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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

Monday, April 20, 2015

A New Band Hits Town! The Gala Theatre Big Band Gala - Theatre, Durham April 19.

(Review by Jerry)
The availability of bottled Double Maxim (my preferred match-day tipple) made this feel like a visit to the Stadium of Light – but without the pain! Here there were only winners: Durham City with a new big band; Paul Edis, the band-leader; the band as a whole who gave such an excellent debut concert; the many soloists who bravely conquered first-night nerves and, above all, the audience (150-200, I guess) who lapped it up from start (Miller’s In the Mood) to finish (Basie’s One o’Clock Jump)! And there were some brilliant hats and waistcoats too!

Miller was followed by Edis – a blues self-mockingly (and erroneously) entitled Diminishing Returns. The blues were then immediately banished by Sammy Nestico’s foot-stomping arrangement of Sweet Georgia Brown, the musicians visibly relaxing now and enjoying great ensemble playing. Five brave “volunteers” then joined Edis at the front of the stage to perform two funky / bluesy numbers: Hancock’s Watermelon Man and Nat Adderley’s Work Song. Great stuff!
            Next up was another Edis original, the slow, muted, elegiac Too Sad for Words. And then, Dur-ham, Dur-ham, Dur-ham Dur-ham, Dur-ham…(why not?) Mancini’s Pink Panther got us back in the swing before the first set closed with another Nestico arrangement: All of Me. Time for another bottle of Houghton-le-Spring’s finest…..
            A train whistle (I kid you not!) from behind the closed red curtains announced the start of the second set and we were all whisked away on Strayhorn’s A Train. Those of you who have the recent CD of the same name would have recognised Mr Hipster which lent itself well to a big band treatment and provided an interesting comparison with the earlier Henry Mancini piece. This Edis original more than holds its own!
            My wife’s favourite Basie piece, Li’l Darlin, followed smoothly on from there. I hadn’t realised (jazznoramus) that this was actually composed by Neal Hefti, a name new to me and soon to be heard again as the band-leader introduced their penultimate number, Splanky. This really was a full-throttle (or “regulator” if we were still on that train!) sound from a very big band and it left the audience shouting for more. Which they got, in the shape of the aforementioned One o’Clock Jump.
            “When’s the next one?” was a question I heard from several exiting musicians. This was their first full concert in public: I too hope, like long awaited buses (or trains?), another will come along very soon. They were stars, every one!
Jerry.
Band-leader – Paul Edis
Trumpets -Dave Skipsey, Lis Hammond, Tom Rillands, Anthony Darwin, Edd Maughan
Trombones- Darcy Whyatt, Ian Cargill, Andrew Hedges, Thomas Hunter, Chris Gallon
Saxes- (Altos) Neil Owen, Beth Pollard, Francesca Sensier, Judith Wood-Archer
(Tenors) Peter Little, John Bowman, Rebecca Devine, Steve Williams
(Baritones) Katherine Humpleby, Alan Smith, Lindsay Smith
Flute - Kirstin Unwin Clarinet - Victoria Bainbridge
Guitar - Francis Tulip Piano - George Hetherington Bass - Richard Bower/Owen Jones
Drums - Alex Kennedy


1 comment :

Unknown said...

Thanks for all your comments! We certainly did. Hope you enjoyed our first outing everyone! Ian Cargill ( Trombone)

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