Bebop Spoken There

Ludovic Beier (Django Festival Allstars): ''Manouche means 'free man,' and gypsies have been travelers since they migrated west from India to Europe.'' (DownBeat March, 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

18361 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 215 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Mar. 8 ), 25

From This Moment On ...

March

Sun 15: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 2:30pm. Free.
Sun 15: The Too Bad Jims @ The Georgian Theatre, Stockton. 3:00pm. £12.00. R&B.
Sun 15: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Rebecca Poole @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £14.00., £12.00., £7.00. Poole w. Dean Stockdale & Ken Marley. CANCELLED!

Mon 16: Milne Glendinning Band @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm.
Mon 16: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 16: Russ Morgan Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Scotty Adair (drums).

Wed 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 18: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 18: The ’58 Jazz Collective @ Hartlepool Cricket Club, West Park, 7:30pm. £7.00.
Wed 18: Brand New Heavies @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm.
Wed 18: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 19: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject: Stephen Joshua Sondheim.
Thu 19: FILM: Köln 75 @ Forum Cinema, Hexham. 7:30pm. £10.00., £7.00., £3.00. Dir. Ido Fluk. Fictional account of Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln concert. A Tyne Valley Film Festival preview screening.
Thu 19: Ransom Van @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Fri 20: Gerry Richardson Quartet @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Theon Cross + support @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £17.51., £13.31., £11.16., £9.04. Support set feat. members of balletLORENT’s Creative Studio in association with NYJO.
Fri 20: Groove Crusade @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £15.00. CANCELLED!
Fri 20: Jason Isaacs Big Band @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £32.00.
Fri 20: Joe Steels Group @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. £12.00. +bf, £15.00. on the door. A Blue Patch album tour. Old Black Cat Jazz Club.
Fri 20: Middlesbrough Jazz & Blues Orchestra @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ Riverdale Hall Hotel, Bellingham NE48 2JT. Tel: 01434 220254. 8:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Mark Toomey Quintet @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm.

Sat 21: Freetime Old Dixie Jazz Band @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club. FODJB (Holland).
Sat 21: NUJO Jazz Jam @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £3.76.
Sat 21: Ray Stubbs R&B Allstars @ Billy Bootleggers, Newcastle. 7:00pm. 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

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Lickety Split @ The Globe. The Jazz Coop Christmas Party, December 17

Eddie Bellis (trombone, introductions); Kevin Eland (trumpet, flugelhorn); Paul Gowland (tenor sax); Alan Marshall (alto sax); Jeremy McMurray (keys); Bradley Johnston (guitar); John Pope (bass); Sid Wight (drums).
(Review by Ann Alex) 
And here was I thinking that Lickety Split was an ice lolly! It was the first time I’d seen this band and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. They gave an excellent performance, a lively, skilled front line with the precision of a big band, and the engine room behind giving their all. Not just the main tune then solos all round, but much more interesting arrangements with instruments chipping in variously. What tunes did they play? My notes are lacking in this department as I was selling raffle tickets and counting money as well, so I asked the band for a set list. This is jazz folks, so guess what, the list didn’t quite tally with what I heard, but the show was too good to be worrying about such trivialities.
Christmas numbers were included, (not mentioned on the list); we had O Christmas Tree (I know this as The Red Flag, but I refrained from singing it); Silent Night was well improvised and quite loud; The ever popular White Christmas;  and the evening was well rounded off with Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, with the horns in wonderful harmony. In between came Wayne Shorter’s One By One; Mambo Influenciado ; Soul Leo; New Religion; a very spirited Straight No Chaser ( Paul gave a superb solo on sax, a rather slidey run through of the chords, then what sounded like the same chords but much, much faster); then Sister Sadie, with every instrument chipping in.

Other tunes which I believe were played included Stolen Moments; Doxy; Nica’s Dream; Four; Lift Off; Sandu; Dolphin Dance; I Remember Clifford. I’m not able to say more about the performance as I was involved in other duties, so I must see this band again. I’m not sure how I’ve missed them so far. Eddie told us that the band had been together for many years and this was their 10th birthday.  
This was, of course, the Globe Christmas party, with lots of food and 12 Cds for the raffle prizes. The Cds had been kindly donated by Dave Weisser, with the raffle money going to the Globe funds. The party began at 6pm with the Globe Jam house bands conducting proceedings and the downstairs bar was full. The bands did a great job of getting us in the groove ready for  Lickety Split. They were:-
Stu Finden (tenor sax) Fiona Finden (soprano sax) Dave Weisser (cornet); Jude Murphy ( flute, sax); Keith Barrett (guitar). Sorry, I can’t remember the full names of the 2 drummers or the bass player. I do remember that a good time was had by all. The metro called me home before the end of the evening, so it could still be going on for all I know.
Ann Alex

1 comment :

Kev said...

I don't know what Ann was listening to but silent night is a gentle Bossa but then the drums were loud all the way through.

Kev Eland

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