Bebop Spoken There

Christian McBride: ''I believe we are living in a historically embarrassing moment in American history.'' - Downbeat December 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

18061 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 1025 of them this year alone and, so far, 39 this month (Dec. 14).

From This Moment On ...

DECEMBER 2025

Wed 17: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Spanish City, Whitley Bay. 12 noon. £29.00 (inc. bf). ‘Festive Lunch’. VCJ on stage 12 noon (three sets 'til 4:00pm).
Wed 17: Lazy River Band @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. Veronica Perrin, Chris Perrin, John Farragher, Phil Rutherford
Wed 17: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 17: Paul Skerritt @ Middlesbrough Town Hall. 7:00pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Wed 17: A Jazzy Xmas @ Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm. Paul Edis (MD, piano); Jo Harrop (vocals); Kyran Matthews (tenor sax, soprano sax); Faye Thompson (alto sax, clarinet); Sue Ferris (flute, piccolo); Graham Hardy (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jason Holcomb (trombone);Emma Fisk (violin); Andy Champion (double bass); Matt MacKellar (drums).
Wed 17: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 18: Paul Skerritt @ YOLO, Ponteland. 7:00pm. ‘Swing & Jazz Night’. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Thu 18: Joe Steels & Friends @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:30pm. Free (donations).

Fri 19: Fraser Urquhart @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT! .
Fri 19: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free..
Fri 19: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free..
Fri 19: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00..
Fri 19: Castillo Nuevo @ Hotel Gotham, Newcastle. 5:00pm. Free. .
Fri 19: Alexia Gardner @ FIKA Art Gallery, Morpeth. 6:30pm. Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy..
Fri 19: Paul Skerritt @ Middlesbrough Town Hall. 7:00pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes. .
Fri 19: Giles Strong Quartet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. Old Black Cat Jazz Club..
Fri 19: Creakin’ Bones & the Xmas Dinners @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm. £13.01 (inc. bf)..
Fri 19: Mark Toomey Quintet @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 20: Jazz Attack @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 11:00am. Free.
Sat 20: Alexia Gardner @ FIKA Art Gallery, Morpeth. 6:30pm. Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy. SOLD OUT!
Sat 20: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. CANCELLED!
Sat 20: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 20: Hoodoo Blues @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:15pm (doors). £14.25, £11.55. Dance class, social dancing, live music & Xmas Party. Live music from 9:00pm - Ruth Lambert, Giles Strong, Ian Paterson & John Bradford (jazz and blues).
Sat 20: John Pope Quintet @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 7:30-8:30pm. £7.70 (inc. bf). Album recording session.

Sun 21: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. ‘Xmas Swingalong’. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 21: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00-5:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ o2 City Hall, Newcastle. 6:00pm. £35.80., £33.25., £31.00.
Sun 21: The Globe Xmas Party @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Live music.
Sun 21: Tweed River Jazz Band @ The Barrels Ale House, Berwick. 7:30pm. Free.

Mon 22: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 23: Paul Skerritt @ Chakh Dhoom, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Indian restaurant. Skerritt w. backing tapes.

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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