New Look Jazz Café to Open December 7 - Bands Wanted.

Newcastle’s famous Jazz Café is approaching the completion of a complete refit and will re-open on Saturday December 7. From then on it will open weekly from Tuesday to Saturday – as a café from lunchtime and in the evenings as a bar. From 9pm until late on Fridays and Saturdays the bar will be featuring live jazz.

A couple of quick introductions at this point. The new look Jazz Café is now and will in future be managed by the long-term owner of the building and of the neighbouring Newcastle Arts Centre.  My role in the operation is solely the programming of bands on the Friday and Saturday nights. My experience comes from my years with Jazz North East and, before that, from jazz programming at Live Theatre, including for Newcastle Jazz Festival.

What are we looking for?

1. The best bands and musicians in the Northern region.

2. Trios – and at a pinch quartets – to fit our small stage.

3. Two sets of music between 10pm and midnight.

4. Bands which are used to projecting. *

5. Music more extrovert than the reverse.*

* Although the venue has an upstairs lounge for committed non-listeners and there are other areas downstairs in the bar where quiet chat shouldn’t seriously blank out the band, this venue is, after all, a bar. We’re therefore boxing clever in our early days.

What do we offer?

1. Payment by guaranteed fee, set at a level likely to be more attractive to trios.

2. Interval drink.

3. A good quality Hyundai upright piano.

4. 600 watt Peavey six channel mixer amp, two speakers and three microphones.

5. Stage lights

6. A fully accessible, sixty seat, city centre venue, a great platform for your band.

If you are interested in playing at the new Jazz Café please send details of your band(s) to me at admin@newcastle-arts-centre.co.uk

Regards

Dave Clarke

P.S. Also required are two “fun”  trios to play the new venue on New Year’s Eve.