Total Pageviews

Bebop Spoken There

Stan Woodward: ''We're part of the British jazz scene, but we don't play London jazz. We play Newcastle jazz. The Knats album represents many things, but most importantly that Newcastle isn't overlooked". (DownBeat, April 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

17923 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 244 of them this year alone and, so far, 91 this month (March 31).

From This Moment On ...

April 2025.

Sun 06: Learning & Participation Showcase @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm (1:00pm doors). Free. Featuring participants from Play More Jazz! Play More Folk! Blue Jam Singers & more.
Sun 06: Joe Steels Group @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Ferg Kilsby, Joe Steels, Ben Lawrence, Paul Susans, John Hirst.
Sun 06: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Hooch, Quayside, Newcastle. 6:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Sun 06: Leeway @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 07: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 07: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Free.

Tue 08: ???

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Tannery jam session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Wed 09: Anatole Muster Trio @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £17.50., £12.50. concs.
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. CANCELLED?

Thu 10: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.CANCELLED!
Thu 10: Magpies of Swing @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00., £10.00., £7.00. A Globe fundraiser (all proceeds to the venue).
Thu 10: Exhaust: Camila Nebbia/Kit Downes/Andrew Lisle @ Jesmond URC, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:30pm doors). £13.20., £11.00. JNE.
Thu 10: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. Feat. guests Ray Dales & Jackie Summers.

Fri 11: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 11: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 11: John Rowland Trio: The Music of Ben Webster @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £5.00. Rowland (tenor sax); Alan Law (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass).
Fri 11: Imelda May @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 11: Shunyata Improvisation Group @ Cullercoats Watch House. 7:30-9:00pm. Free (donations).

Sat 12: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 12: Rob Heron & the Tea Pad Orchestra + House of the Black Gardenia + King Bees @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 6:30pm (doors). £18.00.
Sat 12: Bright Street Big Band @ Washington Arts Centre. 6:30pm. £12.00. Event includes swing dance taster session, DJ dance session. Bright Street Big Band on stage 7:30-8:15pm & 8:45-9:30pm. SOLD OUT!
Sat 12: Milne Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 12: Imelda May @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. £42.20. SOLD OUT!
Sat 12: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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 19, 2013

Nick Malcolm Quartet @ The Bridge Hotel. January 17

Nick Malcolm (trumpet), Alex Hawkins (keyboards), Olie Brice (double bass) & Mark Whitlam (drums)
Jazz North East’s first gig of 2013 brought trumpeter Nick Malcolm to Tyneside. It was a case of Trains, Planes and Automobiles in getting the quartet to the Bridge Hotel. Malcolm travelled in the auto with pianist Alex Hawkins, encountering heavy snow north of Yorkshire. Olie Brice and his bull fiddle let the train take the strain and it was down to the affluent drummer Mark Whitlam to take the short-hop plane journey from Bristol to Newcastle (only joking Mark…there was a cheap flight available!). Whitlam arrived with sticks in hand (Splinter’s house kit was at his disposal) having caused alarm at Bristol airport - officious types suspected he posed a terrorist threat! What to do? Whitlam took out his brushes to demonstrate a shuffle!
The presence of Alex Hawkins suggested this would be some gig. The pianist had played several gigs on Tyneside in recent times and never failed to deliver the goods. So too Olie Brice, most recently heard at the Cluny with Ken Vandermark. The quartet performed numbers from their debut CD Glimmers and tried out some new material, so new the sound check allowed a last minute run through of heads and codas. The first tune, the eponymous Glimmers introduced trumpeter Malcolm as a supremely gifted musician; confident, accomplished, imaginative. The second number - There’s Led in Their Pencils - pointed to a lineage many a jazz fan would have got, no problem. My scribbled notes read Monkish. Dazzling playing, in and out of tempi, the swinging pulse of Brice (outstanding), the revelatory drumming of Whitlam and the prodigiously talented Hawkins playing around with a quirky, retro Fender Rhodes sound! Bandleader Nick Malcolm is a trumpet player for the twenty first century fully conversant with the post war history of his instrument. Close your eyes and this was Dizzy, Freddie and Miles. Ferocious volleys, squeezed quarter notes. Wow! Another Bridge premièred piece - Its Alright We’re Going to the Zoo – unleashed mighty solos and after two sets a third set, a lock-in and more wonderful contemporary jazz would have been paradise. The band’s second CD release should be out sometime later this year. A tour will follow and a Tyneside date must surely be on the itinerary. Be there
Russell.

2 comments :

Olie Brice on Twitter said...

Olie Brice Tweeted: Great review of the Nick Malcolm Quartet in Newcastle

Martin Pyne on Twitter. said...

Martin Pine Tweeted: A really great jazz blog from the north east.

Blog Archive