Bebop Spoken There

Emma Rawicz: "In a couple of years I've gone from being a normal university student to suddenly being on international stages." DownBeat January 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

18246 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 100 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Jan. 31), 100

From This Moment On ...

JANUARY 2026

Thu 05: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject:Times of the Day & Trios.
Thu 05: Jeremy McMurray’s Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. Special guest Emma Wilson.
Thu 05: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

Fri 06: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 06: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 06: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 06: Durham Alumni Big Band & Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn Theatre. 7:30pm. £12.00. Two big bands on stage together!
Fri 06: Nauta + Littlewood Trio @ Little Buildings, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Double bill + jam session.
Fri 06: FILM: Made in America @ Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Ornette Coleman.
Fri 06: Deep Six Blues @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm.

Sat 07: The Big Easy @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 07: Tees Bay Swing Band @ The Blacksmith’s Arms, Hartlepool. 1:30-3:30pm. Free. Open rehearsal.
Sat 07: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £27.50. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. St Thomas & Bésame Mucho. Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 07: Side Cafe Oᴙkestar @ Café Under the Spire, Gateshead. 6:30pm. Table reservations: 0191 477 3970.
Sat 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Sun 08: Swing Tyne @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12 noon (doors). Donations. Swing dance taster class (12:30pm) + Hot Club de Heaton (live performance). Non dancers welcome.
Sun 08: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 08: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 08: Gerry Richardson’s Big Idea @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 09: Mark Williams Trio @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm.
Mon 09: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 10: Jazz Jam Sandwich @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Wed 11: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 11: Jam Session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 11: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington.. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 11: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

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, April 12, 2020

Let's have some lists

Name ten musicians you wish you had seen. That is musicians who were/are alive in your lifetime so, unless you are very very old - Johnny Seb Bach and Wolfie Amadeus don't count.
Here's mine:

Frank Sinatra
Sonny Rollins
Billie Holiday
Bud Powell
Charlie Parker
Max Roach
Jack Teagarden
Benny Goodman
Artie Shaw
Lee Morgan.

These are in no particular order and I could easily name another ten tomorrow.

Let's have your choices.
Lance

18 comments :

Steve T said...

Had tickets for Sonny Rollins but he cancelled and probably hasn't played since. SinAtra yes; Bird, Bud Powell and Max Roach obviously, and preferably all together (with Mingus and Diz, or Miles).

Presumably we're strictly on jazz:

Duke, Diz, Mingus, Miles (any time before his retirement), Sonny Rollins, Trane (I'd have been very young), Dolphy (very very young), Cannonball, Herbie (still time), Freddie Hubbard.

A bit obvious?

Lance said...

Well, I saw Trane and Dolphy together in 1961 so you may have to add or subtract a'very'!

Steve T said...

Depends on the month Lance, though they say babies can hear music in the womb.

Anonymous said...

Wayne, Herbie, sonny rollins, Roy Hargrove, the Village people

Steve T said...

According to Roddy Doyle's decidedly dodgy novel Hi Fidelity, men are obsessed with lists: of books, films, albums, artists, anything we can think of, preferably our top tens, so apologies ladies for being from the naff end of the species, but by all means feel free to join in.

I stumbled across this quite by chance and was initially flabbergasted, until I looked past the top ten and found it improved enormously just outside.

So here are the 14 greatest jazz artists, according to a random website, followed by my own choices.

Please note these are not necessarily my personal favourites but the ones I consider the greatest. The first four will remain constant from day to day though the order will change; the next five will remain constant but the order will vary, but the final five may vary, and not just the order.

Apologies ladies that it's all male but, had it been restricted to the last 10/ 20/ 30 years, it may have been different.

Unspecified Website:

Art Tatum
Buddy Rich
Joe Pass
Django Reinhardt
Lionel Hampton
Duke Ellington
Louis Armstrong
Ella Fitzgerald
Charlie Parker

Billie Holiday
Miles Davis
John Coltrane
Dizzy Gillespie

And my own:

Duke Ellington
Miles Davis
Charlie Parker
Louis Armstrong
John Coltrane
Dizzy Gillespie
Charles Mingus
Thelonious Monk
Lester Young
Sonny Rollins

Wayne Shorter
Herbie Hancock
John McLaughlin
Coleman Hawkins

Russell said...

