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Bebop Spoken There

Francis Tulip: ''Music speaks louder than words''. (Jazzwise, 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

17,550 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 514 of them this year alone and, so far, 92 this month (June 28).

From This Moment On ...

JULY 2025

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Jam session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: The Hopper-Watson Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 8:00pm (7:30pm doors). £10.00. + £1.00. bf.
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 10: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Soloists, Orchestras & Hot Fives.
Thu 10: Side Café Orkestar @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 11: Paul Skerritt Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church, Cockton Hill Road, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00. A Bishop Auckland Jazz promotion. New venue (second Friday in the month)!
Fri 11: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 11: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Beehive, Earsdon NE25 0SZ. 5:00-7:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: Fiona Finden Jazz Express @ Flash House Brewery, North Shields NE30 1DS. 8:00pm. Free.

Sat 12: Jazz Stage @ Mouth of the Tyne Festival. From 12 noon. Free. Vieux Carré Jazzmen (12 noon); Rendezvous Jazz (1:00pm); Mississippi Dreamboats (2:00pm); Classic Swing (3:00pm); Abbie Finn Trio (4:00pm). Stage adjacent to Tynemouth Priory.
Sat 12: Making Music Seminar: Latin American Music v. Music of Latin America @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 1:00pm. £15.00. (£5.00. online). Jason Holcomb, Alix Shepherd & Carlos Luis Rivera.
Sat 12: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 12: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Lovaine Community Garden, North Shields. 7:00pm (doors 6:40pm). £6.00. Limited places, booking essential (via the Community Garden website). BYOF&D.
Sat 12: Hot Club du Nord @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Hall Two.
Sat 12: Sleep Suppressor @ Repas 7 by Night, Berwick. 8:00pm.
Sat 12: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle.8:00pm. Free. ‘Swing Jazz Guitar’. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 13: Jazz Stage @ Mouth of the Tyne Festival. From 11:00am. Free. Trilogy of Four (11:00am); East Coast Jazzmen (12:10pm); Delta Prophets Trio (1:20pm); House of the Black Gardenia (2:30pm); Mouth of the Tyne All Stars (3:40pm). Stage adjacent to Tynemouth Priory.
Sun 13: Giles Strong Quartet @ The Sele, Hexham. 12 noon. Free. ‘The Bandstand Sessions’.
Sun 13: Julie Dexter @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:30pm (doors). £20.00. ‘The Cluny Matinee Jazz Club’.
Sun 13: ’58 Jazz Collective, Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 2:00pm. Tea Dance. SOLD OUT! A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sun 13: Ferg Kilsby @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Kilsby (trumpet, flugelhorn); Luis Verde (alto sax); Ben Lawrence (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); John Hirst (drums).
Sun 13: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Sloth Racket @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.

Mon 14: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.
Mon 14: Brass Bash @ Hardwick Park, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Mon 14: Brass Bash @ The Story, Mount Oswald, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.

Tue 15: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Sluice. Tel: 0191 237 3697. 12:30pm. ‘July Jazz Barbecue’. Tickets: £15.00.
Tue 15: Brass Bash @ Hackworth Park, Shildon, Co. Durham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Tue 15: Brass Bash @ The Witham, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Tue 15: Julian Lage Trio @ 1856 Exchange, North Shields. 7:30pm . Lage (guitar); Jorge Roeder (double bass); Joey Barron (drums).
Tue 15: Jools Holland’s Rhythm & Blues Orchestra @ The Hippodrome, Darlington. 7:30pm.
Tue 15: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Bailey Rudd.

