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Bebop Spoken There

John McLaughlin: '' A Love Supreme coincided with my search for meaning in life". (DownBeat, March 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

17864 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 185 of them this year alone and, so far,32 this month (March10).

From This Moment On ...

MARCH 2025.

Tues 11: Solea @ Earthlings, the Healing Café, 94 Buckingham St., Newcastle, NE4 5QR. 7:00-8:45pm. Food available if ordered before 6:30pm. New band: Johannes Dalhuijsen (tenor sax, bass clarinet); Richard Herdman (guitar); Nick Bagnall (bass guitar); John Hirst (drums).
Tue 11: Giles Strong Quartet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm.

Wed 12: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 12: Jam session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Wed 12: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 12: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 13: The Exu + Matt Cliffe @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 13: Oh La La! @ Allendale Village Hall, Northumberland. 7:30pm. £12.00.; £6.00. child. Fifi La Mer (accordion, vocals), Oliver Wilby (reeds).
Thu 13: Fiona Finden’s Jazz Express @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 14: Pete Tanton’s Chet Set @ Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 14: Paul Taylor @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 1:00-2:00pm. £5.00. at the door. Second Friday in the month lunchtime concert series.
Fri 14: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 14: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 14: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 14: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 14: Brass Funkeys + Dilutey Juice @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £12.00., £10.00., £8.00.
Fri 14: Oh La La! @ Edmundbyers Village Hall, Co. Durham. 7:30pm. £12.00.; £10.00. (additional £5.00. supper option, ordered in advance). Fifi La Mer (accordion, vocals), Oliver Wilby (reeds).
Fri 14: The Collective @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £8.50.
Fri 14: Bridget Metcalfe Quintet @ St George’s Venue, Park Road, Hartlepool. 7:30pm.

Sat 15: Hot Teapots @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 15: Creakin’ Bones @ Billy Bootleggers. Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free.
Sat 15: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 15: Is This Jazz? @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk. Performances by Mu Quintet, Jinjé, A Brief Utopia, John Pope & Co + André Marmot (author of Unapologetic Expression: The Inside Story of the UK Jazz Explosion) in conversation + DJ sets ‘til 3:00am. ‘A Festival of New Jazz’.
Sat 15: Vintage Explosion @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm. SOLD OUT!
Sat 15: Alligator Gumbo @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Sat 15: One Night Standards @ The White Room, Stanley. 8:00pm. £8.67 (inc. bf). Note - previously advertised Salty Dogs cancelled.
Sat 15: Howlin’ Mat @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Blues guitar.

Sun 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 16: Pearl Blossoms @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Ragtime.
Sun 16: Hot 8 Brass Band @ Wylam Brewery. 7:30pm. ‘Big Tuba Tour’.
Sun 16: ARQ @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 16: Air4ce @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:30pm (8:00pm doors). £12.00.; £10.00. Tom Atkinson’s all-star band (line-up inc. Lindsay Hannon & Sue Ferris).
Sun 16: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 17: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 17: Jamie Toms Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

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

Tuesday, May 02, 2017

Darlington Jazz Festival: Matt Roberts Sextet @ Voodoo Café - Friday April 28

Matt Roberts (trumpet), Leo Richardson (tenor saxophone), George Grant (alto saxophone), Will Barry (piano), Loz Garrett (double bass) & Dave Ingamells (drums)
(Review by Russell)
Matt Roberts returned once again to his home town to play a major part in this year’s Darlington Jazz Festival. The London based trumpeter brought a bunch of friends with him who just happen to be superb musicians to play Jazz After Dark, the now traditional opening night above the Voodoo Café on Skinnergate. Roberts’ previous appearances attracted a standing room-only audience and this concert proved to be no different.
 Festival regulars warmly greeted Roberts – handshakes, hugs, a catch-up – then at nine o’clock, the Matt Roberts Sextet took to the stage, the air of informality that is a key element to the success of Darlington Jazz Festival dispensing with superfluous introductions, and for the next two hours or so, the audience was in bop paradise! Six young men – average age thirty or thereabouts – were at the top of their game, the frontline horns killing from note one, likewise the rhythm section. A couple from Tadd Dameron for starters – The Squirrel and Good Bait – the horns laying down bop solo statements right out of ‘50s New York. To Roberts’ left Leo Richardson, an audacious, powder keg tenor saxophonist, to his right, George Grant, the reborn George Grant (last year’s Matt Roberts Sextet gig effectively made up the altoist’s mind to come out of premature self-imposed retirement), and, of course, bandleader Roberts himself treating the capacity audience to a trumpet masterclass by way of Fats Navarro, Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard.
Roberts revisited Cannonball Adderley’s Blue Note classic Somethin’ Else; Miles on Autumn Leaves and a Latin vibe on Love for Sale. Some gigs work, they just do. This festival date ticked all the boxes. Applause rang out time and again, the on-side audience cheering each and every sublime solo. Lee Morgan’s Tom Cat (an album recorded in the 1960s but not released until 1981) further stoked an already incendiary atmosphere with Roberts, Leo Richardson and the sextet’s newest member, the Royal Academy of Music graduate, pianist Will Barry, nailing it. Barry, a new name to some, has an impressive CV not long out of music school…NYJO, Mark Lockheart, Stan Sulzmann and most recently working with Jasper Høiby’s Fellow Creatures. Roberts couldn’t resist another Tom Cat cut – Twice Around. Roberts is an enthusiast, conveying his love of the music, expressing his admiration for the jazz tradition and his band mates, the sentiment no doubt reciprocal.

The interval flew by, just enough time for a Firebrick Brewery (Blaydon) refill from the downstairs’ bar. A seemingly unanimous verdict on a first set being nothing short of sensational. Second set, more of the same! In the engine room drummer Dave Ingamells reprised his memorable 2016 performance. The British jazz scene has innumerable top class drummers and Ingamells is right up there. Bassist Loz Garrett, perhaps another new name to some, worked like a Trojan – a hand-ringing performance, Loz G will become a familiar figure, be sure to check him out, he’s a busy young man having already worked with a list of stellar names including pianist-vocalist Lianne Carroll and Jamie Cullum.

Altoist George Grant dug deep on Milestones here at the Black Hawk, SF, sorry, Darlington’s Voodoo Café. Eyes closed, you could have been there, way back when. More of the same brilliant playing on Jimmy Heath’s Big P (for big brother Percy), not least Ingamell’s stupendous gig-closing solo. At something like twenty minutes to midnight this first evening of 2017’s Darlington Jazz Festival ended with sustained applause, another hour of the same wouldn’t have gone amiss, but hey, in a little over twelve hours, day two would dawn on this friendliest of jazz festivals. 
Russell.

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