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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

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. CANCELLED!

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: David Gray's Flextet @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
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.

Sat 21: Milne Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 21: Red Kites Jazz @ Staithes Café, Dunston. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Sat 21: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 22: Phoenix 4 @ Wallington, Northumberland. 12 noon-1:00pm & 2:00-3:00pm. Tel: 01670 773606. National Trust admission prices apply. ‘Tunes in the Blooms’.
Sun 22: Lapwing Trio @ Wallington, Northumberland. 1:00-2:00pm. Tel: 01670 773606. National Trust admission prices apply. ‘Tunes in the Blooms’.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Jason Isaacs Trio @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 4:00pm. £18.00. + £1.08 bf.
Sun 22: JazzMain @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 23: MSK Trio @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.

Tues 24: ???

Wed 25: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 25: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 25: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 25: The Magpies of Swing @ The Roxy, Leadgate, Co. Durham. 7:30pm. A Ginger Jitterbugs swing dance event, all welcome.

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, November 07, 2019

Mike Durham's Classic Jazz Party @ Village Hotel - Nov.1


Friday evening - Nov.1
(Review by Russell)

King Oliver, Roy Eldridge, Charlie Shavers, Emmett Berry - cornetists/trumpeters who helped lay the foundations of the music. The iconic figures would figure in a number of the Classic Jazz Party's Friday evening sets in the guise of present day superstars, variously, Andy Schumm, Torstein Kubban, Enrico Tomasso, Malo Mazurié and Duke Heitger. 

The evening began in low key fashion. As CJP-goers filed into the hall the first of this year's three piano Professors went to work. Morten Gunnar Larsen is a concert grand pianist of distinction. A classical background, recording sessions focussing on Storyville rags and stomps, the Norwegian, whose cv includes sharing a stage with Eubie Blake, entertained royally. 


King Oliver - Lincoln Gardens 1923 found Claus Jacobi looking not at Oliver's recordings of 1923 rather specific sessions for Gennett and OKeh in April and June of that year. The CJP is a gathering of aficionados au fait with the 'classic jazz' era, not least Jacobi's subject matter. The German reedsman led a star-studded ensemble - including Andy Schumm, cornet, Torstein Kubban, trumpet, Dave Bock, trombone and pianist Dave Boeddinghaus - from behind his weighty bass saxophone. 

Whenever Enrico Tomasso takes centre stage you can be sure of fireworks and Swing Trumpets lit up the November night sky. Flanked by fellow trumpeters Malo Mazurié and Duke Heitger this was a bravura performance by the Leeds College of Music alumnus. Informative anecdotes about King Oliver, Armstrong, Eldridge and others framed Tomasso's one hour set which, for everyone present could have gone on all night.

Martin Wheatley's The Day Before Jazz required the participation of no fewer than seventeen musicians! Wheatley's banjo/guitar led the ensemble on a voyage of discovery of the pre-Jazz Age years. Wheatley's set called for a string quartet and he looked no further than right here in the north east of England. Emma FiskDawn AllenKay Usher and cellist Penny Callow answered the call and did an outstanding job interpreting the popular music of the Edwardian era. 

It had been an evening, indeed a full day, of excellent 'classic jazz' sets. At eleven o'clock some could have thought about sleeping but not CJP enthusiasts! The Village Hotel's Victory Pub does good business at the best of times but couldn't have anticipated a friendly invasion of jazz fans wanting more. Within minutes of the final set in the ballroom the Victory was packed to the rafters for the first CJP Pub Jam of 2019. Trumpeter Torstein Kubban, a real enthusiast if ever there was one, led an ever changing cast including rising star cornetist Colin Hancock, fellow Americans Dave Bock, trombone, David Boeddinghaus and drummer Josh Duffee, French reedsman Stéphane Gillot and local hero Phil Rutherford dropping anchor on tuba. It started at eleven and before we knew it three in the morning came and went. It would soon be time for a 'Full English' at 7:30am Saturday.   
Russell             

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