Bebop Spoken There

Christian McBride: ''I believe we are living in a historically embarrassing moment in American history.'' - Downbeat December 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

18061 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 1025 of them this year alone and, so far, 39 this month (Dec. 14).

From This Moment On ...

DECEMBER 2025

Mon 15: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 16: Paul Skerritt @ Chakh Dhoom, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Indian restaurant. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Tue 16: A Jazzy Xmas @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm. Paul Edis (MD, piano); Jo Harrop (vocals); Kyran Matthews (tenor sax, soprano sax); Faye Thompson (alto sax, clarinet); Sue Ferris (flute, piccolo); Graham Hardy (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jason Holcomb (trombone);Emma Fisk (violin); Andy Champion (double bass); Matt MacKellar (drums).
Tue 16: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Tim Johnston.

Wed 17: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Spanish City, Whitley Bay. 12 noon. £29.00 (inc. bf). ‘Festive Lunch’. VCJ on stage 12 noon (three sets 'til 4:00pm).
Wed 17: Lazy River Band @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. Veronica Perrin, Chris Perrin, John Farragher, Phil Rutherford
Wed 17: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 17: Paul Skerritt @ Middlesbrough Town Hall. 7:00pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Wed 17: A Jazzy Xmas @ Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm. Paul Edis (MD, piano); Jo Harrop (vocals); Kyran Matthews (tenor sax, soprano sax); Faye Thompson (alto sax, clarinet); Sue Ferris (flute, piccolo); Graham Hardy (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jason Holcomb (trombone);Emma Fisk (violin); Andy Champion (double bass); Matt MacKellar (drums).
Wed 17: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 18: Paul Skerritt @ YOLO, Ponteland. 7:00pm. ‘Swing & Jazz Night’. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Thu 18: Joe Steels & Friends @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:30pm. Free (donations).

Fri 19: Fraser Urquhart @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT! .
Fri 19: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free..
Fri 19: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free..
Fri 19: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00..
Fri 19: Castillo Nuevo @ Hotel Gotham, Newcastle. 5:00pm. Free. .
Fri 19: Alexia Gardner @ FIKA Art Gallery, Morpeth. 6:30pm. Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy..
Fri 19: Paul Skerritt @ Middlesbrough Town Hall. 7:00pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes. .
Fri 19: Giles Strong Quartet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. Old Black Cat Jazz Club..
Fri 19: Creakin’ Bones & the Xmas Dinners @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm. £13.01 (inc. bf)..
Fri 19: Mark Toomey Quintet @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 20: Jazz Attack @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 11:00am. Free.
Sat 20: Alexia Gardner @ FIKA Art Gallery, Morpeth. 6:30pm. Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy. SOLD OUT!
Sat 20: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. CANCELLED!
Sat 20: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 20: Hoodoo Blues @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:15pm (doors). £14.25, £11.55. Dance class, social dancing, live music & Xmas Party. Live music from 9:00pm - Ruth Lambert, Giles Strong, Ian Paterson & John Bradford (jazz and blues).
Sat 20: John Pope Quintet @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 7:30-8:30pm. £7.70 (inc. bf). Album recording session.

Sun 21: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackosn’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. ‘Xmas Swingalong’. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 21: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00-5:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ o2 City Hall, Newcastle. 6:00pm. £35.80., £33.25., £31.00.
Sun 21: The Globe Xmas Party @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Live music.
Sun 21: Tweed River Jazz Band @ The Barrels Ale House, Berwick. 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

