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Bebop Spoken There

Van Morrison: ''Basically, I'm coming from jazz. Not pop, not rock, not what's commercial. That's where I started, and that's still where I am. I feel the same as I did when I was listening to Louis Armstrong, Lead Belly, Jelly Roll Morton''. (The Northern Echo, 12 June 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

18037 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 458 of them this year alone and, so far, 36 this month (June 11).

From This Moment On ...

JUNE 2025

Sat 14: Mr Wilson’s Second Liners @ Northumberland Miners’ Picnic, Woodhorn Museum, Ashington. 10:00am-5:00pm. Free. At intervals during the day.
Sat 14: Spanish City Rollers @ The Brae, Cullercoats. 11:00am & 1:00pm. Free. A Cullercoats Festival event.
Sat 14: Front Porch Three + Hoodoo Blues swing dance workshop @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 3:30pm. A Cullercoats Festival event.
Sat 14: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tynedale Beer & Cider Festival, Tynedale Rugby Club, Corbridge. 4:15-5:30pm.
Sat 14: Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 14: Mark Williams Trio @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Sat 14: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm.
Sat 14: Eva Fox & Steve Chambers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm. £21.50. ‘Time After Time’..
Fri 20: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. .
Fri 20: King Bees @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Superb Chicago blues band.

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, September 10, 2012

The Voice of the North Jazz Orchestra @ The Sage, Sunday Sept. 9

John Warren (cond./comp./arr.); Julian Siegel (clt/sop/ten/cont bs clt); Graham Hardy, Sean Eland, John Dunn, Greg Nicholas (tpts); Chris Hibbard, Alex Leathard, Kieran Parnaby, Eddie Bellis (tmb); Rod Mason, Andy Bennett, Graeme Wilson, Sue Ferris, Niall Armstrong (reeds); Stu Collingwood (pno); Mark Williams (gtr); Andy Champion (bs/bs gtr); Adrian Tilbrook (dms).
(Review by Lance.)
Friday, I vote for the VOTNJO in the Big Band section of the British Jazz Awards, Sunday, the grim reality that this was to be their final concert - at least under John Warren - sinks in. So perhaps we should all vote for them in appreciation of what they have achieved over the past 15/16 years.
The music is complex - a jazz version of say Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique - but it's also accessible to all but the most tunnelled visionaires.
After a few words from Paul Bream of co-promoters JNE, John Warren introduces the evening's guest, Julian Siegel, and the band, already under starters orders are off and into The New One Two. A Warren composition  originally written for the John Surman Brass Project.
It's a dissonant, almost atonal, piece that features Siegel on soprano, Dunn on trumpet and Wilson on tenor. There's also a relaxed, out of tempo, interlude spotlighting bass and drums. An auspicious start that takes up  15 minutes, maybe more, of the first set which is about par.
Wise Child, by Siegel, is dedicated to Wayne Shorter and the composer plays some quite heroic tenor. Bennett, Williams also have a bite at the cherry before a Tilbrook drum excursion brings the piece to it's logical conclusion.
Monk's Ruby My Dear - a Warren arrangement -  features Collingwood's sensitive introduction and sets the sultry mood. The sax section's co-ordination impresses and for a while the band is actually swinging.
The Missing Link - the two Grahams (well Graeme and Graham actually) are both heard to advantage in a piece as quirky as the title.
The set closes with a latin based number the title of which escapes me - more excellent work by Collingwood.
After adjourning to the bar and doing the social circuit it was back to business. This band really is incredible, handling some of the most intricate parts ever scored with apparent ease. The sections gel even though they are often seemingly in conflict albeit carefully contrived conflict which isn't conflict at all!
Mark Williams does some guitar shredding with such intensity it's a wonder the lights don't dim whilst on Aliteration Addict Niall Armstrong takes a giant step forward out of the section for a baritone solo that could arguably be put forward as the best blast of the night.
De Je Vu has Siegel doing some delicate work on Contra Bass Clarinet in tandem with one of the trombones.
As we approach the home straight Rod Mason does some paint-stripping and Sue Ferris, that most lyrical lady, adds the gloss.
It's been quite a night tinged with the sad thought we may ne'er see their like again..
I'm pleased the VOTNJO drew a reasonable crowd - a band this size could quite easily have outnumbered the audience! fortunately this wasn't the case unlike in the Central Bar where I called in for a pre number 27 (bus) pint. Here the bar staff did out number the customers - all three of us!
Lance.
PS: If you decide to vote for the band in the awards click here.

1 comment :

Unknown said...

This was the first (and I hope not the last) time I had been to a VOTNJO gig.
Paul Bream says they're good. Lance Liddle says they're good. But neither had prepared me for the intense joy of their complex sensitive repetoire. Fabulous arrangements, superb musicianship.

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