which lent themselves perfectly to the antics of Bugs, Daffy and Road Runner.
The group has proved immensely popular with audiences of all ages and backgrounds, from jazz fans, to general music lovers, to film and animations fans, and families with young children. They have played to crowds at many of the UK’s leading jazz festivals, including Manchester, Cheltenham, Edinburgh & Gateshead.
“Wittily daft, exotic and swinging…his band bounce through the hilariously detailed charts with immense relish and skill. Brilliant resurrection of 1930’s crackpot jazz” Chris Ingham, Mojo Magazine
Thursday 10th May 7.30pm. Whittingham Village Hall, Whittingham, NE66 4UP.£7 / £4.50 concession
01665 574 964.
Friday 11th May 7.30pm. Wark Town Hall & Mechanics Institute, Wark NE48 3LH £7 / £6 concession 01434 230 250.
Sunday 13th May 7.30pm. Corbridge Parish Hall, St Helens Street, NE45 5BE.
£7.50/ £4 child/ £20 family ticket. 07500 822 784.

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