Dean Stockdale Trio @ Blaydon Jazz Club - March 19

Dean Stockdale (piano), Mick Shoulder (double bass) & Adam Sinclair (drums)

(Review by Russell/Photo courtesy of Roly Veitch)

As Blaydon Jazz Club embarks upon its thirty third year presenting the very best in jazz, pianist Dean Stockdale, in the company of Mick Shoulder, bass, and drummer Adam Sinclair, returned to the Black Bull on Bridge Street to play two sets of standards, original compositions and some Oscar Peterson. The audience, best described as select but discerning, hung on every note, an evening of intimate, small group jazz, a connoisseur’s delight.

Joyspring, the Brubeckian elegance of All the Things You Are, and a Stockdale arrangement of Mingus’ Nostalgia in Times Square, these the first offerings of the Dean Stockdale Trio. Blaydon Jazz Club has been privileged to present many of the finest pianists around, not least the house pianist of many years, until relocating abroad, Billy Harper. Dean Stockdale is one of the current generation to grace the stage at the Black Bull. A new CD is soon to see the light of day and the affable Stockdale took the opportunity to play a couple of tunes from it; Another Time perhaps a  little tentative, bass and drums sight reading the unfamiliar charts. Later, Stockdale played Pike Place (named after a Seattle fish market) – two original compositions worthy of their place in the set list.

New York by Night (comp Stockdale) swung, Shoulder and Sinclair swinging. Beautiful Love and Oscar Peterson’s swinging Kelly’s Blues had it all; walking left hand, double time swing, brushes skittering across Sinclair’s kit, Shoulder’s arco bass solo. Some Day My Prince Will Come, then a request…Hymn to Freedom, played for Blaydon Jazz Club’s Roly Veitch. To close an evening of first rate jazz the trio played a Stockdale arrangement of Out of Nowhere. It had been a pleasure.

Next month there will be a first visit to the Black Bull by Eddie Bellis’ Lickety Split. A West Coast-influenced octet, trombonist Bellis has assembled some of the region’s finest. Oliver Nelson, the guarantee of some Miles Davis, a blues – this is one not to be missed. The date for your diary… Easter Sunday, April 16th. Eight o’clock start, £5.00. on the door. Make the effort, get along and hear some great jazz, you’ll be impressed, guaranteed!    

Russell.
Photos.