Bebop Spoken There

Donovan Haffner ('Best Newcomer' 2025 Parliamentary Jazz Awards): ''I got into jazz the first time I picked up a saxophone!" - Jazzwise Dec 25/Jan 26

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

18146 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 24 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Jan. 7), 24

From This Moment On ...

JANUARY 2026

Thu 08: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject: Jazz Milestones of 1976.

Fri 09: The House Trio @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Fri 09: Nauta @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £5.00. Trio: Jacob Egglestone, Jamie Watkins, Bailey Rudd.
Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Warren James & the Lonesome Travellers @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Fri 09: The Blue Kings @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. (£8.00. adv.). All-star band.

Sat 10: Mark Toomey Quintet @ St Peter’s Church, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:30pm. £12.00. (inc. pie & peas). Tickets from: 07749 255038.

Sun 11: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Eva Fox & the Sound Hounds @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 12: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.

Tue 13: Milne Glendinning Band @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £11.00. Coquetdale Jazz.
Tue 13: Jazz Jam Sandwich @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: Jam Session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

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

Friday, April 21, 2017

CD Review: Jazzmain - Live at the Blue Lamp

Nick Gould (tenor); Steve Grossart (keys); Iain Harkness (bass); Kevin Dorrian (drums).
(Review by Lance).
Recorded live at "The Lamp" in Aberdeen last November, Jazzmain's second album is every bit as good as the first and maybe even better. Like most live recordings, the balance isn't perfect although it improves as the disc progresses or maybe it's my ears adjusting to the acoustics. Whatever, the music more than makes up for it. Play this in a blindfold test and I think many a listener would assume it had been recorded live at, say, the Five Spot or the Village Vanguard in NYC by a band from the 1950s' Blue Note label.
Of course, if you're a habitue of the Edinburgh jazz scene you may not be fooled. Likewise, regulars at Newcastle's Jazz Café jam sessions will possibly recognise Nick Gould's tenor playing. Gould is an occasional, and popular, jammer at the bi-Tuesday blows.
His gutsy tenor takes Jazzmain through a choice selection of GASbook items: Sunday in New York; Have You Met Miss Jones?; Tin Tin Deo; Funk in Deep Freeze; Tangerine; You Don't Know What Love is; Cheesecake.
Grossart, on keyboard, is no slouch either providing foil and support for front man Gould whilst Harkness is the anchor man although he doesn't drag and nor does driver Dorrian.
It's significant that Hank Mobley and Dexter Gordon provide two of the numbers as those two tenormen were surely among Gould's early influences.
After the posts re YES and Bob Dylan, this is, I quote, The promised kiss of springtime!
Highly recommended.
Check out Sunday in New York.
Lance

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