Bebop Spoken There

Melissa Aldana: ''Having to play a ballads album, which is something very revealing for a saxophone player, would help me to question some new aspects of how to go deeper into sound." (DownBeat May, 2026)

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

18621 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 485 of them this year alone and, so far this month (June 14) 37

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

From This Moment On

June

Wed 24: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 24: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 24: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 25: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, Mill Rise, South Gosforth, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 25: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject: Forgotten Ones & Any Quintets.
Thu 25: Edgar Ho Trio @ Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. Free. Brilliant alto sax, piano & double bass trio. Unmissable!
Thu 25: Paul Skerritt @ Angels' Share, St George's Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle NE2 2SX. 8:00pm. Free. Booking advised (0191 200 1975). Skerritt w. backing tapes.

Fri 26: Finn-Keeble Group @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £9:00.
Fri 26: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 26: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 26: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 26: Clark Tracey @ Live Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Newcastle Jazz Festival. £26.00. Day 1/2.

Sat 27: OUTRI @ Live Theatre, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £13.01. 1:00-1:45pm. Newcastle Jazz Festival. Day 2/2.
Sat 27: Tees Bay Swing Band @ Richardson & Westgarth Sport & Social Club, Hartlepool. 1:30pm. Free. Open rehearsal. Note change of venue.
Sat 27: House of the Black Gardenia + Magpies of Swing @ The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sat 27: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Live Theatre, Newcastle. 2:15-3:15pm. £13.01. Newcastle Jazz Festival. Day 2/2.
Sat 27: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ Live Theatre, Newcastle. 3:45-4:45pm. £13.01. Newcastle Jazz Festival. Day 2/2.
Sat 27: Rory Ingham @ Live Theatre, Newcastle. 5:30-6:30pm. £19.51. Newcastle Jazz Festival. Day 2/2. Ingham w. Dean Stockdale, Ian Paterson, Dave McKeague.
Sat 27: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 27: Laura Jurd @ Live Theatre, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £26.00. Newcastle Jazz Festival. Day 2/2. Sat 27: Brass Fiesta @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 10:30pm. Free.

Sun 28: Musicians Unlimited: Big Band Blast @ West Hartlepool RFC. 1:00-3:00pm . Free.
Sun 28: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Table reservations (0191 261 8000). Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 28: Tim Kliphuis Trio @ St Mary’s Church, Wooler. 3:00pm. £18.00., £6.00. A Wooler Arts Summer Concerts event. Tim Kliphuis (violin); Nigel Clark (guitar); Roy Percy (double bass).
Sun 28: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: An Evening of Jazz @ St James’ Church, Copper Chare, Morpeth. 7:30pm. Tickets: £10.00 from 01670 788869 or 01670 519923. Mid Northumberland Chorus (MD Robin Forbes, Emma Straughan, piano) w. jazz trio featuring Edgar Ho, Oscar Ho & Dave McKeague & special guest Emily Masser. Performance inc. Bob Chilcott’s A Little Jazz Mass + George Shearing’s Songs & Sonnets.
Sun 28: Led Bib @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £15.00., £12.00. JNE.

Mon 29: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 30: Alan Law Trio @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 2:00pm. Free.
Tue 30: Eva Fox & the Sound Hounds @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

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.
at

4 comments :

Paul Waller said...

Perfect review!

Saturday, March 15, 2014 12:36:00 pm
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!

Monday, March 17, 2014 10:28:00 pm
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.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016 10:53:00 am
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.

Friday, April 29, 2016 2:58:00 pm

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