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Bebop Spoken There

George Colligan: ''I think to be a successful musician, you must be versatile to make a living — until you find your niche''. (DownBeat, July 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

17,612 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 576 of them this year alone and, so far, 54 this month (July 18).

From This Moment On ...

JULY 2025

Sat 19: Streets of Brass @ Durham City. From 10:00am. Free. Various street bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sat 19: Mr Wilson’s Second Liners: BRASS Boat Cruise @ Elvet Bridge jetty (by the boat club & Tomahawk Steak), Durham City. 12 noon. £12.00.; £10.00.; £5.00. 60 mins cruise, 2 x sets. SOLD OUT! A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sat 19: Bollywood Brass Band @ Monument Metro Station & Haymarket Metro Station, Newcastle. 2:00pm & 3:00pm & 4:00pm (3 x 30 mins). Free. A Gem Arts Masala Festival event.
Sat 19: Diddy Sweg: BRASS Boat Cruise @ Elvet Bridge jetty (by the boat club & Tomahawk Steak), Durham City. 2:00pm. £12.00.; £10.00.; £5.00. 60 mins cruise, 2 x sets. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sat 19: Brazen Brass Band: BRASS Boat Cruise @ Elvet Bridge jetty (by the boat club & Tomahawk Steak), Durham City. 12 noon. £12.00.; £10.00.; £5.00. 60 mins cruise, 2 x sets. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sat 19: Party in the Park @ Wharton Park, Durham. 5:00-9:00pm. Free. Ten street brass bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sat 19: Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 19: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 19: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Chopwell Community Centre. 8:00pm.

Sun 20: Streets of Brass @ Durham City. From 11:00am. Free. Various street bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sun 20: Always Drinking Marching Band: BRASS Boat Cruise @ Elvet Bridge jetty (by the boat club & Tomahawk Steak), Durham City. 11:00am. £12.00.; £10.00.; £5.00. 60 mins cruise, 2 x sets. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sun 20: New York Brass Band: BRASS Boat Cruise @ Elvet Bridge jetty (by the boat club & Tomahawk Steak), Durham City. 1:00pm. £12.00.; £10.00.; £5.00. 60 mins cruise, 2 x sets. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sun 20: Das Brass: BRASS Boat Cruise @ Elvet Bridge jetty (by the boat club & Tomahawk Steak), Durham City. 3:00pm. £12.00.; £10.00.; £5.00. 60 mins cruise, 2 x sets. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sun 20: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 20: Pope/Garner/Byrne/Alderson @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.

Mon 21: Gerry Richardson Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 21: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.
Mon 21: New Century Syncopated Seven @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 22: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm.

Wed 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 23: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 23: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 23: Isobel Pearce Quartet @ Dept. of Music, Palace Green, Durham University. 8:15pm. £10.00. & £7.00. First night of two. A Durham Fringe Festival event.

Thu 24: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Tony Roberts presents ‘Progressive Jazz’.
Thu 24: Soweto Kinch + Theo Croker + Joe Webb Trio + Rivkala @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 8:00pm (doors 7:30pm). £23.00. A BBC Proms event.
Thu 24: Isobel Pearce Quartet @ Dept. of Music, Palace Green, Durham University. 8:15pm. £10.00. & £7.00. Second night of two. A Durham Fringe Festival event.

Fri 25: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 25: The Society Quartet @ Hilton Garden Inn, Sunderland. 6:00pm. Tel: 0191 500 9494. £26.00 (inc. two course meal).
Fri 25: Trio Grand @ Land of Oak & Iron, Winlaton Mill. 6:00pm. Free. Barbara Wilcox (keyboards, vocals); Paul Carter (bass); George Voros (drums, vocals).
Fri 25: Bold Big Band @ Old Coal Yard, Byker, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £18.00.; £12.00.; £6.00.; £4.00. A Newcastle Fringe Festival event.
Fri 25: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Country blues guitar & vocals. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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

Monday, December 18, 2017

Strictly Smokin’ Big Band with Scarlet Street @ Gosforth Civic Theatre - December 16

(Review by Russell)
Many years ago Gosforth Civic Hall hosted big-name jazz concerts including appearances by Jay McShann, Red Norvo and other visiting Americans. Now, in the twenty-first century, the leafy NE3 venue is known as Gosforth Civic Theatre and a regular series of jazz gigs forms part of a packed schedule of events. In recent years with Christmas on the horizon Tyneside’s Strictly Smokin’ Big Band has established a tradition of playing two sell-out concerts and 2017 wasn’t going to be any different. Yes, a new venue, but with the same result – Friday and Saturday nights…SOLD OUT!
The band attired in lounge suits and evening gowns, the audience not quite haute couture, more a ragbag of glitter and glam, dodgy Christmassy jumpers, and jeans and t-shirts. The SSBB’s usual drummer Guy Swinton wasn’t available so MD Michael Lamb gave Ian Wynd a call. Now that was a good call! The band assembled on GCT’s stage and the vocalists – all five of them! – would later stand on the floor (and a step ladder!), in front of the ensemble.

