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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

Sat 14: Mr Wilson’s Second Liners @ Northumberland Miners’ Picnic, Woodhorn Museum, Ashington. 10:00am-5:00pm. Free. At intervals during the day.
Sat 14: Spanish City Rollers @ The Brae, Cullercoats. 11:00am & 1:00pm. Free. A Cullercoats Festival event.
Sat 14: Front Porch Three + Hoodoo Blues swing dance workshop @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 3:30pm. A Cullercoats Festival event.
Sat 14: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tynedale Beer & Cider Festival, Tynedale Rugby Club, Corbridge. 4:15-5:30pm.
Sat 14: Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 14: Mark Williams Trio @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Sat 14: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm.
Sat 14: Eva Fox & Steve Chambers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 15: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 15: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Pasadena Roof Orchestra @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:00pm.
Sun 15: Under the Wellie @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 15: Hannah Brine Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 16: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.
Mon 16: Giles Strong Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.

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.

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: 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.

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

Wednesday, November 07, 2018

Mike Durham's Classic Jazz Party 2018 @ Village Hotel, Newcastle - Nov 2 (evening)

(Review by Russell)
The Professor 1 began Friday's evening session. The opening half hour piano set is an established part of the programme (other 'professors' - nos. 2 and 3 - would perform on Saturday and Sunday evenings) and on this occasion, the floor was Martin Litton's. The elegant Litton's masterclass included one of his favourites - Willie 'The Lion' Smith's Keep Your Temper - and Ellington's Lady of the Lavender Mist.

Post WWI Americans in Paris offered Crescent City pianist David Boeddinghaus the opportunity to look at the life and work of some of his fellow Americans who chose to stay on in Europe after the Great War. Assisted by France resident New Yorker Nicolle Rochelle, Frenchmen Malo Mazurié, trumpet and Henry Lemaire on guitar, Germany's Matthias Seuffert and Norway's Lars Frank playing the reeds and the British engine room boys Malcolm Sked, string bass (as opposed to double bass, this is a connoisseur's 'classic jazz' era festival, you know!) and the ramrod straight Richard Pite behind the traps, Boeddinghaus' set offered an insight as to how it must have been. Two piano playing Freddys - Johnson and Taylor - featured; the former recorded Harlem Bound (perhaps an unfulfilled wish) for Brunswick in Paris (1933), the latter Viper's Dream.  

Ewan Bleach & His Levee Loungers found the self-effacing Bleach perhaps a tad nervous. Super talented, nerves cast aside, Bleach blew some hot, hot, hot clarinet sharing the stand with good time piano man Jeff Barnhart, Brits Martin Wheatley (banjo, guitar) and on bass Graham Hughes (usually heard playing trombone, slide or valve) and the ever-smiling, immaculate Josh Duffee (drums). Cole Porter's You'd be so easy to love hit the spot and Jerome Kern's Old Man River couldn't have been hotter if they'd tried a million times over. 

Duke Heitger's short set (Dan Levinson, reeds) heard the American on trumpet and singing, on this occasion, The Very Thought of You. An excellent half hour.  

The closing set brought Keith Nichols to the stand. The CJP's senior guest knows a thing or two about the King of Swing and his Benny Goodman Orchestra 1935 programme held the full house spellbound. A starry line-up (including the trumpets of Jamie Brownfield, Malo Mazurié and Duke Heitger, Dan Levinson on tenor and Ms Joan Viskant battling laryngitis) revisited Goodman's successful 1935 Los Angeles period. A hot Get Happy, Viskant singing You Turned the Tables on Me (arr Fletcher Henderson), the rarely heard Ballad in Blue and, a phrase Nichols is fond of using, a couple of 'tear-arse' numbers, namely Sweet and Hot and, with Richard Pite as Gene Krupa, Hooray for Hollywood

Eleven o'clock, no time for the jazz fan to rest...into the bar for a late night jam session. Standing in the crowded bar with pint in hand made note-taking somewhat difficult. Suffice to say it was a tremendous session with the last knockings approaching silly o'clock. The photo shows (left to right), Michael McQuaid, Nicolle Rochelle, Jacob Ullbeger, Mike Davis and Graham Hughes.    
Russell

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