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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

17777 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 98 of them this year alone and, so far, 23 this month (Feb.8).

From This Moment On ...

February 2025

Sat 15: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 15: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Sat 15: Elkie Brooks @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. ‘The Long Farewell Tour’.
Sat 15: Milne Glendinning Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 16: MOBO Song @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 12 noon. Free, performances on the concourse. Line-up inc. Jazz Attack (on stage time TBC) & Jambone (12:20pm).
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: MOBO Awards Fringe 2025: BBC Introducing NE X MOBO Showcase @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:00pm. Free (ticketed). Line-up inc. Jambone, Knats, Rivkala, SwanNek.
Sun 16: The Shayo Experience @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 16: Gerry Richardson Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. .

Mon 17: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 17: Matt Forster Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 17: Russ Morgan Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 18: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law, Paul Grainger, John Hirst.

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: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 20: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Jazz Milestones - 1975.
Thu 20: Renegade Brass Band @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors).
Thu 20: Orange Claw Hammer + Peony @ The Globe, Newcastle.7:30pm. Orange Claw Hammer play Captain Beefheart.
Thu 20: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. Featuring special guest Zoë Gilby.

Fri 21: JazzMain @ 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: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £10.00. TBC.
Fri 21: Emma Rawicz w. Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.

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, August 22, 2016

Paul Edis Trio (and a surprise visitor!) @ Blaydon Jazz Club. August 21

Paul Edis (piano), Andy Champion (double bass) & Russ Morgan (drums) + Roly Veitch (guitar)
(Review by Russell/photos courtesy of Roly Veitch.)
The Paul Edis Trio at Blaydon Jazz Club. A grand occasion. Club promoter Roly Veitch accepting an invitation to join the trio on a couple of numbers. A grand occasion. Jazz at the Black Bull. A grand occasion. Such was the exceptional quality of the music anyone could be forgiven for thinking they were at the legendary Newport Jazz Festival (clue).
Pianist Paul Edis took time out from last-minute preparations for the first Ushaw Durham Jazz Festival to play a trio engagement at one of Tyneside’s premier jazz clubs. Thirty plus years and the club continues to present the best in jazz. Paul Edis’ trio is the living embodiment of jazz at its best. An exceptionally talented pianist, composer and arranger, Edis’ current trio comprises bassist Andy Champion and drummer Russ Morgan. An on-going working relationship of many years’ standing with Champion – considered by some to be Britain’s finest double bass player – and a more recent association with Morgan marks out this line-up as the best in the business. Clifford Brown’s Joy Spring opened the programme setting the highest of standards and, without fear of contradiction, the trio maintained the level of performance throughout the evening.
Roly Veitch stepped up to play guitar on a couple of tunes including There Will Never Be  Another You (Kern & Hammerstein). Edis rightly insisted Vietch take centre stage rather than sit in the shadows as is his want! Classic small group jazz, the essence of Blaydon Jazz Club.

Edis’ Manic received its premiere. It was manic, exhilarating material. Taking it down, as a good set list should do, the trio gave a most sensitive reading of Billy Strayhorn’s Lush Life. The up-tempo first set closer Daahoud capped an hour’s worth of five-star jazz.

The first set had been listened to intently by an honoured guest of Blaydon Jazz Club. As VIP status is concerned, few, if any, come close to the fame accorded George Wein. Jazz has few world-renowned figures, Mr Wein is unquestionably one of them. As founder and promoter of the Newport Jazz Festival (Rhode Island, NY), owner of  the Storyville jazz club (Boston), and the record label of the same name, Mr Wein called in at the Black Bull to hear the Paul Edis Trio. Having played with Bobby Hackett, Pee Wee Russell, Jo Jones and many others in the 1940s, in 1954, Mr Wein staged the first Newport Jazz Festival. It was to soon become the world’s greatest jazz festival. Say ‘Newport’ to a jazz fan and it's understood you’re talking about the jazz festival.
Mr Wein, gracious in his comments, said of Paul Edis: He’s great!  Mr Wein took time to meet well-wishers before heading off into the night. Andy Hudson (left), erstwhile eminent figure on the Tyneside jazz scene, arranged the visit of Mr Wein’s party to Blaydon Jazz Club and it would be great to see them return one day.

A refreshed Edis, Champion and Morgan began the second set with two compositions by none other than Roly Veitch. First, another premiere performance; Pentoid. The audience liked it and so did Edis. It’s highly likely we will hear it again. Joe Shufflebottom is one we’ve heard before. The Paul Edis Sextet has played this one on gigs. Beginning with a New Orleans-like shuffle set up by Russ Morgan, the melody has an irresistible forward momentum. Brass players have had a ball on this one! Tonight Edis fleetingly threw in a quote from Lullaby of Birdland. A favourite tune, perhaps we will hear it again at Ushaw. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Edelweiss is ostensibly an unlikely choice on a jazz gig, but it is just the sort of tune that jazz musicians can do something with. A classical grounding no doubt helps and Edis more than made something of it.

Polka Dots and Moon Beams (Van Heusen and Burke) enchanted, The Shadow of Your Smile (remembered from the film The Sandpiper) was sensitively played as a request and a third, and final, R. Veitch composition received it’s premiere; Rebop. The clue is kind of in the title, if you have to ask…And so we reached the last number of the evening. The hand-wringing tempo set on Cherokee told all – these guys are up there with the very best! Champion and Morgan played their socks off, so too Edis. Encore! Edis obliged, we went quietly on our way with Vernon Duke’s masterpiece I Can’t Get Started.                 
Photos.
Russell.

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