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Bebop Spoken There

Francis Tulip: ''Music speaks louder than words''. (Jazzwise, 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

17,550 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 514 of them this year alone and, so far, 92 this month (June 28).

From This Moment On ...

JULY 202

Sat 12: Jazz Stage @ Mouth of the Tyne Festival. From 12 noon. Free. Vieux Carré Jazzmen (12 noon); Rendezvous Jazz (1:00pm); Mississippi Dreamboats (2:00pm); Classic Swing (3:00pm); Abbie Finn Trio (4:00pm). Stage adjacent to Tynemouth Priory.
Sat 12: Making Music Seminar: Latin American Music v. Music of Latin America @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 1:00pm. £15.00. (£5.00. online). Jason Holcomb, Alix Shepherd & Carlos Luis Rivera.
Sat 12: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 12: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Lovaine Community Garden, North Shields. 7:00pm (doors 6:40pm). £6.00. Limited places, booking essential (via the Community Garden website). BYOF&D.
Sat 12: Hot Club du Nord @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Hall Two.
Sat 12: Sleep Suppressor @ Repas 7 by Night, Berwick. 8:00pm.
Sat 12: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle.8:00pm. Free. ‘Swing Jazz Guitar’. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 13: Jazz Stage @ Mouth of the Tyne Festival. From 11:00am. Free. Trilogy of Four (11:00am); East Coast Jazzmen (12:10pm); Delta Prophets Trio (1:20pm); House of the Black Gardenia (2:30pm); Mouth of the Tyne All Stars (3:40pm). Stage adjacent to Tynemouth Priory.
Sun 13: Giles Strong Quartet @ The Sele, Hexham. 12 noon. Free. ‘The Bandstand Sessions’.
Sun 13: Julie Dexter @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:30pm (doors). £20.00. ‘The Cluny Matinee Jazz Club’.
Sun 13: ’58 Jazz Collective, Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 2:00pm. Tea Dance. SOLD OUT! A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sun 13: Ferg Kilsby @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Kilsby (trumpet, flugelhorn); Luis Verde (alto sax); Ben Lawrence (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); John Hirst (drums).
Sun 13: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Sloth Racket @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.

Mon 14: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.
Mon 14: Brass Bash @ Hardwick Park, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Mon 14: Brass Bash @ The Story, Mount Oswald, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.

Tue 15: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Sluice. Tel: 0191 237 3697. 12:30pm. ‘July Jazz Barbecue’. Tickets: £15.00.
Tue 15: Brass Bash @ Hackworth Park, Shildon, Co. Durham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Tue 15: Brass Bash @ The Witham, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Tue 15: Julian Lage Trio @ 1856 Exchange, North Shields. 7:30pm . Lage (guitar); Jorge Roeder (double bass); Joey Barron (drums).
Tue 15: Jools Holland’s Rhythm & Blues Orchestra @ The Hippodrome, Darlington. 7:30pm.
Tue 15: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Bailey Rudd.

Wed 16: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 16: Brass Bash @ Willington Town Park, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Wed 16: Brass Bash @ Market Place, Spennymoor, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Wed 16: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 16: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 17: Brass Bash @ Trimdon Community College, Co. Durham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Thu 17: Brass Bash @ Blackhill & Consett Park, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Thu 17: NONUNONU @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £11:55 (inc bf).

Fri 18: Greg Abate w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 18: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 18: Brass Bash @ Town Park, Newton Aycliffe, Co. Durham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Fri 18: Brass Bash @ North Terrace, Seaham, Co. Durham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Fri 18: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm.
Fri 18: Knats: Masterclass & jam session @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Fri 18: Rat Pack - Live in Concert @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 18: Greg Abate w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £15.00.
Fri 18: Front Porch Three @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. A Hoodoo Blues dance class & social. Social & Front Porch Three only from 8:30pm. £5.00.

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

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Malta Jazz Festival 2019. Days July 17 - 19.

(Review & outdoor photos by Steve T/Indoor photos courtesy of John Ristway)

I first came across the Malta Jazz Festival last time I visited the island and found - if memory serves - I'd narrowly missed (former Yes, King Crimson, Genesis and UK) drummer Bill Bruford, with his jazz group Earthworks, and local band Noir, who I've never managed to find anything about, though for anyone of my age or older, that's one seriously cool name for a band. The festival has been on my radar ever since, but this is the first time our financial situation and the festival line-up have aligned.

It's on for six days but builds up to the weekend so we were able to miss the Monday and Tuesday without sacrificing too much.

Lunchtime gigs were at the Parliament Building in the capital Valletta, where all the gigs were, and I already knew where this was until - quite by accident - I found out there's now also a New Parliament Building. Investigations of the old one found no signs of a band setting up, but we did locate a 'you are here' map and further investigation revealed a 'you need to be here' listing. 

However, throughout the festival, I never saw a map of the venues - at least six of them - or a signpost for any gig, and directions from festival staff were of the 'if you already know where you're going, these directions should get you there' variety. There is much to love about Malta but attention to detail and urgency are not among them.

Wednesday lunchtime brought the Anthony Saliba Quartet featuring sax, keyboard, drums and the leader playing bass guitar; later in the week we'd see him playing double bass with the Hot Club of Valletta. They opened with a couple of well-known jazz pieces (so well known I couldn't remember the titles) followed by some originals, including a bass led trio piece going along nicely, which I felt sure would bring in the sax for a rousing climax, but didn't. Maybe next time.

For these sessions, a group of regulars would converge in a cafe opposite for coffee or Campari and I heard one describe it as lift jazz, which I thought unfair and I think it's unhelpful for purists to delineate anything with a bass guitar and a Fender Rhodes sound as musak, elevator music or smooth jazz.

Were they transposed to the North East of England - and County Durham alone has an area seven times the size of Malta - they would be one of the bands worth seeing again and again.

I started the festival with an ambition to see thirteen events and managed twelve. Enquiries about the Wednesday night jam session recommended an early arrival because of the size of the venue but also that there was unlikely to be an available guitar or trumpet, so we agreed to forfeit it. As it happened a guitar did turn up so northeast born Francis Tulip and his pianist friend and fellow Birmingham Conservatoire student Will Markham got to play and I have it on British, Maltese, Polish and Northern Irish authority that they tore it up.   

Thursday lunchtime was the turn of the Francesca Galea Trio, featuring the singer accompanied by guitar and double bass for some bossa. Francesca has the effortless style of the islanders and gave an assured performance and, as she announced her final piece, I told Mrs T she'd finish with Girl from Ipanema and when she didn't I assured her they'd play an encore but they didn't. Good for them.

Friday was our final lunchtime gig and featured the Hot Club of Valletta. With the northeast punching above its weight in gypsy jazz I didn't want to miss the opportunity to see how the world leaders in punching above their weight would fair.      

Unsurprisingly well, as double bass, two gypsy guitars, accordion and violin sound-checked All of Me. They did it again as the singer turned up fashionably late though they didn't include it in their set. They did include Pennies from Heaven, It Don't Mean a Thing, The Bare Necessities and a take on Mark Ronson's Valerie I was lucky enough to miss, interspersed with a number of instrumentals, though no Minor Swing.

It came as no surprise when she announced that the band are led by the violinist, who compares with the northeast's very own Emma Fisk. Apparently he also plays clarinet, increasing his Gypsy Jazz credentials exponentially, though I didn't spot him playing it, unless he did so on Valerie. 
Steve T

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