Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Beaumont Hotel, Hexham - Feb 18

Dean Stockdale (piano); Giles Strong (guitar); Mick Shoulder (double bass)

A Monday evening jazz gig at Hexham's Beaumont Hotel featuring an ace piano trio attracted a good number of diners and a few discerning listeners nursing a solitary drink. 

Pianist Dean Stockdale met up with guitarist Giles Strong and bassist Mick Shoulder to play a selection of GASbook numbers in laid back style. Gershwin, of course, Richard Rodgers, Billy Taylor (I Wish I Knew), Monk (deserving of GASbook status), all played with the sensitivity one has come to expect of Messrs Stockdale, Strong and Shoulder. 

Allendale Brewery's Golden Plover is an ever-present on the bar (very much a local beer in these parts) and on the night it pipped Mordue's Workie Ticket. The trio fed and watered, the music resumed with three fine solos on Don't Get Around Much Anymore. A further round of first-rate solos followed on a swift Lady be Good and the evening's entertainment concluded with Witchcraft. Next week's jazz offering is the fine guitar duo of Giles Strong and Roly Veitch, seven 'til nine. 
Russell