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

Sunday, March 29, 2015

The Jazz Machine @ The Globe Jazz Bar - March 28.

Pepe Greenaway (alt); Dave Parker (bs); Peter Ninnim (dms).
"A work in progress" was the description given to me by one of the "Machinists" and it probably summed up what was, nevertheless, a fine example of the Jazz Co-op's attempts to offer a varied program - partly subsidised by the wall to wall throng of pulchritudinous flesh in the downstairs bar. It wasn't an easy choice to make!
However, jazz as opposed to Disco, for me, was the name of the game so it was onward and upward although I did wonder if a first time visitor may not have been discouraged and reluctant to forge a path through this human jungle. Why is the side door that gives direct access to "The Jazz Bar" rarely open?
Questions for another time.
The Jazz Machine, with no harmonic hub in the form of guitar or keyboard to fill out the overall sound, make a decent fist of it with Greenaway blowing some Dolphy (ish) solos. He makes much use of the upper register frequently utilising those unorthodox fingerings the text books rarely mention - an omission that will be rectified when his own saxophone tutor hits the browsers in your local music store.
The set included compositions by Greenaway as well as offerings from Mingus, Rollins, Coltrane and Wayne Shorter.
Ninnim, whose true forte is driving a big band adapted well and Jazz Co-op supremo Parker impressed on what appeared to be a solid electric cello although the sounds were most bass-like.
I shall follow the progress of the work.
Lance.

1 comment :

Dave Parker said...

The instrument I was playing is a modern reproduction of the Ampeg Baby Bass. It was one of the first commercially successful electric upright basses. It was widely used by Latin bands in the 1960s.

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