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HOWAY THE LADS!

Bebop Spoken There

John McLaughlin: '' A Love Supreme coincided with my search for meaning in life". (DownBeat, March 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

17873 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 194 of them this year alone and, so far, 41 this month (March 14).

From This Moment On ...

MARCH 2025.

Sat 15: Hot Teapots @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 15: Lagos to Longbenton + Belladonna @ Whitley Bay Big Social, Whitley Road, Whitley Bay. 2:00pm. Free. Afrobeat/jazz fusion + soul/funk/R&B
Sat 15: Creakin’ Bones @ Billy Bootleggers. Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free.
Sat 15: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 15: Is This Jazz? @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk. Performances by Mu Quintet, Jinjé, A Brief Utopia, John Pope & Co + André Marmot (author of Unapologetic Expression: The Inside Story of the UK Jazz Explosion) in conversation + DJ sets ‘til 3:00am. ‘A Festival of New Jazz’.
Sat 15: Vintage Explosion @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm. SOLD OUT!
Sat 15: Alligator Gumbo @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Sat 15: One Night Standards @ The White Room, Stanley. 8:00pm. £8.67 (inc. bf). Note - previously advertised Salty Dogs cancelled.
Sat 15: Howlin’ Mat @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Blues guitar.

Sun 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 16: Pearl Blossoms @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Ragtime.
Sun 16: Hot 8 Brass Band @ Wylam Brewery. 7:30pm. ‘Big Tuba Tour’.
Sun 16: ARQ @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 16: Air4ce @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:30pm (8:00pm doors). £12.00.; £10.00. Tom Atkinson’s all-star band (line-up inc. Lindsay Hannon & Sue Ferris).
Sun 16: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 17: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 17: Jamie Toms Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 18: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Laurence Harrison, Paul Grainger, Tim Johnston.
Tue 18: Phil Bancroft’s Beautiful Storm @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £13.20 & £11.00.. A JNE-Gem Arts co-promotion.

Wed 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 19: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 19: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 20: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Nicknames.
Thu 20: Terri Green Experience @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £15.90.
Thu 20: Lindsay Hannon Trio @ The Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Hannon’s ‘Tom Waits for No Man’ set.
Thu 20: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:30pm. Free.

Fri 21: Paul Skerritt @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. 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: Giles Strong Quartet @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. CANCELLED!
Fri 21: New Century Ragtime Orchestra @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Featuring special guest Martin Litton (piano).

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, May 29, 2016

And the band played on… Alice Grace & Peter Gilligan @ the Jazz Café - May 28. Second Set

(Review by Russell)
The band – Alice and Pete – played just great, not that the Jazz Café’s audience noticed. Can you hear alright? Pardon? It was one of those nights. A busy public bar, the crowd engaged in incessant loud conversation, the bar takings good, thank you very much. Oh, well…
Alice Grace resumed with Beautiful Love – great tune. The Long Road, a Grace original, perhaps owed something to the Winstone/Wheeler sound, a sound Ms Grace gets so well and improvises on it.
 The man originally from Alabama, Mr Pete Tanton, rejoined Grace and Gilligan on a snorter of Anthropology, Pete’s busy left hand (P Gilligan’s), Pete T’s tightly muzzled mute, Alice having fun on the Dizzy/Bird rollercoaster.
Ms Grace announced to the front row: You’ll recognise this one. Quick as a flash Gilligan interjected: That’s optimistic! Ah, Minnie Ripperton’s Loving You! A super tune, it would be good to hear it again (for the first time?!) at another gig with a just a little bit of hush.
Chick Corea’s Windows took us towards eleven and Abbey Lincoln’s Throw it Away just past eleven. It had been a great evening for all (almost all, one attentive listener expressed disgust at the disrespectful, non-stop noise in the bar), the musicians Alice, Pete and Pete, troupers all, got on with it, the listening few got it, the oblivious masses responded in the time-honoured Pavlovian tradition of applauding on cue. 
Russell.    

1 comment :

Steven T said...

Sods law, I'd hoped to get there cos I've only heard her at the jam session after GIJF where she was a revelation. Plus - sexist alert - a real cutie (I read that in one of the broadsheets so I'm hoping it's mildly acceptable to the PC police). Failing that, my wife is partial to more than one Darlo brass blower, also half her age.
I always like to hear anyone taking on Minnie Ripperton; Ella Henderson did a not half bad version on Britains Got X factor idol, though she's probably the best singer any of these programmes have ever had.
Alleged soul DJ Trevor Nelson who, admittedly doesn't know the difference between Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson, James Brown and Prince or Otis Redding and OV Wright (who he's probably never heard of) told poor, humble Corinna Bailey Ray she reminded him of Minnie Ripperton (no pressure then) and she rapidly rebuked him 'I CAN'T SING LIKE MINNIE RIPPERTON!'
Shame nobody ever does anything else from her fine discography; Edge of a Dream which closes side 1(vinyl)of Perfect Angel which spawned Loving You is a particular favourite.
The next couple of gigs from Alice Grace are in my diary (in pen not pencil so I'm hoping she'll keep it in her set - no pressure then.

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