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Bebop Spoken There

Sullivan Fortner: ''I always judge it by the bass player: If the bass player is happy, it's going to be a good night". (DownBeat, February 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

17777 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 98 of them this year alone and, so far, 23 this month (Feb.8).

From This Moment On ...

February 2025

Sat 15: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 15: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Sat 15: Elkie Brooks @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. ‘The Long Farewell Tour’.
Sat 15: Milne Glendinning Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 16: MOBO Song @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 12 noon. Free, performances on the concourse. Line-up inc. Jazz Attack (on stage time TBC) & Jambone (12:20pm).
Sun 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 16: MOBO Awards Fringe 2025: BBC Introducing NE X MOBO Showcase @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:00pm. Free (ticketed). Line-up inc. Jambone, Knats, Rivkala, SwanNek.
Sun 16: The Shayo Experience @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 16: Gerry Richardson Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. .

Mon 17: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 17: Matt Forster Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 17: Russ Morgan Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 18: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law, Paul Grainger, John Hirst.

Wed 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 19: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 19: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 20: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 20: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Jazz Milestones - 1975.
Thu 20: Renegade Brass Band @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors).
Thu 20: Orange Claw Hammer + Peony @ The Globe, Newcastle.7:30pm. Orange Claw Hammer play Captain Beefheart.
Thu 20: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. Featuring special guest Zoë Gilby.

Fri 21: JazzMain @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 21: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 21: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £10.00. TBC.
Fri 21: Emma Rawicz w. Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.

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

Sunday, August 04, 2013

Peter Volpe on Peter Fielding.

I've just been checking out your site and was fascinated to see the poster (supplied by Colin Aitchison) and thread on my grandfather Peter Fielding and his band. Link to previous post. I don't have too many direct memories of him other than at Christmas times as he was working away from Newcastle by the time I was born but I do remember regularly receiving birthday cards from exotic places when he was the bandleader on the Canberra and the QE2.
Over the years many people have spoken to me of his days at the Oxford Galleries however, invariably with warmth and nostalgia. These evocations have not been confined to the north-east; in my student days I met a saxophonist in a pub in Richmond (Surrey) who had played in his band for twenty years and knew my grandmother and all her six children, including my father, Tony. On my way to a Latin gig in Paris one evening I also heard a fascinating radio 4 interview  with the trail-blazing female saxophonist Kathy Stobart who related that during the war Peter Fielding gave her her first real gig - at the Oxford.
My father played the piano well in his youth, though he never worked with my grandfather. My uncle Peter played the trombone in the band. After suffering a heart attack he moved onto Bass and Piano. He produced the St. Jacome Trumpet method from my grandmother's kitchen cupboard and gave it to me when I took up the trumpet. I still have it in my work studio downstairs. Mike, another uncle, was a drummer and continued leading a band in the north east under his own name (Mike Fielding). I did a couple of deps in his band round the time I played in the Newcastle Big Band. You may well have come across him yourself at some time.
My grandmother Cath was a dancer in her young days and met my grandfather when he was the MD on a review in which she worked. I met my own wife when she was a dancer and singer in a show I worked on here in France. Who says history never repeats itself?!
Keep up the good work on the web site.
Peter Volpe. (Ed. photo of Peter Volpe taken from Peter's MySpace site.)
P.S. When you worked in Windows you were responsible for the choice of the first Jazz album I ever bought. It was a Lee Morgan record with Art Blakey. The second one you advised me to buy was by Clifford Brown.
Good choices!
Thanks.

3 comments :

Mal Maddock (on F/b) said...

I worked with Mike Fielding when I first started playing..... A great drummer & a gentleman..... I learned so much from him !

Lance said...

Pleased you took my advice Peter - it soon showed in your playing!
I sold Sting bass strings, Paul Booth his first tenor and banjo strings to Brian Bennett.
Oh and Malcolm, I recall when you used to come into the shop with your dad and kick seven shades out of, was it a Lowery, or a Rhodes or a Roland? can't remember but you must have been all of 14 going on 40!
Perhaps I should be nicknamed "The Kingmaker"!

Tom Henderson (on F/b) said...

I'm sure my pianist friend Eddie Farrow worked for Peter Fielding in the early days at the Oxford Galleries.

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