JANUARY 2026
Fri 30: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 30: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 30: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 30: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Hotel Gotham, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Fri 30: Pete Roth Trio @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). Feat. Bill Bruford.
Fri 30: Jive Aces @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm.
Fri 30: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Northern Edge Coffee, Silver St., Berwick. 7:00pm.
Fri 30: Dan Coulthurst Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £10.00 + £1.00. bf (www.wegottickets.com). Coulthurst (trumpet); Joel Steadman (bass clarinet, flute); Nico Widdowson (piano); Fergus Quill (double bass); Theo Goss (drums).
Sat 31: Darling Dollies @ St George’s Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 3:00pm. £10.00. Vocal trio.
Sat 31: Brass Fiesta @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 10:30pm. Free.
FEBRUARY 2026
Sun 01: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £10.00.
Sun 01: Ian Bosworth Quintet @ Chapel, Middlesbrough. 1:00pm. Free. Quintet + guest Bill Watson (trumpet, flugelhorn).
Sun 01: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: Annie & the Caldwells @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £25.00. adv. Gospel/soul.
Sun 01: Jive Aces @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm.
Sun 01: Olly Styles Experience + Jenny Baker @ the Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 02: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Tue 03: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, Ferryhill. 7:30pm. Free.
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.
Wed 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 04: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 04: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 05: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject:Times of the Day & Trios.
Thu 05: Jeremy McMurray’s Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. Special guest Emma Wilson.
Thu 05: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.
6 comments :
Just read this in the middle of the night and immediately switched to news channels but nothing. In America this is massive, like Elvis, a Beatle or MJ.
Said to people at Xmas to expect this one this year. I think most people thought he died years ago.
Although I think the whole Rock and Roll narrative is pure myth - at it's best blues for teenyboppers - Chuck Berry would have been the king of rock and roll in a less racist America and was the best, alongside even more novelty oriented Little Richard, crooner Elvis, bluesier Bo Diddley and the doowop groups.
Although he essentially made the same record over and over, his riffs launched a thousand inferior white groups who made rock and roll for teenyboppers and made a fortune doing it.
He was arguably the most influential guitarist right up until the break through of Hendrix.
Steve, Radio 5 Live broke the news late Saturday. Dotun Adebayo devoted much of his Up All Night programme to the news (Dotun is a big music fan).
Your comments about Berry being the king of rock 'n' roll are spot on. The alternative narrative (Presley etc) is just that,the American media's preferred alternative.
The guitar riffs are legendary (launching a thousand pub bands), Berry's lyrics are second to none.
Sorry Russell, have to disagree - surely not - Curtis Mayfields lyrics were second to none, and I had to read about his death in a newspaper. What colour was he again?
Sorry Steve...too cryptic for me!
I left the North East in early ’79 on the Dick Whittington trail (but without the cat!) to put on the First big jazz festival at Alexander Palace in July of that year.- you know the one that didn’t burn down.. This was the start of my partnership with George Wein another nonagenarian jazzer.
There was Hamp, BB King, Muddy Waters, Dizzy, Buddy Rich - In fact arrest the usual suspects. Included was the great musician, lyricist and especially showman Chuck Berry.
He was appearing amidst tax issues with the US government wherein much of his earnings were sequestered to pay back taxes. Those part which weren’t, but I am sure he would consequently declare, were to be paid in $100 bills in an envelope before the “artiste performed on stage”.
I recall handing the envelope to him which he duly opened, counted and put in a voluminous inside pocket, looked at me with those piercing eyes nodded and said “That’s good man.”
10 minutes later he was onstage with a scratch band that we’d put together and blew everyone away.
Jazz it wasn’t - but performance, energy and crowd engagement and reaction showed he had no peers.
Hey 90’s a good innings.
Andy
Bit of cross reference with what's going on at the Sage I suppose. White people always come along and do Black Music better. How many times today will we hear that without Chuck Berry there'd have been no Beatles, no Stones, no Beach Boys, like that was his contribution.
And somebody like Curtis Mayfield who transcends soul music and twentieth century music generally and should stand with the all time greats doesn't even make it on to the news.
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