Bebop Spoken There

Emma Rawicz: "In a couple of years I've gone from being a normal university student to suddenly being on international stages." DownBeat January 2026.

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

18219 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 73 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Jan. 24), 73

From This Moment On ...

JANUARY 2026

Fri 30: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 30: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 30: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 30: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Hotel Gotham, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Fri 30: Pete Roth Trio @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). Feat. Bill Bruford.
Fri 30: Jive Aces @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm.
Fri 30: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Northern Edge Coffee, Silver St., Berwick. 7:00pm.
Fri 30: Dan Coulthurst Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £10.00 + £1.00. bf (www.wegottickets.com). Coulthurst (trumpet); Joel Steadman (bass clarinet, flute); Nico Widdowson (piano); Fergus Quill (double bass); Theo Goss (drums).

Sat 31: Darling Dollies @ St George’s Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 3:00pm. £10.00. Vocal trio.
Sat 31: Brass Fiesta @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 10:30pm. Free.

FEBRUARY 2026

Sun 01: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £10.00.
Sun 01: Ian Bosworth Quintet @ Chapel, Middlesbrough. 1:00pm. Free. Quintet + guest Bill Watson (trumpet, flugelhorn).
Sun 01: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: Annie & the Caldwells @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £25.00. adv. Gospel/soul.
Sun 01: Jive Aces @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm.
Sun 01: Olly Styles Experience + Jenny Baker @ the Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 02: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.

Tue 03: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, Ferryhill. 7:30pm. Free.
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.

Wed 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 04: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 04: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 05: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject:Times of the Day & Trios.
Thu 05: Jeremy McMurray’s Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. Special guest Emma Wilson.
Thu 05: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

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, September 12, 2017

September at The Jazz Cafe - from the 1920s to Infinity

(Press release/Fisk/Birkett photo by Lance - Noonan photo courtesy of Ken Drew))
The Jazz Café will be hosting two major events during September: Emma Fisk’s Hot Club Du Nord plus Birkett and Fisk on Friday 15 and Sean Noonan’s Memorable Sticks on Friday 22.
Both Hot Club Du Nord and the duo of Birkett and Fisk are led by the virtuoso jazz violin of Emma Fisk and feature the walking compendium of early jazz guitar styles, James Birkett. The duo recreates the music of Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang, the Italian - American pioneers of hot violin and guitar jazz in the 1920s and 30s. The quartet takes a fresh look at the classic 1930s and 40s Hot Club repertoire of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli who, influenced by Venuti and Lang and, in Django’s case, under the noses of the Nazis, became the first European jazz stars. A welcome return by both bands to The Jazz Café and a treat for connoisseurs of swinging string jazz and lovers of all things vintage. www.hotclubdunord.co.uk
Brooklyn drummer, storyteller and composer Sean Noonan’s concept is, in the words of the New York Jazz Record, “as original as a fingerprint.” The New York Music Daily agreed: “Drummer-composers seldom write as intricate, elaborate, or haunting music as Sean Noonan does. The powerhouse drummer draws equally on Bartok, early Can, jazz, Balkan and avant garde theatre music.”
Sean Noonan sees himself as a modern-day sonic griot, wandering the globe gathering stories, legends, and folklore like a punk-jazz Alan Lomax. The treasures that he finds along the way are filtered through his distinctive vision to become the unpredictable and far-ranging sounds of his wide-spectrum music, combining discoveries from harmolodic jazz, bleeding-edge rock, and avant-garde classical music.

Sean Noonan’s Memorable Sticks Electric Trio - Johnny Richards keyboards, Michael Bardon bass and Sean drums & storytelling - will perform selections from their September 30 Haldern Pop Label release “Man No Longer Me”, which is about the transformation of a man who gets tickled by a sunbeam one morning on a mountain top, and who, as the story progresses, wanders and gets lost in a desert and transforms into a coyote.

Both gigs are upstairs in The Jazz Café, 25-27 Pink Lane, Newcastle NE1 5DW

Birkett & Fisk/Hot Club Du Nord - Fri 15th Sept 9.00pm (Doors 8.30pm) - £8.00 / £6.00 concessions from The Jazz Café 0191 222 9882 or online from www.seetickets.com

Sean Noonan Memorable Sticks – Fri 22nd Sept 9.00pm (Doors 8.30pm) - £8.00 (£6.00 advance from The Jazz Café 0191 9882)

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