Bebop Spoken There

Donovan Haffner ('Best Newcomer' 2025 Parliamentary Jazz Awards): ''I got into jazz the first time I picked up a saxophone!" - Jazzwise Dec 25/Jan 26

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

18146 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 24 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Jan. 7), 24

From This Moment On ...

JANUARY 2026

Thu 08: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject: Jazz Milestones of 1976.

Fri 09: The House Trio @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Fri 09: Nauta @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £5.00. Trio: Jacob Egglestone, Jamie Watkins, Bailey Rudd.
Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Warren James & the Lonesome Travellers @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Fri 09: The Blue Kings @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. (£8.00. adv.). All-star band.

Sat 10: Mark Toomey Quintet @ St Peter’s Church, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:30pm. £12.00. (inc. pie & peas). Tickets from: 07749 255038.

Sun 11: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Eva Fox & the Sound Hounds @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 12: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.

Tue 13: Milne Glendinning Band @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £11.00. Coquetdale Jazz.
Tue 13: Jazz Jam Sandwich @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: Jam Session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

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, November 15, 2014

Big Bands Are Like Buses

Radio Reveling from Russell).
BBC Radio does jazz well.* The problem is there isn’t enough of it – until the annual London Jazz Festival registers on Auntie’s radar. Composer of the Week: Big Band (Monday-Friday) on Radio 3 (12 noon) looks in depth at the form. Regular presenter Donald Macleod is guided through five one hour programmes by Guy Barker starting with Pioneers on Monday 17 Nov. Tuesday – The Swing Era, Wednesday – Big Band Bebop, Thursday – The 1950s and Friday – The New Sounds. All five programmes are repeated at 6:30pm each day through the week. 
Clare Teal (Sunday 16, Radio 2, 9:00pm) plays more big band fare and Julian Joseph joins her to preview the London Jazz Festival. On Radio 3 (Tuesday, 7:30pm) Radio 3 Live in Concert there is more big band jazz live from the Barbican, London. The BBC Concert Orchestra with Clark Rundell (conductor) works with Norma Winstone and the Trish Clowes Quintet. Newly commissioned work will be heard from Clowes and Guy Barker.
Novelist John Harvey shares his Private Passions (Sunday, Radio 3, 12 noon). Charlie Resnick is sure to get some jazz played! Clare Teal pops up again on In Tune (Radio 3, Monday, 4:30pm) and later the Branford Marsalis Quartet can be heard on Jazz on 3 (11:00pm) from the LJF. The classical side of Branford will be revealed throughout the week on Essential Classics (Radio 3, Monday-Friday, 9:00am). Jamie Cullum meets Arun Ghosh (Tuesday, Radio 2, 7:00pm) and at ten o’clock The Secret Kind of Blue looks at Miles’ ’59 recording (Guy Barker presents, first broadcast in 2009). Jay Rayner appears on In Tune (Tuesday, 4:30pm) with his jazz quartet. If actors can play the blues, Rayner can play jazz. And don’t forget the blues…Paul Jones over on Radio 2, 7:00pm, Monday has a further installment from London’s Blues Fest featuring Robert Cray. And finally, on Thursday 20, catch part three of The Atlantic Records Story over on BBC 6 Music. The programme (3/13) airs at 1:00am Friday looking at the label’s jazz catalogue.
Russell.
* Last night’s gala opening of this year’s London Jazz Festival broadcast live on Radio 3  from the Barbican – Radio 3 Live in Concert: Jazz Voice – featured Guy Baker fronting the London Jazz Festival Orchestra and an array of singers including Kurt Elling, Georgie Fame and Dee Dee Bridgewater. All great stuff, until near the end of the concert a Radio 3 continuity announcer interrupted Elling and band to tell the listener it was time to leave the Barbican to join the following scheduled programme. Now, can you image live opera from the Met or the Royal Opera House being cut short before the fat lady sang?              

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