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Bebop Spoken There

Steve Coleman: ''If you don't keep learning, your mind slows down. Use it or lose it''. (DownBeat, January 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

17733 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 53 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Jan. 20).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Wed 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 22: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 22: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 22: Pasadena Roof Orchestra @ Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.

Thu 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free. Fortnightly.
Thu 23: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Obituaries 2024.
Thu 23: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:30-6:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Thu 23: Pedal Point Trio @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 24: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 24: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 24: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 24: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 24: Creakin’ Bones & the Sunday Dinners @ Lindisfarne Social Club, Wallsend. 9:00pm. Admission: TBC. Jazz, blues , jump jive, rock ‘n’ roll.

Sat 25: Boys of Brass @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 25: New '58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson's Wharf, Hartlepool. 6:30pm (doors). Free. A Burns' Night event. Jazz, swing, funk, soul, blues etc.
Sat 25: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 25: Red Kites Jazz @ Parish Hall, St Barnabas’ Church, Rowlands Gill. 7:30pm. £10.00. BYOB (tea & coffee available), raffle. Proceeds to St Barnabas’ Church. Performance feat. Shayo (vocals).
Sat 25: Jack & Jay’s Songbook @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Graham Hardy Eclectic Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 26: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:30pm. Free.
Sun 26: Gratkowski, Tramontana, Beresford, Affifi @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00. JNE.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 28: ???

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 30: Matters Unknown (aka Jonathan Enser, Nubiyan Twist) + support TBA @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). £12.22 (gig & food); £9:04 (gig only).
Thu 30: Soznak @ The Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 30: Struggle Buggy @ Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Rhythm & blues.

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

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Mike Durham's Classic Jazz Party 2018 @ Village Hotel, Newcastle - Nov 4 (evening)

(Review by Russell/Photos courtesy (and ©) of DJC de la Haye)

The final session of this year's Classic Jazz Party opened at seven thirty with the third of three
piano 'professors' - Morten Gunnar Larsen - playing to another packed main hall. As the evening's programme unfurled - Richard Pite's small group Gene Krupa Band session with Matthias Seuffert, reeds, Martin Litton, piano and string bassist Graham Hughes; the trumpets of Tomasso and Heitger working with an all European rhythm section on New Orleans hits the Big Apple; and Spats' Band giving Tom Langham free reign to showcase ragtime banjo, Al Bowlly vocals and more - thoughts turned to the set-piece finale, The Nichols-Duffee Chick Webb Orchestra

The earlier trumpet-led set included a faithful rendition of the ODJB's Dixieland One-Step and Wingy Manone's 1930 recording Tar Paper Stomp. The latter enticed the dancers to the floor once again...they'd been foxtrotting it (and other steps!) all weekend. Spats Langham's half-hour set eased the Village Hotel's audience into the final straight in relaxed fashion. The five-piece outfit - Spats, Dan Levinson, Emma Fisk, Morten Gunnar Larsen and Malcolm Sked - was demob-happy, its work almost done, although there was the little matter of another late night jam session to look forward to. Mr Sked was the exception, his services would be required for the ten o'clock send-off. 

Keith Nichols and American percussion virtuoso Josh Duffee collaborate throughout the year emailing parts back and forth across the Atlantic, suggesting numbers, floating ideas, and somehow it all comes together on the night. Suspend belief, imagine the Village Hotel near West Allotment is the Savoy Ballroom on Lenox Avenue, NYC, the year nineteen thirty something. Chick Webb is resident, Edgar Sampson's Don't Be That Way is a big hit (Sampson said he preferred Webb's version, musically speaking, but Benny Goodman's was financially rewarding!), this one hour set encapsulated the 'classic jazz' era. 

The Classic Jazz Party was almost done...almost. A dash through to the bar for the eleven o'clock jam session, this one to be led by Dan Levinson. The tall New Yorker had enjoyed his first visit to Tyneside (Levinson's CD sales went off the scale), the odds are he will return. The house band comprised Malo Mazurié, trumpet, Lars Frank on reeds, Spats Langham, guitar and banjo, Phil Rutherford on tuba and drummer Richard Pite. As house bands do, the ensemble played a few numbers prior to the sitters-in joining the fray. Suffice to say all CJP participants, with the exception of one or two who made an early departure to fly out/drive to their next engagement, got up to have a blow. At times the frontline nudged into double figures and from the rousing opening number - Indiana to Ain't Misbehavin' to countless others, the last time anyone glanced at the clock on the pub's stripped-back brick wall it said 2:40am. And still they played on. 

Next year's Classic Jazz Party runs from Friday 1 through to Sunday 3 November. Advance booking is recommended.  
Russell              

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