We Three Kings opened the show introducing the horns of Messrs Paul Gowland, Steve Summers and Jamie Toms, not forgetting guitarist Pawel ‘Pav’ Jedrzejewski. Immediately noticeable was the sound. It was as if this was classic Basie – a low-level volume Freddie Greene (aka Pav), low-level bassist Michael Whent and Ian Wynd’s superb whispering brushes. Daring, to say the least, playing to a full hall! The band’s immense power purposely restrained, was this the template for the night?

Superstar band singer Alice Grace emerged from the wings dressed to kill. Launching into Harold Arlen’s Get Happy the fabulous Ms Grace couldn’t be heard. This was a head in hands time if ever there was one. AG sang her heart out oblivious to the inopportune ‘technical issues’ and at the end of the number received huge applause even though no one present could hear a single word!
AG’s sidekick, the one and only F’reez, appeared out front to sing the first of his numbers. Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby? sang our man as, to a degree, the ‘technical issues’ persisted. The Strictly Smokin’ Big Band is, for many, pre-eminent on the local scene, and an unfortunate start wasn’t to deter this outfit. The high level of musicianship across all sections in the band is the envy of many, and, as if that wasn’t enough, it was time to welcome Scarlet Street! Alice, Jennifer Davies and ‘the girls’ did what any female barbershop quartet should do…knock ’em dead! And they did with Blondie’s One Way or Another then Man with a Sack. All good fun, this was party time!

A most welcome chart, Claude Thornhill’s Snowfall (seasonally apposite!), heard the SSBB playing some jazz and this was terrific stuff. Your reviewer spied/heard baritone anchor Laurie Rangecroft playing a few bars on a white, plastic alto saxophone! During the interval LR did indeed confirm his use of the said instrument, adding for the record that he hasn’t ever had to hock the instrument to feed a habit (Charlie Parker reference!). Band pianist Graham Don had the luxury of playing not only his keyboard but also the house upright. At the conclusion of the number, MD Michael Lamb suggested the piano was last tuned in the year that Thornhill wrote it (early forties)! A comic, but quite possibly accurate, observation!    

F’reez returned alongside Scarlet Street to Accentuate the Positive with his soulful phrasing, not in anyway similar to Mr Bing Crosby! F’reez stayed on to close the first set with the band’s Christmas Mashup.                
  
Second set. Bah humbug! time. Dancing was encouraged…oh, if you must. George Michael’s Last Christmas worked well (F’reez singing), your correspondent confessing to a little, only a little, bit of synchronised waving of hands-in-the-air. God Rest Ye Merry Trombones featured, unsurprisingly, the trombone section. A name check is in order, these guys are the business; Mark Ferris, Kieran Parnaby, Davis Barnes and John Flood. F’reez reappeared carrying a set of small ladders saying he was the butt of jokes during Friday’s concert, adding he was comfortable with his ‘masculinity’ as he stood on the ladders in an attempt to tower above his tall, talented, elegant co-vocalist Alice Grace. Much hilarity, Baby, It’s Cold Outside, it’s a winner isn’t it? Alice fabulous, and F’reez was canny good as well. Only joking! They’re a winning partnership!  

It should be taken as read that the reeds were on form, they always are. Special mention for Pete Tanton’s solo features and his section mates’ to-be-expected immaculate playing. One contribution is deserving of the highest praise, that of Ian Wynd. Drummer Wynd is no stranger to big band jazz gigs but his performance as a dep with the Strictly Smokin’ was exceptionally good.        

The pocket-sized F’reez sang Let it Snow and then the band had a blow on Apple Honey. Always a barnstormer, some BSH readers must have heard the Woody Herman band play it in concert.That must have been quite something, back in the day. Scarlet Street returned to sing a few more tunes including Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody, the masterpiece that is Jingle Bells, followed by not one, but two encores – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and, with F’reez once again joining the ‘girls’, sending us off into the night singing Winter Wonderland.

The Strictly Smokin’ Big Band is one band that, if you’re yet to hear them, you must catch. Before the year is out the SSBB will be at Hoochie Coochie on December 29. And, advance notice of a big gig at Alphabetti Theatre on Saturday 17 February which will see the band working with none other than guest star Paul Booth. Saxophonist Booth hails from County Durham but has long since lived down south touring internationally for many years and as the venue’s capacity is approximately 100 book now or miss out. Tickets £10 from www.strictly-smokin.co.uk                      
Russell               
Strictly Smokin’ Big Band: Michael Lamb MD, Pete Tanton, Gordon Marshall, Dick Stacey trumpets; Mark Ferris, Keiran Parnaby, David Barnes, John Flood trombones; Jamie Toms, Paul Gowland, Steve Summers, Keith Robinson, Laurie Rangecroft reeds; Pawel Jedrzejewski guitar; Graham Don piano & keyboards; Michael Whent bass; Ian Wynd drums; Alice Grace & F’reez vocals; Scarlet Street vocals.

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