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Jazz Café Update

Jazz Cafe summer closure
The Jazz Cafe has just closed down for its summer break and will re-open on Tuesday 1st September.
Advance ticket sales for September
This email is to give you details of three very special and musically varied Jazz Cafe promotions in September for which tickets are on sale now at the Details Art Materials Shop at Newcastle Arts Centre, 67 Westgate Road NE1 1SG. You can purchase tickets in person, or by phone to be posted by ‘recorded delivery’ for a fee  of  £2.50 for any quantity. Tel. 0191 261 5999 office hours.
Revised License
As from September the Cafe will have a revised license allowing access for young people up to 11pm when accompanied by a responsible adult. We will also be permitted to serve draught beers on the bar: keg lager plus a guest real ale.
Other events in September
For details of our free admission jam sessions and Saturday night duo performances as well as of the regular monthly Jazz North East Schmazz presentation please access our website at www.jazzcafe-newcastle.co.uk/
THE THREE MAJOR SEPTEMBER EVENTS
(1)   Mark Pringle’s Moveable Feast Trio  –  Upstairs in the Cafe  9.00pm Friday 11th September  –. £6.00 / £5.00 advance.
Pianist Mark Pringle, aged just 24, but already described by The Independent as “Stupendously talented,”  has recently graduated from  jazz studies at Birmingham Conservatoire and in October begins two years further study  in Berlin, Copenhagen and Amsterdam on a highly sought after place on the European Jazz Masters (EUJAM) Programme.
This year, thanks to a Peter Whittingham Award he has created and recorded a 12-piece ensemble, “Moveable Feast,” which tours nationally in September. The Moveable Feast Trio which he brings to the Jazz Cafe on  September 11th  - Mark on piano, James Banner double bass and Euan Palmer drums – is described by Mark as the creative core of the 12-piece where his compositions are explored with greater freedom and communicative energy.
The Independent described his piano duo album with John Law ‘This Is’ as “so full of joy that it can renew your faith not just in jazz , but music itself.”
The late John Taylor, leading European jazz pianist and composer said of Mark “Mark Pringle is an exceptionally gifted pianist and composer, and a remarkable improviser. 'A Moveable Feast' is a striking example of his writing and playing”
Listen to Mark Pringle’s music at  << sound cloud .com/markpringle >> and at <<markpringle.bandcamp.com>>
(2)  Alice Grace Quintet   – Upstairs in the Cafe  9.00pm Friday 18th September – £6.00 / £5.00 in advance
Alice Grace’s career as a jazz vocalist began aged 12 with a local big band in Kent, moved on to the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (as did Amy Winehouse) and then to appearances with the house band at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. After all that, jazz studies at the London Guildhall School of Music and the Amsterdam Conservatoire must have seemed almost an anti-climax!
Alice names Ella and Diana Krall as major influences and her career post-graduation has  been conventional enough for a “ jazzer”, singing with jazz and soul ensembles in venues large – including London’s Southbank Centre and Royal Albert Hall – and more intimate across the UK and Europe and most recently in Dubai and across the Emirates where she co-founded her own band. But this “jazzer” has another string to her bow. She lends her soulful tone to producers of drum n bass, dubstep and house music and also composes for these genres.
Upstairs at the Jazz Cafe Alice’s jazz side will be to the fore with an evening of originals and classic jazz standards accompanied by a hand-picked local band including another exciting recent incomer to the Northern jazz scene like herself, the drummer Russ Morgan.
Alice Grace vocals; Peter Gilligan keys; Paul Gowland tenor & alto saxes; Paul Grainger double bass; Russ Morgan drums
(3) Soundbone Plays Led Zep  –  Upstairs in the Cafe  9.00pm  Friday 25th September– £7.00 / £5.00 advance.
Ex – Oz, now Edinburgh – based trombonist Chris Greive’s adventurous, ground-breaking trio NeWt was renowned for its “satisfying clash of tone colours” (Jazzwise) and “urgent but compact sound” (The Herald, Glasgow) and played a number of times on Tyneside. Now Chris (trombone and electronics,including octave – divider for bass lines!), with NeWt’s outstandingly creative guitarist Graeme Stephen and drummer David Carnegie from Barbados and Tyneside, have formed Soundbone to play free – ranging versions of some Led Zep classics. The trio pays homage to the massive riffs and weight of the originals, while bringing a prog-jazz approach to each of the songs.
a good number of the big guns are here : an emphatically riffing Communication Breakdown, a superbly stylish Kashmir, a rattlin’ Moby Dick and an Immigration Song that threatens the Jazz Bar’s foundations.” (The Herald Glasgow) “More structured episodes are interspersed with bouts of fiery free improv mayhem....Powerful and inventive music of a high order.” (The List)
Mike Tilley, Dave Clarke and the Jazz Cafe Team


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