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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

1803759 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 480 of them this year alone and, so far, 58 this month (June 18).

From This Moment On ...

JUNE 2025

Mon 23: MSK Trio @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.

Tues 24: ???

Wed 25: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 25: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 25: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 25: The Magpies of Swing @ The Roxy, Leadgate, Co. Durham. 7:30pm. A Ginger Jitterbugs swing dance event, all welcome.

Thu 26: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Brass Instruments & the use of mutes.

Fri 27: Lewis Watson Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm.
Fri 27: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 27: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 8:00pm. ‘Time After Time’.

Sat 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Linskill Centre, North Shields. 4:00-10:30pm. Free, but ticketed (over 18s only). A multi-bill, multi-genre ‘Canny Shiels - North Shields 800’ event. Three Kings Brewery on site.
Sat 28: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 28: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 29: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Wallington, Northumberland. 12 noon-1:00pm & 2:00-3:00pm. Tel: 01670 773606. National Trust admission prices apply. ‘Tunes in the Blooms’.
Sun 29: Glenn Miller Orchestra UK @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 3:00pm. Ray McVay & co.
Sun 29: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 29: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 29: Zoë Gilby w. Ryton Choral Society @ Corbridge Middle School NE45 5HX. 5:30pm. £15.00. Gilby w jazz trio & choir. ‘An evening of jazz song for choir’.
Sun 29: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 29: John Wilson & the Sinfonia of London @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. ‘Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Greatest Hits’.
Sun 29: Out Front @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.

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, March 15, 2014

Gregory Porter @ Hoochie Coochie March 14.


Gregory Porter (vcl); Chip Crawford (pno); Aaron James (bs); Emanuel Harold (dms); Yosuke Sato (alt).
(Review by Lance).
Gig of the year? Gig of the Century - any century!
It was standing room only for the sardines - sorry, fans - sandwiched into Hoochie. I opted for a vantage point next to the fire door, just in case, and the flames that Gregory Porter was igniting on stage made this a distinct possibility!
What a performer! I missed out on seeing him at the Royal Albert Hall  last October but how could that compare with seeing him on stage only a few  feet away?
A richly timbred voice that reverberated around the room - this was the 21st century version of, say, Billy Eckstine or Johnny Hartman, truly as classy an act as has ever graced the stage of a Newcastle club since the halcyon days of La Dolce Vita back in the 1960s.
Predictably most of the material was from his Grammy winning album Liquid Spirit reviewed here last year but hearing it live added a totally new dimension.
Not that this was a one man show, Tokyo born, New York based, altoist Sato unleashed a fireworks display of his own with some awesome playing - this has been a good couple of days for alto saxes at Hoochie!.
At the Steinway (yes a grand piano no less) Crawford gave our man the cushion he needed whilst James and Harold completed the comfort zone.
This was one of those nights to remember forever - you probably only get half a dozen of them in a lifetime - in years to come the old folks will tell their grandchildren "I was there"!
Lance.

4 comments :

Paul Waller said...

Perfect review!

Andrew Collinson said...

Thanks for the card Lance! It was nice talking to you in Hoochie! What a gig!!! It will live long into the memory! I remember turning on a few occasions to one of the people next to me and us laughing at each other because of how good it was! "What's going on" were the words coming out of our mouths on at least a few occasions! Thank you Gregory!

Hoochie Coochie said...

Having now lost GP to the masses I can only be grateful to him for playing Hoochie Coochie after chasing him for over 3yrs. Truly a night to remember & be proud of for us.

Richard Waddington said...

Three years ago people were telling me how fantastic Gregory Porter was live; like Sam Dees at Fleetwood or Maze at Hammersmith. I went to see him at Cheltenham cos Ravi Coltrane was on as well.
Ravi wasn't very good (I've seen him at Leeds since and he was great) but GP was terrific; not as good as I'd been told but better than I expected. However, I did feel that this was a moment in time which I only just caught before he went to the masses; not cos he's that fantastic - he only really has 3 great songs - but the hype evaporated and I was no longer interested in him, which is just as well cos you couldn't get tickets to see him after thaty anyway.

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