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

18844 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 708 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Aug. 27) 77.

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

September.

Tue 01:Customs House Big Band @ Masonic Hall, Ferryhill. 7:30pm. Free. Summer break - back Oct. 6
Tue 01: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, John Hirst.

Wed 02: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 02: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 02: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 03: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, Mill Rise, South Gosforth, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 03: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00.
Thu 03: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. Feat. Ian Bosworth (guitar); Ron Hampton (guitar); Riche Emmerson (tenor sax); Dan Johnson (tenor sax, alto sax); Garry Hadfield (keyboards); Adrian Beadnell (bass); Mark Hawkins (drums).

Fri 04: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 04: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 04: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 04: FUNK: new musicians collective @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £6.00. Line-up inc. Chris Caygill & Daniel Chandler.
Fri 04: The Upside + Lagos to Longbenton @ Cumberland Arms, Byker, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £8.00. Ska, funk, Afro-fusion & more.

Sat 05: Alligator Gumbo @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 05: Tees Bay Swing Band @ Hartlepool Art Gallery. 4:00-6:15pm. £6.00. Concert performance. Tickets available from the venue - tel: 01429 869706.
Sat 05: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Sun 06: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £10.00.
Sun 06: Ian Bosworth Quintet @ Chapel, Middlesbrough. 1:00pm. Free. Ian Bosworth (guitar); Richie Emmerson (tenor sax); Jeremy McMurray (keyboards); Adrian Beadnell (bass); Mark Hawkins (drums) & guest Mick Donnelly (tenor sax).
Sun 06: Tees Bay Swing Band @ Ropner Park, Stockton. 2:00-4:00pm. Free.
Sun 06: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 06: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 06: Nils Kavanagh Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 07: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 07: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Monday, September 12, 2016

New York Saxophone Star teams up with top UK Jazz Musicians for rare Newcastle club date










Hailed as being at the forefront of the global creative improvised music scene for the past 30 years, New York saxophonist Ellery Eskelin is preparing to perform a number of gigs in the North of England in October 2016. They will close their tour with a performance at the Globe in Newcastle on October 14th.
Eskelin is the second featured artist to take part in the Orpheus Project, an ambitious programme set up by jazz venues across the North of England in partnership with Apollo Jazz Network to bring internationally renowned artists to intimate venues in the region and expose audiences to extraordinary live jazz. Joining Eskelin will be guitarist Chris Sharkey and pianist Matt Bourne.
We couldn't be more excited about Ellery's tour. It provides a rare chance to see a world renowned musician in small, intimate venues and really experience this music close up.
What better way to close the tour than with a gig in our guitarist Chris Sharkey's home town and a jazz scene brimming with exciting musicians and hardworking promotersKim Macari, Director

Eskelin appears at Marsden Jazz Festival on October 8 at 6pm followed by performances in London (October 10th), Birmingham (October 11th), Sheffield (October 12th), Leeds
(October 13th) and Newcastle (October 14th).
More about the artists
Based in New York City, Eskelin has traveled widely performing, recording and amassing a very personal and iconoclastic body of work. And yet he has always remained deeply committed to the traditions of jazz and American music. Eskelin embodies this seeming contradiction with ease. He does not see jazz as a style or idiom but as a process. Further, a process of creative development that has great relevancy to our time. In this pursuit Eskelin consistently delivers to the listening public unadulterated, passionate music with no excuses and no apologies.

Chris Sharkey is known across Europe as being at the cutting edge of creative music. He has been a member of numerous groundbreaking groups in the UK –including TrioVD, Acoustic Ladyland and Bilbao Syndrome. Internationally, he has collaborated with musicians in France (Christian Sebille), Norway (Nils Henrik Aarsheim) , Lithuania (Liudas Mockūnas) and Spain (Asociación Musica Libre).

Matt Bourne first came to national attention as a winner of the Perrier Jazz Award in 2001, which was followed by an award for innovation at the BBC Radio Jazz Awards in 2002, and the International Jazz Festivals Organisation’s International Jazz Award in 2005.
Renowned for his intensely personal and sometimes confrontational solo work, Bourne’s uncanny ability to balance delicacy and virtuosity, while establishing a close affinity with his audience, have become hallmarks of his concert performances.

"Eskelin could get away with murder. That tone is all the alibi he'd need...incarnating the horn's romantic tradition while inking fresh initials on it's tattooed heart.” (Jazziz)

"...Eskelin continues to be the most inventive American tenor player in creative music..." (Down Beat)

"Ellery Eskelin, a rugged tenor saxophonist with a romantic streak that runs parallel to his experimental leanings…" (The New Yorker 2013)


“Eskelin’s warm sound and flowing melodic invention may be the first things to catch a listener’s attention. He has one of the great tenor sounds...” (The New York City Jazz Record – December 2013)

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