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Bebop Spoken There

Sullivan Fortner: ''I always judge it by the bass player: If the bass player is happy, it's going to be a good night". (DownBeat, February 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

17822(and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 143 of them this year alone and, so far, 68 this month (Feb.25).

From This Moment On ...

February 2025

Thu 27: Jamie McCredie @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Fri 28: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. THIS WEEK ONLY JAMES BIRKETT (guitar)!
Fri 28: Luis Verde Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 28: Spilt Milk @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Fri 28: Castillo Nuevo Orquesta @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £8.00.
Fri 28: Knats @ Lubber Fiend, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £11.50. (inc bf.). Album launch gig. Support act TBC.
Fri 28: Black is the Color of My Voice @ The Gala, Durham. 7:30pm. Apphia Campbell’s one-woman show inspired by the life of Nina Simone, performed by Florence Odumosu.
Fri 28: Great North Big Band Jazz Festival: Musicians Unlimited @ Park View Community Centre, Chester-le-Street. 8:00pm. £10.00. (Weekend ticket £20.00., available on the door). Day 1/3. Musicians Unlimited in concert.
Fri 28: Redwell @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

MARCH 2025

Sat 01: Great North Big Band Jazz Festival @ Park View Community Centre, Chester-le-Street. 11:00am. £15.00. Day 2/3.
Sat 01: TJ Johnson Band @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £25.00. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. Get your funk on! Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Shunyata Improvisation Group @ The Watch House, Cullercoats. 2:00-3:30pm. Free.
Sat 01: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Billy Bootleggers. Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free.
Sat 01: Lapwing Jazz Trio @ Three Sheets to the Wind, Alnwick. 5:15pm or 5:45pm (times tbc). Part of the Alnwick Story Festival's music fringe programme: Free.
Sat 01: Struggle Buggy @ The Peacock, Sunderland. 6:00pm. Blues band.
Sat 01: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 01: Joseph O’Brien: The Ultimate Tribute to Frank Sinatra @ Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm. O’Brien & seven piece band (inc. Wendy Kirkland, Jim Corry & Pat Sprakes).
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 01: Jack & Jay’s Vintage Songbook @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 02: Great North Big Band Jazz Festival @ Park View Community Centre, Chester-le-Street. 11:00am. £10.00. Day 3/3.
Sun 02: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £7.50.
Sun 02: Nauta @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00.
Sun 02: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free (donations).
Sun 02: Side Café Orkestar @ Café Under the Spire, Derwentwater Road, Gateshead. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 02: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 02: Milne Glendinning Band @ The White Room, Stanley. 6:30pm.
Sun 02: Bella by Barlight @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 02: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Spittal Bowling Club, Berwick. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 02: Ali Watson Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 03: Milne Glendinning Band @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 03: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 04: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Delaval. Tel: 0191 237 3697. 12:30pm. £8.00. ‘Jazz ‘n’ Pancakes’.
Tue 04: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.
Tue 04: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 06: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: The Jazz Music of Quincy Jones.
Thu 06: BBC Big Band @ The Hippodrome, Darlington. 7:30pm. £32.00., £25.00., £16.00. ‘The Sound of Cinema’ featuring Emer McPartland (vocals).
Thu 06: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 06: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. Guests: Dan Johnson (sax); Josh Bentham (sax); Gary Hadfield (keys); Adrian Beadnell (bass). A Tees Hot Club promotion. First Thursday in the month.

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

Friday, April 10, 2015

Gateshead International Jazz Festival – it’s here! Today's goodies.

