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Bebop Spoken There

Francis Tulip: ''Music speaks louder than words''. (Jazzwise, June 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

17,550 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 514 of them this year alone and, so far, 92 this month (June 28).

From This Moment On ...

JULY 2025

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Jam session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: The Hopper-Watson Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 8:00pm (7:30pm doors). £10.00. + £1.00. bf.
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 10: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Soloists, Orchestras & Hot Fives.
Thu 10: Side Café Orkestar @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 11: Paul Skerritt Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church, Cockton Hill Road, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00. A Bishop Auckland Jazz promotion. New venue (second Friday in the month)!
Fri 11: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 11: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Beehive, Earsdon NE25 0SZ. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: Fiona Finden Jazz Express @ Flash House Brewery, North Shields NE30 1DS. 8:00pm. Free.

Sat 12: Jazz Stage @ Mouth of the Tyne Festival. From 12 noon. Free. Vieux Carré Jazzmen (12 noon); Rendezvous Jazz (1:00pm); Mississippi Dreamboats (2:00pm); Classic Swing (3:00pm); Abbie Finn Trio (4:00pm). Stage adjacent to Tynemouth Priory.
Sat 12: Making Music Seminar: Latin American Music v. Music of Latin America @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 1:00pm. £15.00. (£5.00. online). Jason Holcomb, Alix Shepherd & Carlos Luis Rivera.
Sat 12: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 12: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Lovaine Community Garden, North Shields. 7:00pm (doors 6:40pm). £6.00. Limited places, booking essential (via the Community Garden website). BYOF&D.
Sat 12: Hot Club du Nord @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Hall Two.
Sat 12: Sleep Suppressor @ Repas 7 by Night, Berwick. 8:00pm.
Sat 12: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle.8:00pm. Free. ‘Swing Jazz Guitar’. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 13: Jazz Stage @ Mouth of the Tyne Festival. From 11:00am. Free. Trilogy of Four (11:00am); East Coast Jazzmen (12:10pm); Delta Prophets Trio (1:20pm); House of the Black Gardenia (2:30pm); Mouth of the Tyne All Stars (3:40pm). Stage adjacent to Tynemouth Priory.
Sun 13: Giles Strong Quartet @ The Sele, Hexham. 12 noon. Free. ‘The Bandstand Sessions’.
Sun 13: Julie Dexter @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:30pm (doors). £20.00. ‘The Cluny Matinee Jazz Club’.
Sun 13: ’58 Jazz Collective, Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 2:00pm. Tea Dance. SOLD OUT! A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sun 13: Ferg Kilsby @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Kilsby (trumpet, flugelhorn); Luis Verde (alto sax); Ben Lawrence (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); John Hirst (drums).
Sun 13: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Sloth Racket @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.

Mon 14: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.
Mon 14: Brass Bash @ Hardwick Park, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Mon 14: Brass Bash @ The Story, Mount Oswald, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.

Tue 15: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Sluice. Tel: 0191 237 3697. 12:30pm. ‘July Jazz Barbecue’. Tickets: £15.00.
Tue 15: Brass Bash @ Hackworth Park, Shildon, Co. Durham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Tue 15: Brass Bash @ The Witham, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Tue 15: Julian Lage Trio @ 1856 Exchange, North Shields. 7:30pm . Lage (guitar); Jorge Roeder (double bass); Joey Barron (drums).
Tue 15: Jools Holland’s Rhythm & Blues Orchestra @ The Hippodrome, Darlington. 7:30pm.
Tue 15: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Bailey Rudd.