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, November 02, 2017

Mike Durham’s Classic Jazz Party - Sunday October 29

(Review by Russell)
Another jam session, another late night. The clocks went back at 2am, so, an extra hour in bed…
for some. Day three of the Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party, twelve noon, the finishing straight in sight, just another fifteen hours or so to go.
As noon approached, Jonathan and Brigitte rehearsed their steps ahead of accompanying Josh Duffee’s opening set. Four Bright Sparks took to the stage; Duffee playing xylophone (!), Michael McQuaid, reeds, Martin Wheatley, guitar, and pianist Morten Gunnar Larsen. In 1920s Britain the Columbia record label recorded the Four Bright Sparks with American Rudy Starita on xylophone. It was fitting, therefore, that our man from Iowa, Josh Duffee, should help recreate a slice of jazz (British jazz) history. For this half-hour set Duffee played the xylophone on the floor of the hall with his fellow Bright Sparks sitting on the stage behind him. The focal point of the set featured music and dance as Jonathan and Brigitte took to the floor to demonstrate the ‘Kerb Step’ with cameras flashing, the (sepia-tinted?) moment instantly filed in the Classic Jazz Party’s archive.
Nicolle Rochelle sang with French trumpeter Malo Mazurié’s Alternative Hot Five and half an hour later Britain’s trumpet star Jamie Brownfield took on the role of Jabbo Smith. The 1929 Brunswick sides provided the core of the programme and JB did more than simply interpret Smith with a fiery display. The 2017 Classic Jazz Party certainly came up trumps when invitations went out to Malo and Jamie. And to think that the Americans – Messrs Davis, Heitger and Schumm – were in town!

Malo Mazurié took up the trumpet at seven, and now, at 26, the Frenchman fronted a set – Malo - Boy meets Horn which illustrated his command of a breadth of styles through to swing and beyond. He was in good company working with fellow countryman Jean-François Bonnel, Jacob Ullberger, guitar, and Malcolm Sked, double bass.

Local stars Emma Fisk (pictured) and Phil Rutherford featured in a one hour set titled Hot Dance Music. The senior men on the platform – Keith Nichols and Claus Jacobi – assembled a mid-20s conventional eleven-piece band to play the ‘hot’ arrangements of the day. Malo Mazurié, playing cornet on this session, was having a busy afternoon and his fellow frontline horns – Jacobi, Lars Frank, and Jean François Bonnel – revelled in friendly, but hot, exchanges.

100 years of ODJB marked the centenary of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band’s first recordings. In an all too short half-hour set it was fascinating to hear Andy Schumm and Michael McQuaid talk in reverential tones about their near-obsessive efforts to literally walk in the footsteps of their heroes. Teddy Brown & His Band – Elstree Calling took its cue from the British made 1930 musical revue film Elstree Calling (Alfred Hitchcock was one of the film’s four directors). Teddy Brown starred in 1930, Josh Duffee, playing xylophone, starred in 2017.

Bennie Moten – Get Goin’ surveyed the early days (circa 1929) of the swing bands which would go on to dominate during the 1930s. Keith Nichols, resplendent in red braces, played piano-accordion on this set with Morten Gunnar Larsen at the piano. Royal College of Music graduate Richard Exall sat in an all-star, all-European reeds’ section and more than held his own. The Basie influence was evident in another marvellous set which closed the afternoon’s programme.

The final session, Sunday evening, had an end-of-term feel about it. Morten Gunnar Larsen began his ‘The Professor’ piano set without fanfare as festival goers made their way into the hall. Chicago born, British resident, Joan Viskant sang with Keith Nichol’s Meat Packin’ Mama ten piece band. A fine set of stockyard, stevedore-era Chicago jazz entertained a fresh-as-a-daisy audience.

A couple of short but sweet sets – Jacob Gershovitz Got Rhythm and Duke Heitger’s Jazz – set up a grand finale to this year’s Classic Jazz Party. The Gershwin set served to further illustrate the US émigré songwriters’ contribution to the jazz world as Keith Nichols earlier so eloquently commented upon. Duke Heitger’s thirty minutes’ worth of small group jazz provided some of the hottest material heard during the weekend – and that’s saying something! Flanked by Ewan Bleach, reeds and Kris Kompen, trombone, Duke’s boys had a blast.

The closing concert of the 2017 Mike Durham Classic Jazz Party presented the now traditional big band ensemble led by Keith Nichols and Josh Duffee. The Nichols-Duffee All-Star Orchestra took to the stage in regulation penguin suits and they were to be joined by the fabulous Nicolle Rochelle to sing a few numbers. The packed room hung on every note knowing that this was it until the next time. Next year, 2018, the all important dates for the diary are November 2-4.
Russell

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