Bebop Spoken There

Melissa Aldana: ''Having to play a ballads album, which is something very revealing for a saxophone player, would help me to question some new aspects of how to go deeper into sound." (DownBeat May, 2026)

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

18585 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 449 of them this year alone and, so far this month (May 31) 103

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

From This Moment On

June

Tue 02: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law, Paul Grainger, John Hirst.
Tue 02: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, Ferryhill. 7:30pm. Free.

Wed 03: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 03: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 03: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 04: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, Mill Rise, South Gosforth, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 04: Postmodern Jukebox @ Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm.
Thu 04: Webster’s Ragtime Trio @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 7:30pm. £17.00. Trio from Texas, USA.
Thu 04: King Bees @ The Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Chicago blues excellence!
Thu 04: Paul Skerritt @ Angels' Share, St George's Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle NE2 2SX. 8:00pm. Free. Booking advised (0191 200 1975). Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Thu 04: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

Fri 05: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 05: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 05: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 05-Thu 11: FILM: Köln 75 @ Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle. Dir. Ido Fluk. Drama based on the true story of Keith Jarrett’s 1975 concert in Cologne. Screenings TBC.
Fri 05: Pete Tanton & Alan Law @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 05: House of the Black Gardenia: Summer Tyne Swing Festival @ Northumbria University Students’ Union, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £130.00; £95.00; £70.00; £50.00. Note: all day dance event (classes & socials). House of the Black Gardenia evening performance. Day 1/3.
Fri 05: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band + IKS Big Band @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £24.00. Big band double bill. IKS Big Band (Germany).
Fri 05: Jeremy McMurray’s Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £15.00

Sat 06: Struggle Buggy @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 3:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sat 06: Teresa Watson Band @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 6:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sat 06: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Dry Water Arts, Amble. 7:00pm (6:30pm doors). £15.00.
Sat 06: IKS Big Band: Summer Tyne Swing Festival @ Northumbria University Students’ Union, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £130.00; £95.00; £70.00; £50.00. Note: all day dance event (classes & socials). IKS Big Band evening performance. Day 2/3.
Sat 06: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Northumbrian Revival, West Benridge Farm, nr. Morpeth NE61 3RZ. 7:30-9:30pm. £21.47 (£2.77. child). 82nd D-Day anniversary event.
Sat 06: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 06: FILM: The Magic City: Birmingham According to Sun Ra @ The Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle. 9:30pm. £7.00., £5.00. Dir. Guillaume Maupin & Pablo Guarise.

Sun 07: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £10.00.
Sun 07: Ian Bosworth Quintet @ Chapel, Middlesbrough. 1:00pm. Free. Feat. guest Steve Walker (trumpet).
Sun 07: Joe Steels: Celebrating Wes @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Trio: Joe Steels, Mick Shoulder, Abbie Finn.
Sun 07: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Sun 07: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Table reservations (0191 261 8000). Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 07: Eddie Gripper Trio @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Gripper (piano); Clem Saynor (double bass); Patrick Barrett-Donlon (drums). Americana album tour.
Sun 07: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 07: Magpies of Swing: Summer Tyne Swing Festival @ Northumbria University Students’ Union, Newcastle. 4:00pm. £130.00; £95.00; £70.00; £50.00. Note: all day dance event (classes & socials). Magpies of Swing afternoon performance. Day 3/3.
Sun 07: Webster’s Ragtime Trio @ The Ship Inn, Low Newton. 7:00pm. £12.50. Trio from Texas, USA.
Sun 07: Salty Dog @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:00pm. £5.00. Performance in the Studio venue.
Sun 07: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Riding Mill Village Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Sun 07: Swing Manouche @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Feat. Steve McGarvie (clarinet).

Mon 08: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 08: Dave Bristow Quintet @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £22.00., £11.00., £5.50. Bristow (piano); Christian Altehülshorst (trumpet); Félix Hardouin (alto sax); Gabriel Pierre (double bass); Guillaume Prévost (drums).

Wednesday, February 05, 2020

Alice Grace & Paul Edis @ Jazz Cafe Mezzanine - Feb 5

Alice Grace (vocals); Paul Edis (piano)
(Review by Russell/Photos courtesy of Mike Tilley)

George Shearing, Kenny Garrett, Freddie Hubbard, three seemingly disparate composers with which to open a set. Today's duo on the Mezzanine in Newcastle Arts Centre can handle all kinds of material and so it was that a capacity audience heard Lullaby of Birdland, She Waits for the New Sun and Little Sunflower. 

All seats were occupied long before the one o'clock start and little wonder given that this afternoon's concert performance reunited Alice Grace and Paul Edis following their hugely successful first gig working together as a duo in November last year. Horace Silver's Sister Sadie featured a Paul Edis piano solo which matched the composer's effort when he appeared many moons ago at the Newcastle Jazz Festival!  


Alice Grace sang Trudy Kerr's lyrics to Dave Holland's Dream of the Elders and followed up with You Don't Know What Love Is. The art of jazz singing is alive and well in the hands - should that be vocal chords? - of adopted Geordie Ms Grace. A light yet commanding approach, inventive, a wonderful elision of the straight lyric and magical, musical scatting beyond compare. 

The full house hung around for a second set of GASbook to contemporary numbers, a set which opened with the combined talents of Norma Winstone, John Taylor and Alice Grace. A vocal dexterity not dissimilar to Winstone and a love of Taylor's (and Kenny Wheeler's) compositions place Ms Grace at the forefront of today's vocalists capable of singing the GASbook and more contemporary material. 

Scat to die for on If I Should Lose You underpinned by Edis' walking left hand, Midnight Sun (comp. Hampton & Burke) with AG namechecking Ella, Everybody's Song but My Own (comp. K. Wheeler) then, as the three o'clock finish approached, Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams or, as Edis quipped, Wrap Your Dreams in Troubles! It had been a wonderful couple of hours or so, Grace and Edis should do it again, after all a capacity audience tells a story.  
Russell
at

3 comments :

Anonymous said...

Alice Grace & Paul Edis what a jazz duo! an absolute delight, we live in a contemporary world that has some good stuff that was displayed by Alice and Paul, but an ultra sound stereo injection of the GASB juice gave the second half real class, midnight sun, you don't know what love is, and if I should lose you, had me saying YES! YES! YES!, I really can't help myself, men with white coats will one day take me away to a place that grown ups seldom understand.
I spent the first 25 years of my life living in London, and I have to that Alice Grace a fellow Londoner really hit the nail on the head
about London, the North East is far better, I hope that Paul Edis has a fruitful time in London, but a short one, Jazz in the north east is poorer without him.

BRIAN SHINE

Wednesday, February 05, 2020 11:39:00 pm
JERRY said...

I've been to the original Jazz Cafe before, but never to the mezzanine: a great venue. especially for a gig of this kind. As for the music, I agree with all the above (Russell's review and the comment)- both sets were fantastic but, for me, the stand-out number was Sister Sadie. Unforgettable!
JERRY

Friday, February 07, 2020 8:47:00 am
Patti said...

All of the above, plus Russell's review - I'm adding my agreement. Aren't we lucky to live in Geordieland - I say that as a transplanted Southerner! And aren't we doubly lucky to have amazing performers like Alice and Paul - with venues like this right here.

Friday, February 07, 2020 4:15:00 pm

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