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, November 09, 2015

Mike Durham’s Classic Jazz Party – Village Hotel, the afternoon set Sunday Nov. 8

(Review by Russell)
Seven sets in five hours on one stage. Musicians took to the stage, and vacated it, in good time, ensuring events ran to schedule. Star names appeared in a mind boggling number of combos. Some, at the conclusion of a set, stepped off the stand for a minute or two before resuming their place in the brass, reeds or rhythm sections. The function suite’s acoustics enabled the guitarists to play acoustically – and be heard – in a variety of settings. Grand piano, a vintage percussion assemblage, string and brass bass instruments stage right and left, Mike Durham’s Classic Jazz Party ran like clockwork.
The Union Rhythm Kings stomped-off at noon led by Frans Sjöström. Humpty Dumpty, Bill Challis’ arrangement of Jelly Roll’s Crocodile Cradle and a hot Clarinet Marmalade made for an impressive start. Bent Persson, Kris Kompen, Lars Frank and the ‘boys’ (the youthful Nicholas Ball qualifies, likewise Kompen) met with a great reception from a full house.
Orange Blossoms pollinated, the Casa Loma Orchestra bloomed. The exceptional talent that is Josh Duffee put together a ten piece band to explore the legacy of Jean Goldkette’s swing band. Percussionist Duffee seemingly popped up in every other set. This one, a full hour’s worth of great music, featured an ace line-up: trumpeters Andy Schumm and Duke Heitger, reeds men Michael McQuaid, Matthias Seuffert and Robert Fowler, Kompen and the N’Awlins pianist David Boeddinghaus working with the Duffee-led rhythm section of Martin Wheatley (guitar) and the ebullient Richard Pite (bass). The tuxedoed Duffee gave an authoritative account of the genesis and development of the Casa Loma band, the early years the golden period: Stompin’ Around, Dance of the Lame Duck and the piano-vocals duet featuring Janice Day on Moanin’ Low. Duffee spoke warmly of his now annual visit to the Classic Jazz Party saying: the talent and quality is 150% the whole time!
Seagoon Serenders and Men of the World promised who knows what? Keith Nichols – mastermind of the first set, accordion-playing court jester to the latter – worked alongside Michael McQuaid (cornet & reeds), Thomas Winteler (reeds), Emma Fisk (violin), Spats Langham (banjo and vocals), Janice Day and, on a couple of numbers, the fine string bass player Malcolm Sked. Add Claus Jacobi, Morton Gunnar Larsen, Henry Lemaire (guitar and banjo) and sousaphone maestro Phil Rutherford to the cast list and it became a game of musical chairs. The Mooche a highlight, so too Richard Piccolo Pete Pite!
Janice Day and Mellow Baku were happy to be the Classic Jazz Party’s Songbirds and Nightingales. Duke Heitger led the session. Alongside the amiable American was fellow trumpeter Menno Daams, Winteler (reeds), ‘Wor Emma’, the brilliant Emma Fisk and the estimable Martin Litton (piano) with Sked and Duffee. Heitger’s swing sensibilities fitted the bill and, in so doing, encouraged Duffee to demonstrate his command of ‘swing feel’ material. Baku sang the Razaf/Redman classic I Cover the Waterfront. Brilliant! A small group Baku swing session wouldn’t have gone amiss!
In describing Duke Heitger as an amiable guy the same applies to Andy Schumm. A Bix disciple, What Bix could have played – Volume 2 gave the American every excuse (as if one were needed!) to revisit last year’s session focusing on tunes Beiderbecke played but never recorded. And what a line-up!... Schumm, Kompen, McQuaid, Boeddinghaus, Sjöström and Duffee. Wolverine Blues, digging back to the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Driftwood and more – a great set.
Thomas Winteler plays Bechet closed the entertainment marathon. Hot isn’t the word! Joining Winteler: Bent Persson, trumpet, Graham Hughes, trombone, Morton Gunnar Larsen, piano, Jacob Ullberger, banjo, Frans Sjöström, bass saxophone, Henry Lemaire,  bass and percussionist Nicholas Ball. Muskrat Ramble, Blues in the Air to When You and I Were Young, Maggie to Lady Luck and more. Thomas Winteler was Sidney Bechet!    
Russell.          

1 comment :

EmmaFiskJazzVio said...

I didn't see you there Wor Russell! Hope you enjoyed it.
Emma x

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