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Bebop Spoken There

Van Morrison: ''Basically, I'm coming from jazz. Not pop, not rock, not what's commercial. That's where I started, and that's still where I am. I feel the same as I did when I was listening to Louis Armstrong, Lead Belly, Jelly Roll Morton''. (The Northern Echo, 12 June 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

17,533 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 497 of them this year alone and, so far, 75 this month (June 23).

From This Moment On ...

JUNE 2025

Wed 25: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 25: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 25: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 25: The Magpies of Swing @ The Roxy, Leadgate, Co. Durham. 7:30pm. A Ginger Jitterbugs swing dance event, all welcome.

Thu 26: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Brass Instruments & the use of mutes.

Fri 27: Lewis Watson Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm.
Fri 27: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 27: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 8:00pm. ‘Time After Time’.

Sat 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Linskill Centre, North Shields. 4:00-10:30pm. Free, but ticketed (over 18s only). A multi-bill, multi-genre ‘Canny Shiels - North Shields 800’ event. Three Kings Brewery on site.
Sat 28: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 28: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 29: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Wallington, Northumberland. 12 noon-1:00pm & 2:00-3:00pm. Tel: 01670 773606. National Trust admission prices apply. ‘Tunes in the Blooms’.
Sun 29: Bal Bruch Social Dance @ As You Like It, Sandyford, Newcastle. 12:30pm. Free. Dance event with Hot Club de Heaton performing live (2:00-3:00pm). A ‘Jar on the Bar’ event.
Sun 29: Glenn Miller Orchestra UK @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 3:00pm. Ray McVay & co.
Sun 29: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 29: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 29: Zoë Gilby w. Ryton Choral Society @ Corbridge Middle School NE45 5HX. 5:30pm. £15.00. Gilby w jazz trio & choir. ‘An evening of jazz song for choir’.
Sun 29: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 29: John Wilson & the Sinfonia of London @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. ‘Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Greatest Hits’.
Sun 29: Out Front @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.

Mon 30: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.

JULY 2025

Tue 01: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels, Paul Grainger, Mark Robertson.
Tue 01: Customs House Big Band @ Masonic Hall, Ferryhill. 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

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Durham University Big Band @ The Jazz Café - June 21

(Review by Russell/Photos courtesy of Mike Tilley)
University bands are by their very nature in a constant state of flux. Students graduate, moving on to who knows what? The standard varies from one academic year to the next. Durham University Big Band has achieved the seemingly impossible in maintaining the highest of standards over two or three years, perhaps longer. The current edition of DUBB is an exceptionally talented ensemble and this Newcastle Jazz Café gig would be the last time they would perform together in public.
The summer solstice, another balmy evening on Tyneside, the Jazz Café’s front door and windows open, tempting the passer-by. Beer and cake on the ground floor, beer and big band jazz upstairs. Fifteen musicians in the first-floor room don’t leave much room for an audience, but hey, hearing a powerful big band at a distance of half a metre is a thrilling, visceral experience. The Durham band (DUBB) is an award-winning one. Regular gigs, studio recordings, and workshops with some of the best jazz musicians on the scene (most recently with Callum Au), DUBB take the music seriously, adopt a professional approach and clearly enjoy what they do.
This mid-summer gig heard DUBB in fine form. In fact, have they ever played better? Basie’s arrangement of All of Me for starters. If anyone thought this was going to be a straight-ahead set they were in for a rude awakening! Neal Hefti’s I Won’t Dance introduced vocalist Katie Moberly, the swing thing intact. Barcarolle signalled a change. Composer Scott Chapman performed in the very same small space with trombonist Tom Green and will return next month with Misha Mullov-Abbado. Clearly, DUBB like to play charts by a range of contemporary composers broadly of their generation. Trumpeter Alex Flanders developed the baroque feel, tenor man Matt McKernan weighed in with the first of several accomplished solo contributions, the ensemble work exemplary.
An indication of a good big band is whatever the material, the conviction is there, soloists assured, the ensemble likewise. It’s Oh, So Nice was to the liking of a voluble member of the audience, less so compositions by Jacob Mann (a current favourite of the Strictly Smokin’ Big Band) and Finland’s Outi Tarkiainen – our curmudgeon’s loss. Mann’s Pete Wheeler, Gerard Presencer’s arrangement of Eleanor Rigby and Pat Metheny’s See the World were at the contemporary end of the scale with award-winning guitarist Ollie Farley and lead altoist Zach Fox playing soprano to the fore. Matthew Jacobs, the band’s long-serving pianist, kept the show moving and ensured the first set drew to an explosive close with Fox blowing alto for all he was worth on Caravan, topped and tailed by Tristan Bacon and Ben Bucknall’s truly outstanding percussion work. Our Curmudgeon took to his feet…to applaud.

The band, and audience, took five. A mass migration to the downstairs bar and street to draw in air and in a trice we were back in big band paradise. Radiohead’s 15 Step featured more mature tenor by McKernan, sparking a run of contemporary pieces -  Tarkiainen’s Oglütz featuring vocalist Katie Moberly (think Norma Winstone working on a Kenny Wheeler chart) and McKernan’s tenor, Mann’s  Bounce House (the ensemble in the groove) and J Dilla’s killing Fall in Love once again featuring a superb vocal by Moberly. Our curmudgeon implored: Go back to the swing stuff! Without missing a beat pianist Jacobs replied: You’re in luck mate. Cue Bill Holman’s arrangement of Ol’ Man River. Tremendous, roaring big band playing – who could ask for anything more? Robert Glasper’s Let it Ride is what we got, and the band finished on a high with Eric Burger’s arrangement of Love For Sale (as played by the Buddy Rich Orchestra, as stated on the printed sheet music). A blistering finale, the final few notes of a superb university big band – Durham University Big Band. It is rare for a Newcastle audience to take to its feet. The room, as one, did just that to show its appreciation.
Russell.           
Durham University Big Band: Zach Fox (alto saxophone), Dan Garel (alto & tenor saxophones), Matthew McKernan (tenor saxophone), Felicity Evans (baritone saxophone); Alex Flanders (trumpet & flugelhorn), Noah Lawrence (trumpet), Louis Clayden (trumpet); Patrick Morris (trombone), Joshua Harper (trombone), Theo Crouch (trombone); Ollie Farley (guitar); Dylan Purches (bass guitar); Tristan Bacon (drums); Ben Bucknall (percussion); Katie Moberly (voice) 

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