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Bebop Spoken There

Sullivan Fortner: ''I always judge it by the bass player: If the bass player is happy, it's going to be a good night". (DownBeat, February 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

17777 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 98 of them this year alone and, so far, 23 this month (Feb.8).

From This Moment On ...

February 2025

Sun 16: MOBO Song @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 12 noon. Free, performances on the concourse. Line-up inc. Jazz Attack (on stage time TBC) & Jambone (12:20pm).
Sun 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 16: MOBO Awards Fringe 2025: BBC Introducing NE X MOBO Showcase @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:00pm. Free (ticketed). Line-up inc. Jambone, Knats, Rivkala, SwanNek.
Sun 16: The Shayo Experience @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 16: Gerry Richardson Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. .

Mon 17: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 17: Matt Forster Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 17: Russ Morgan Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 18: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law, Paul Grainger, John Hirst.

Wed 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 19: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 19: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 20: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 20: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Jazz Milestones - 1975.
Thu 20: Renegade Brass Band @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors).
Thu 20: Orange Claw Hammer + Peony @ The Globe, Newcastle.7:30pm. Orange Claw Hammer play Captain Beefheart.
Thu 20: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. Featuring special guest Zoë Gilby.

Fri 21: JazzMain @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 21: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 21: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £10.00. TBC.
Fri 21: Emma Rawicz w. Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Sat 22: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 22: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30pm-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 22: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 22: Mississippi MacDonald @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm. Blues.
Sat 22: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Old Cinema Laundrette, Durham. 7:45pm. £16.50. SOLD OUT!
Sat 22: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar & vocals.

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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