Bebop Spoken There

Ethan Hawke (starring as Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon): ''Larry [Lorenz] Hart would be so happy that his music and his words and his poetry are still alive.'' - The Northern Echo 27 November 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

18000 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 964 of them this year alone and, so far, 73 this month (Nov. 24).

From This Moment On ...

DECEMBER 2025

Sun 07: Ian Bosworth Quintet @ Chapel, Middlesbrough. 1:00pm. Free. Feat. special guest Donna Hewitt (sax, clarinet).
Sun 07: Finn-Keeble Group @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00.
Sun 07: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 07: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 07: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 2:30pm. Free. Trio + Ruth Lambert.
Sun 07: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 07: Jason Isaacs Big Band @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 5:15pm (4:00pm doors). £21.50 (inc. bf).
Sun 07: Paul Skerritt @ 3 Stories, High St. West, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 07: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Support set from Play More Jazz! course participants. Note earlier start.

Mon 08: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 09: Jazz Jam Sandwich @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm

Wed 10: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 10: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 10: Jam Session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 10: Mike Lindup Jazz Trio @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £26.50 (inc. bf). Lindup, Yolanda Charles (bass), John Sam (drums).
Wed 10: Bold Big Band @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £12.00.

Thu 11: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: West Coast (cool ) / Wordsearch (cool) Cool Jazz or ‘Cold’, ‘Cool’, ‘Hot’, ‘Warm’ in the title or lyrics.
Thu 11: George Robinson @ Prohibition Bar, Albert Road, Middlesbrough TS1 2RU. 7:00pm (doors). £5.42 (inc. bf). Vienna’s Voice charity evening featuring ’15 year old singing sensation the ‘Redcar Crooner’ George Robinson’. Over 35s only.
Thu 11: Paul Skerritt @ Chakh Dhoom, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Indian restaurant. Skerritt w. back tapes.
Thu 11: Ransom Van @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Thu 11: Down for the Count Swing Orchestra @ Middlesbrough Town Hall. 7:30pm. £37.70 (inc. bf). ‘Swing into Xmas’.

Fri 12: Pete Tanton’s Chet Set @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 12: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 12: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 12: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 12: Milne Glendinning Band @ Northumberland Club, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £15.00. ‘Xmas Soiree’.
Fri 12: A Jazzy Xmas @ St Cuthbert’s Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £15.00. Paul Edis (MD, piano); Jo Harrop (vocals); Vasilis Xenopoulos (tenor sax, soprano sax); Matthew Forster (alto sax, clarinet); Sue Ferris (flute, piccolo); Graham Hardy (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jason Holcomb (trombone);Emma Fisk (violin); Andy Champion (double bass); Matt MacKellar (drums). SOLD OUT!
Fri 12: Tony Hadley: Xmas Big Band Tour 2025 @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm.
Fri 12: Alexia Gardner @ The New Ship Inn, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. 8:00pm. Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy, Abbie Finn.
Fri 12: Jive Aces: Swingin’ Xmas Show @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 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

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Art Invite

(From Dave Clarke) 
I'm attaching an invitation to any readers interested in attending the Private View of Gina Southgate's Exhibition at the Dennis Kilgallon Gallery at South Barn, near Allen Banks, Northumberland NE47 8JP on Friday 5th May from 4pm to 8pm.
Gina is an artist best known for her  paintings made in real time at jazz gigs. She has worked in our region with Jazz North East and at the Gateshead International Jazz Festival and her work is on permanent display at Sage Gateshead. She also paints landscapes.
(Press release)
Set amidst Northumberland's stunning landscape Dennis Kilgallon presents two exciting, accomplished, artists at his 'Gallery in the Hills'. Their work though different in scale, medium, and approach, deals with texture, mark making and the physicality of the artistic process. The exquisite detail of Davis's delicate porcelain forms are echoed in contrast in Southgate's vibrant, sumptuous canvases. It is a harmonious parallel brought together by sculptor Kilgallon to form an unmissable exhibition in his 'superb gallery'.
GINA SOUTHGATE 'Gina Southgate captures every note in paint' Jez Nelson - Jazz on 3.
As a painter of live music, best known on the international Jazz scene, where for 3 decades Southgate has captured the frisson of live music during the real time of performance. Observing the relationship between the musician and instrument she captures the energy and essence of the gig in the real time. She carries this unique style and vibrancy into her abstract and landscape work. ‘I have a strong relationship with the music scene. My live painting is concerned with the essence of the moment and my alignment to that moment. Musicians fuel my output and though I have a ‘style’ it is the result of what I hear and see live. I try to work in the landscape in the same way following the energy of the sky and the dance of the light where I like to paint against the onset of nightfall when the colours have their most clarity and intensity.
I like structures that humans imprint on the natural world. In the studio I work on abstracts, layering colour and texture to a convincing surface trying to avoid stasis or cliché. Resolving my own experiments with reference to the great painters and designers of the 20th century'.
JUDITH DAVIS 'I have exhibited my ceramic work for over 25 years, showing at major art and craft fairs and galleries, work has been included in publications about contemporary ceramics. Inspiration comes from the tideline, ripples in sand and water, and the natural forms found there-such as urchin shells and pebbles. I am also influenced by materials themselves, by processes that allow the uncovering of marks inlaid into the porcelain through the making process, revealing traces of my hand’s interaction with the clay. The work is meant to be touched, it is both tactile and sensual.'

1 comment :

Hugh Cochrane said...

Although the Private View is on Friday 5th May, the Gina Southgate exhibition is available for the public to view from Saturday 6th May to Sunday 25th June. The gallery is open 1100 to 1700 Saturdays and Sundays together with Bank Holidays.

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