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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, June 02, 2019

Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon - June 1

(Review by Russell)

North Tyneside boasts at least one daytime residency every day, Monday to Friday. All are popular, free admission sessions with a mid-afternoon finish enabling gig-goers to hop on a bus or Metro and head for home before school kids and commuters do the very same thing. A Saturday evening residency with a door charge is an altogether different proposition. No one would ever contemplate such a crazy idea...   

Thanks to the tireless efforts of band leader Maureen Hall there has been a first Saturday in the month Dixieland session 'down the coast' for more years than the vocalist would care to remember. From Cullercoats to Preston Grange to Earsdon, Hall's Rendezvous Jazz outfit has resolutely defied the odds and here, at the Red Lion on Front Street, the band's followers turned out once more despite the attraction of tv coverage of the Champions' League Final. 
On this first day of June, Hall thought it a good idea to begin with June Night from 1924. Hall took the first vocal of the evening - I'm the Lonesomest Gal in Town - from 1912 (Ella, Kay Starr and others recorded the number). From 1921 Jazz Me Blues caught the ear of Gavin Lee. Opting to play soprano, the New Centurion knocked out the first of several great solos (others would follow, on soprano, alto or clarinet). In the absence of the band's other vocalist, regular drummer George Davidson, Hall invited John Broddle to sing a few numbers. Roses of Picardy the first of them, Broddle impressed, as did Lee playing Bechet-esque soprano. 

Two deps acquitted themselves well - Ian Hetherington in for Davidson, and, adding lustre to the frontline, trombone maestro Gordon Solomon. The one-time River City Jazzman, deserving of the tag 'special guest', recently returned to the scene. The younger members of the regional branch of the Union of Trombonists should check him out - Solomon's glissandos on Savoy Blues would blow 'em away at a jam session! 

Raffle done, another pint of Red Lion (what else?!), Maureen rounded-up the boys and let them loosen-up on an instrumental China Boy before assuming command on Faraway Blues. Not one to take centre stage, Hall called John B back to the stand to sing Avalon. One assumes JB sang with some decent bands down the years, his phrasing suggests he knows his stuff. Hall's Melancholy Blues led to JB's Margie before all hell broke loose on a 'six nowt' version of Tiger Rag. The audience reaction was such that pianist Malcolm Armstrong called for order: Calm doon, calm doon! The great Doris Fenn, banjo, sitting alongside the pianist, was highly amused. 

It had been a canny session. Maureen Hall's Rendezvous Jazz will be back at the Red Lion on Saturday, July 6 (8:30pm). £3 on the door, on this occasion, admission will include a buffet.    
Russell.

Maureen Hall (vocals); Gavin Lee (clarinet, alto sax, soprano sax); Gordon Solomon (trombone); Malcolm Armstrong (piano); John Robinson (double bass); Ian Hetherington (drums) + John Broddle (vocals); Doris Fenn  (banjo).

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