(Preview by Russell)
In less than a few hours’ time Sage Gateshead becomes the centre of the jazz universe. Three days of non-stop jazz all under one iconic Norman Foster-designed roof. Sage Gateshead celebrates its tenth anniversary this year (where has the time gone?!). Jazz plays its part throughout the year but the focus is on the long weekend of April 10-12.
Day One – Friday 10 April
Music, workshops, a seminar, food and drink, late night jam sessions – sleep can wait. The music begins on the concourse at 6:30pm on Friday evening with the New York Brass Band. Tynesiders will be familiar with Graham Hardy’s Northern Monkey Brass Band. The New Yorkers are from Yorkshire and they do a similar job – they’ll get you dancing to and from the bar (Two pints of Byker Jazz, please).
Hall One stages a starry double bill: the David Sanborn Band and John Scofield with Jon Cleary. Sanborn is a ‘name’ in the jazz world. Few attain such status and his appearance at Sage Gateshead can be considered a real coup. Expect top-flight fusion as the saxophonist tours his new CD and revisits some of his back catalogue. The other half of the double bill is one for guitarists and pianists, indeed, for anyone who appreciates consummate musicianship. Sco, as he is affectionately known, made his name with Miles Davis (Hammersmith Odeon, London, as it then was, circa 1980 European tour). A distinctive stylist (angular blues) with jazz guitar history at his fingertips, Scofield will work through his Piety Street band days with British-born pianist Jon Cleary (a hazy memory recalls Cleary at an upright piano during the days of the long-gone North Shields Fish Quay Festival). Hall One should be at capacity for this one – be quick and book your tickets now.
If Hall One puts up the ‘sold out’ signs then Hall Two is likely to do likewise. 2015 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Under Milk Wood. Stan Tracey’s landmark recording is to the British jazz scene as Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue is to the wider jazz world. Everyone has a copy of Kind of Blue. Everyone has a copy of Under Milk Wood, don’t they? If not, take a seat in Hall Two (stand if needs be) for one of the treats of the festival. Stan Tracey is, of course, no longer with us, but his music lives on. Tracey’s long-time collaborator tenor saxophonist Bobby Wellins will play the suite in the A-list company of Andy Cleyndert (double bass), Clark Tracey (drums) and pianist Steve Melling. The quartet will be joined by Tracey’s grandson Ben Tracey as narrator on Dylan Thomas’ work. The quartet will also perform a set of their own. Unmissable. A tough choice – Hall One or Hall Two? The choice is yours!
Late night Friday offers not one, not two, not three, but four options. Soul jazz, opera (!), guitar mastery and a jam session into the early hours. Jarrod Lawson is a soul jazz star of tomorrow. Hear him in Hall Two at 10:30pm. Stevie Wonder is an influence and a few of Hoochie Coochie’s regulars are sure to be tempted to forego cocktails for Byker Jazz. A matter of fifteen minutes later (10:45pm) in the Jazz Lounge (aka the Northern Rock Foundation Hall) prepare to be knocked for six by a tenor battle the likes of which you won’t have heard before. We’re not talking a late night slug fest (Illinois Jacquet v Arnett Cobb), this is one man, two tenors. Hakon Kornstad plays tenor saxophone and sings as an operatic tenor! Jazz vs Opera – a tenor Battle could be the surprise of the festival. As Sage Gateshead’s Jazz Festival programme puts it; Caruso meets Coltrane! To gain an insight to Kornstad’s work, ticket holders will have the opportunity to hear the Norwegian in pre-concert conversation with Kevin LeGendre (9:45pm).
Out on the concourse at 10:15pm and again at 11:15pm James Birkett and Bradley Johnston will be playing jazz guitar of the highest order. Eddie Lang, Django, Metheny (Scofield?!) will form the basis of their two-set performance. Birkett is pre-eminent on the north east jazz scene and beyond. Johnston is gigging across the north of England with Birkett and his own recently formed band. Johnston is a mainstay of the Jazz Café’s excellent jam sessions (fortnightly Tuesdays on Pink Lane, Newcastle). Highly recommended. If Sco is around after his Hall One appearance he is certain to be impressed! You want more? Dash across the Tyne to the Newcastle Jazz Co-op’s home base at the Globe on Railway Street* (just off the Redheugh Bridge) to soak up an after hours jam session led by Steve Glendinning (another fine guitarist). That should take you through to about 3:00am. Not much time to sleep as Saturday (day two) dawns!
Earlier, 11:00am Friday, those interested in environmental politics can make a day of it at Sage Gateshead by attending a free, but ticketed, seminar titled: Take the Green Train. A seminar looking at how sustainability in music is a real live issue should prove to be enlightening. Presented by the Europe Jazz Work and Julie’s Bicycle, there will be case studies and key note speakers. Who’s Julie? Why not book a place and find out! To book a ticket for all of the events at the Gateshead International Jazz Festival telephone 0191 443 4661.            
Russell.
*(Ed. Note) The Jazz Co-op are hoping to provide transport from Sage Gateshead to the Globe jam session. Details from their stand on the Concourse.

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