Mingus

Sinatra - years ago I phoned the London box office (Albert Hall?) and was put off by the ticket price, at the time something like £40 (that's approx £200 today)

Coltrane

Monk

Louis Armstrong

Elvin Jones

Big Joe Turner - years ago a Jazz Journal reviewer urged fans to go hear Turner in a late-career residency in NYC. I thought about it...

Ellington

Wes Montgomery

Tubby Hayes

Steve - Rollins* announced his retirement years ago so you've missed out there (I saw him at Fairfield Hall, Croydon). I'm surprised you didn't see late-career Miles and how come you didn't get to see Herbie Hancock in Newcastle?

Lance - Max Roach played the Newcastle Jazz Festival and you weren't there?!

Lance said...

Russell: I remember Max Roach playing in Newcastle but can't remember why I wasn't there. Maybe I was there!

Digressing, I knew a guy whose lifelong ambition was to see Sun Ra. When a concert by the Arkestra was scheduled to take place in London he naturally bought a not inexpensive ticket. Unfortunately, he set off from Newcastle by train at the crack of dawn and opened the first can shortly after... The upshot is that by the time he got to the concert he was legless and slept right through it which was no mean feat at a Sun Ra concert.

The last time I saw him he was tinkling finger cymbals with a Hare Krishna group on Northumberland St.

Patti said...

Duke
Count B
Louis (that's A, not J)
Miles
Jack Teagarden
Artie Shaw
Charlie Parker
Art Blakey
Lester Young
Sonny Rollins
Dexter Gordon

Patti said...

Oooops - I forgot to include Ella and Billie! How remiss of me ......

Anonymous said...

Hi Lance
I'd choose quite a few of the iconic players already listed. But here are a few alternative players who are favourites of mine I'd love to have seen. I've included the Miles rhythm section. I have an album I've played endlessly over the years 'Full House' with this rhythm section paired with Wes & Johnny Griffin. A live recording. They are just fantastic.
Roly

Jim Hall
Rene Thomas
Ed Bickert
Richie Kamuca
Hank Mobley
Clifford Brown
Kenny Wheeler

& Miles R/Sec’n - -
Wynton Kelly
Paul Chambers
Jimmy Cobb

Steve T said...

Rollins was due to play London Jazz Festival about four years ago but cancelled due to ill health, though I still have the ticket. Late Miles wouldn't interest me at the time since I couldn't afford box ticking and I was living in West Yorkshire when Herbie played the Toon.

Steve T said...

One I did see too late in his career was Kenny Wheeler. Though I'm not a fan, it was embarrassing and sad.

Steve T said...

Rollins was actually nov 2013. Where do the years go!

Steve T said...

My Top Ten Greatest Living Jazz Artists:

1 Sonny Rollins.
2 Wayne Shorter.
3 Herbie Hancock.
4 John McLaughlin.
5 Chick Corea.
6 Ron Carter.
7 Archie Shepp.
8 Wynton Marsalis.
9 Kenny Garrett.
10 Jimmy Cobb.

Lance said...

I could also add/substitute, in no particular order:
Roy Haynes
Charles Lloyd
Barry Harris
Annie Ross
Benny Golson
George Benson
Pat Metheny
David Sanborn
Pete King
Cleo Laine

Lance said...

Whoops! Forgot Joshua Redman!

Russell said...

A list of ten living musicians I'd like to see (in no particular order)...
Roy Haynes
Jimmy Cobb
Maria Schneider
Toshiko Akiyoshi
Bill Charlap
Ron Carter
Jeff 'Tain' Watts
Fred Hersch
James Carter
Darcy James Argue

Steve T said...

Thought about Roy Haynes; Benny Golson really just because he goes back so far, and Benson would certainly scrape into a top twenty.
How about only people who emerged after the sixties.

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