DECEMBER 2025
Sat 06: Sarah Spencer’s Transatlantic Band @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 06: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £27.50. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. Minor Swing. Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 06: Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 06: NUJO Jazz Jam @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £3.76 (inc. bf).
Sat 06: Kaberry Big Band @ The Seahorse, Whitley Bay. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £15.00. (inc. hot buffet). ‘Christmas 1945’. Kaberry Big Band, formerly Vermont Big Band.
Sat 06: Smokin’ Spitfires @ Platform 1, Bedlington. 7:30pm. £6.00. Rhythm & blues.
Sat 06: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00. Xmas Party with buffet.
Sat 06: The Jive Aces @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 8:00pm. £22.00., £20.00.
Sat 06: Brass Fiesta @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 10:30pm. Free.
Sun 07: Ian Bosworth Quintet @ Chapel, Middlesbrough. 1:00pm. Free. Feat. special guest Donna Hewitt (sax, clarinet).
Sun 07: Finn-Keeble Group @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00.
Sun 07: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 07: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 07: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 2:30pm. Free. Trio + Ruth Lambert.
Sun 07: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 07: Jason Isaacs Big Band @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 5:15pm (4:00pm doors). £21.50 (inc. bf).
Sun 07: Paul Skerritt @ 3 Stories, High St. West, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 07: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Support set from Play More Jazz! course participants. Note earlier start.Mon 08: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Tue 09: Jazz Jam Sandwich @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm
Wed 10: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 10: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 10: Jam Session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 10: Mike Lindup Jazz Trio @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £26.50 (inc. bf). Lindup, Yolanda Charles (bass), John Sam (drums).
Wed 10: Bold Big Band @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Thu 11: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: West Coast (cool ) / Wordsearch (cool) Cool Jazz or ‘Cold’, ‘Cool’, ‘Hot’, ‘Warm’ in the title or lyrics.
Thu 11: George Robinson @ Prohibition Bar, Albert Road, Middlesbrough TS1 2RU. 7:00pm (doors). £5.42 (inc. bf). Vienna’s Voice charity evening featuring ’15 year old singing sensation the ‘Redcar Crooner’ George Robinson’. Over 35s only.
Thu 11: Paul Skerritt @ Chakh Dhoom, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Indian restaurant. Skerritt w. back tapes.
Thu 11: Ransom Van @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Thu 11: Down for the Count Swing Orchestra @ Middlesbrough Town Hall. 7:30pm. £37.70 (inc. bf). ‘Swing into Xmas’.
Fri 12: Pete Tanton’s Chet Set @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 12: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 12: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 12: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 12: Milne Glendinning Band @ Northumberland Club, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £15.00. ‘Xmas Soiree’.
Fri 12: A Jazzy Xmas @ St Cuthbert’s Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £15.00. Paul Edis (MD, piano); Jo Harrop (vocals); Vasilis Xenopoulos (tenor sax, soprano sax); Matthew Forster (alto sax, clarinet); Sue Ferris (flute, piccolo); Graham Hardy (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jason Holcomb (trombone);Emma Fisk (violin); Andy Champion (double bass); Matt MacKellar (drums). SOLD OUT!
Fri 12: Tony Hadley: Xmas Big Band Tour 2025 @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm.
Fri 12: Alexia Gardner @ The New Ship Inn, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. 8:00pm. Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy, Abbie Finn.
Fri 12: Jive Aces: Swingin’ Xmas Show @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 8:00pm.
4 comments :
I left the Jazz Café on a high after a fantastic gig featuring Hutton, Champion and Carnegie. I wandered over to GOTH (Gateshead Old Town Hall) to see how the marathon was going. About fifty people in round midnight. A bloke in a waistcoat, bow tie etc was telling a story about a bloke who sawed off his feet. A piper, Paul Knox, piped-up intermittently. The interminable story - I was losing the will to live - came to an end. Cue two female singers, audience participation at the chorus, folkie foot-stomping. At around ten minutes to one I realised why I love jazz as much as I do and went off into the night.
Russell,
I left the Saturday Jazz Workshop on a high after studying 'Bernie's Tune' and I left the 24 hours of Folk on a high just before you arrived! I had 2 highs with the added bonus that the 24 hours of folk had raised funds for Sage Gateshead, so that both folk and jazz can continue. Long may both go on!
Maybe you didn't listen to the storytelling closely enough. The nearest comparison that many people would remember is the storytelling of Dave Allen the comedian. Storytelling is used in schools now to teach children how to deal with bullying and abuse. Ann Alex
I must admit up to a few years ago I took little interest in 'folk music' apart from the local dialect songs which I've liked going back to Alex Glasgow & Co. My loss! Neil Harland played me some of Chris Stout's music - wonderful stuff and very sophisticated (complex time signatures no problem for one small example) - swings like the clappers, gorgeous lyrical melodies and so on. I realised I was maybe missing out on something. I went to see Fiddlers Bid at Berwick Maltings a while back - absolutely memorable! I love The Unthanks music - their CD 'Songs of the Shipyards' is one of the most moving I've ever heard - wonderful story telling and cohesive from start to finish. Talk about compelling. Its very moving and I've listened to it over and over again. I've commented before about June Tabor. Check out Eliza Carthy too. Went to a Bellowhead Sage concert about two years back. Everyone was on their feet. Fantastic live act. Just been checking out Ian Carr (the guitarist) and Simon Thoumire on Iain's very amusing website - amazing stuff. Quite a few great jazz players comfortably cross over to contemporary folk and mix things up too. Graeme Stephen, Fraser Fifield, Chris Stout, Huw Warren, Iain Ballamy to name just a few. Folk music is just another genre - there's great, good and not so good - just like jazz. PS. What about opera?
Roly
While I love jazz and have been to many great jazz gigs, I've also been to a few where the option of having a foot sawed off might have seemed a tempting alternative. But I love folk and traditional music as well and ten days ago I was at an epic folk concert at the Sage as part of three-day festival curated by the current folk band of the moment, Lau. They had asked the Unthanks to bring together some of the groups who had influenced them. So on stage were the Unthanks who include the two singers, a piano, two violins, a cello and an electric bass; a three-man a capella group called the Voice Squad; and the Irish fiddle player, Martin Hayes and his guitar playing sidekick, Dennis Cahill. The first piece was a song 'Sea coal' written by a 14 year old from Hartlepool and featured the three groups together - amazing. The groups also played separately and I would defy lovers of whatever kind of specific music not to be moved by the Voice Squad's unaccompanied version of 'I am Stretched on Your Grave'.
Then Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill's 15 minute improvisation on a traditional Irish tune was a staggering tour de force. Folk? Jazz? When they're good, they're great.
PS. But I have to say I draw the line at opera....
JC
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