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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

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

Wednesday, January 09, 2019

Jam Session @ the Black Swan - January 8.

(Review by Lance/PHOTOS.) 

Sixteen swingers at the first jam of 2019 and it set the bar high for the rest of the year not least when the house trio opened up with You'd be so Nice to Come Home to and You Don't Know What Love is. A couple of numbers that told the awaiting jammers that, if they fell on their ass it wouldn't be because of any shortcomings in the backing.

Nobody fell!

Ray Johnson was first up with Tangerine and Softly as in a Morning Sunrise. Alan Law introduced the former tune as "A Xmas song"!

Nick Gould, all the way from Edinburgh, made the trip worthwhile with There is no Greater Love and Body and Soul.


A new face, a new voice is always welcome and Jenny Kanellea made an impressive debut with Temptation (not the old Perry Como hit!) and Sway (the old Dean Martin hit). We look forward to hearing her again.

Tonight the onus was on the tenor sax or, to be more precise, four of them and number two was John Rowland who, undaunted by the tenor storm that had been blown up earlier, took us for a Blues Walk and I Wish I Knew How it Felt to be Free. Alan Law's solo added a lot of exclamation marks to my notebook. Matt MacKellar, on drums, had a few exclamation marks of his own on the score sheet. Matt returns to the venue on Thursday with Ben Lawrence, Andy Champion and Niffi Osiyemi.

The tenors kept a-coming with Ian White blowing Ricorda Me and Mr PC taken at only slightly slower than the speed of light. John Pope did some dextrous fingering on the latter number as befitted a tune dedicated to the late Paul Chambers.

A rare appearance by Dave Mckeague kept the rhythmic pulse high as those who'd waited patiently joined him on stage. These included yet another tenor player cum debutant - Grahame Easthope. Bearded, flat-capped and a handcrafted snout behind his ear he joined the fray along with "Showtime" on trombone and Todd on trumpet for the Roy Hargrove classic inspired by the Parisian metro station - Strasbourg/St. Denis. It was a blast.

In walked Stu who sat in on piano for Ladybird then In Walked Bud with Gould and Gray out front.

Ray Burns is never far away at a jam session and he made it in time to sing and play Sweet Lorraine.

The grand finale had Johnson, Gould, Gray and Rowland blowing on whatever it was but this I felt was an anti-climax. With four tenors, two trumpets and a trombone in the room this could have made for an all-out battle royal JATP style that could have gone on till midnight! But, time and tide etc.

It had still been a great evening.
Lance.
PS: On my journey home my Romanian cab driver was playing Rocket  Man.
"Do you like Elton John?" he asked.
I admitted I could take him or leave him. He then asked me which singers I listened to when I was younger.
"Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald" I replied.
"I've heard of them" he said and I wondered if he had.
PHOTOS.
Alan Law (piano); Paul Grainger (bass); Rob Walker (drums) + Ray Johnson, Elliott Todd (trumpets); David Gray (trombone); John Rowland, Nick Gould, Ian White, Grahame Easthope (tenor saxes); Stu Collingwood (piano); John Pope (bass); Matthew MacKellar, Dave McKeague (drums); Ray Burns (vocal/harmonica); Jenny Kanellea (vocals).

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