Bebop Spoken There

Ron Carter quoting Sonny Rollins: ''What we call jazz - that's keeping the world in equilibrium. I don't care what kind of music you like out here today. It all comes from jazz.'' (DownBeat August, 2026)

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

18818 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 682 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Aug. 20) 51.

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

From This Moment On

August

Fri 21: Andrzej Baranek Trio @ The Lit & Phil. 1:00pm. £8.00. Andrzej Baranek (piano); Josh Cavanagh-Brierley (double bass); Dave Walsh (drums). SOLD OUT!
Fri 21: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 21: David Gray Flextet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. Old Black Cat Jazz Club.
Fri 21: Errol Linton & His Band + Michael Littlefield & Scott Taylor @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. Excellent blues double bill.

Sat 22: Durham Alumni Big Band + Durham Alumni All Stars + Swing Manouche @ Darlington Market Place. From 1:00pm. Free. The All Stars (1:00pm); The Alumni (2:00-4:00pm); Swing Manouche (4:15pm).

Sun 23: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Royal Quays Marina, North Shields. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free..
Sun 23: Blue Note Quintet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. £12.00., £10.00..
Sun 23: Timmy Allan Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 24: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 25: Michael Young Trio @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Wed 26: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 26: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 26: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 27: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, Mill Rise, South Gosforth, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 27: Castillo Nuevo Orquesta @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. £6.50. 7:30pm (doors).
Thu 27: Paul Skerritt @ Angels' Share, St George's Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle NE2 2SX. 8:00pm. Free. Booking advised (0191 200 1975). Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Thu 27: 58 Jazz Collective @ The Blacksmith’s Arms, Stranton, Hartlepool. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 27: Shalala @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £7.00.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

The Poetry of Jazz

Tyneside artists and jazz enthusiasts Keith Armstrong and Peter Dixon have created a display of colour paintings, images and poems celebrating the greats of the jazz world from Lous Armstrong to George Melly, Billie Holiday to Charles Mingus and many more. The exhibition can be viewed at JG Windows in Newcastle's Central Arcade in the Printed Music Department on second floor of the store for the immediate future. A live jazz and poetry event is being planned at Windows to launch the display - look out for details of this later.
Contact - Keith Armstrong tel 0191 2529531 or Rupert Bradbury (JG Windows) tel 0191 2321356 for further information.
Keith Armstrong
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he has worked as a community worker, poet, librarian and publisher, Doctor Keith Armstrong now resides in Whitley Bay. He is coordinator of the Northern Voices Community Projects creative writing and community publishing enterprise.
He was awarded a doctorate in 2007 for his work on Newcastle writer Jack Common at the University of Durham where he received a BA Honours Degree in Sociology in 1995 and Masters Degree in 1998 for his studies on culture in the North East of England. 
His poetry has been extensively published in magazines such as New Statesman and Poetry Review as well as in the collections Splinters (2011) and The Month of the Asparagus (2011) and broadcast on radio & TV.
He has performed his poetry throughout Britain and abroad. 
In his youth, he travelled to Paris and he has been making international cultural pilgrimages ever since.

Peter Dixon
North Shields based artist, photographer and graphic designer Peter Dixon began his working life as a designer at the Shields Gazette, later becoming Senior Visualiser at the North East Co-op. He has worked in several advertising agencies and runs his own design company.
In 2012 he had a major exhibition of paintings and photographs, entitled The River and the Slake, displayed at Bede’s World, Jarrow. 
He has produced and co-written many publications and exhibitions for Northern Voices Community Projects.



Something sad about clowns;
something thin between laughter and tears.
Pity the dignity, the love and the hate,
the twitching wire between body and soul 
and you on that stage,
drunk on rum and borrowed blues again;
unique in the balance you keep to yourself -
never quite losing it,
never quite making it;
bawling out between Magritte and Morton,
playing the droopy-drawered clown
with yourself,
you do the Melly Belly,
the Ovaltine,
big brash belly laugh blues.
Keith Armstrong

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