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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

18037 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 458 of them this year alone and, so far, 36 this month (June 11).

From This Moment On ...

JUNE 2025

Wed 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 18: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:30pm. Free. Concert performance (open to the public)..
Wed 18: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 19: Gareth John & the SOS Big Band @ The Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:00pm. £25.00. CANCELLED!

Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: David Gray's Flextet @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm. £21.50. ‘Time After Time’.
Fri 20: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm.
Fri 20: King Bees @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Superb Chicago blues band.

Sat 21: Milne Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 21: Red Kites Jazz @ Staithes Café, Dunston. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Sat 21: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 22: Phoenix 4 @ Wallington, Northumberland. 12 noon-1:00pm & 2:00-3:00pm. Tel: 01670 773606. National Trust admission prices apply. ‘Tunes in the Blooms’.
Sun 22: Lapwing Trio @ Wallington, Northumberland. 1:00-2:00pm. Tel: 01670 773606. National Trust admission prices apply. ‘Tunes in the Blooms’.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Jason Isaacs Trio @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 4:00pm. £18.00. + £1.08 bf.
Sun 22: JazzMain @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 23: MSK Trio @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.

Tues 24: ???

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.

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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