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

18656 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 520 of them this year alone and, so far this month (June 25) 72

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

Fri 26: Finn-Keeble Group @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £9:00.
Fri 26: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 26: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 26: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 26: Clark Tracey @ Live Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Newcastle Jazz Festival. £26.00. Day 1/2.
Fri 26: Panharmonia @ Flash House Brewing Co., Northumberland St., North Shields. 8:00pm. Free.

Sat 27: OUTRI @ Live Theatre, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £13.01. 1:00-1:45pm. Newcastle Jazz Festival. Day 2/2.
Sat 27: Tees Bay Swing Band @ Richardson & Westgarth Sport & Social Club, Hartlepool. 1:30pm. Free. Open rehearsal. Note change of venue.
Sat 27: House of the Black Gardenia + Magpies of Swing @ The Cumberland Arms, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sat 27: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Live Theatre, Newcastle. 2:15-3:15pm. £13.01. Newcastle Jazz Festival. Day 2/2.
Sat 27: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ Live Theatre, Newcastle. 3:45-4:45pm. £13.01. Newcastle Jazz Festival. Day 2/2.
Sat 27: Rory Ingham @ Live Theatre, Newcastle. 5:30-6:30pm. £19.51. Newcastle Jazz Festival. Day 2/2. Ingham w. Dean Stockdale, Ian Paterson, Dave McKeague.
Sat 27: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 27: Laura Jurd @ Live Theatre, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £26.00. Newcastle Jazz Festival. Day 2/2.
Sat 27: Brass Fiesta @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 10:30pm. Free.

Sun 28: Musicians Unlimited: Big Band Blast @ West Hartlepool RFC. 1:00-3:00pm . Free.
Sun 28: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Table reservations (0191 261 8000). Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 28: Tim Kliphuis Trio @ St Mary’s Church, Wooler. 3:00pm. £18.00., £6.00. A Wooler Arts Summer Concerts event. Tim Kliphuis (violin); Nigel Clark (guitar); Roy Percy (double bass).
Sun 28: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 28: An Evening of Jazz @ St James’ Church, Copper Chare, Morpeth. 7:30pm. Tickets: £10.00 from 01670 788869 or 01670 519923. Mid Northumberland Chorus (MD Robin Forbes, Emma Straughan, piano) w. jazz trio featuring Edgar Ho, Oscar Ho & Dave McKeague & special guest Emily Masser. Performance inc. Bob Chilcott’s A Little Jazz Mass + George Shearing’s Songs & Sonnets.
Sun 28: Led Bib @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £15.00., £12.00. JNE.

Mon 29: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 30: Alan Law Trio @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 2:00pm. Free.
Tue 30: Eva Fox & the Sound Hounds @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

July

Wed 01: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 01: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 01: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 02: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, Mill Rise, South Gosforth, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 02: 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 02: De’Sean Jones & Blaque Dynamite feat. Urban Art Orchestra @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). De’Sean Jones (MD, tenor sax); Blaque Dynamite (Mike Mitchell, drums); Jamie Murray (drums) with UAO horns & strings.
Thu 02: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.
Thu 02: Howlin’ Mat @ Newcastle Arts centre. 7:30pm. Free. Acoustic

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Street Life

I'd never heard of Rosetta Reitz but she must have been quite a woman! Visit her tribute site and you'll discover why.

Although an American, The Dutch named a street after her in Leiden, Netherlands, such was her charisma.

Her interests were many and varied ranging from jazz and blues, via her own record label (Rosetta Records), to the menopause and cooking with mushrooms, - writing authoritatively on all three subjects and probably many more.


However, apart from my admiration of this lady who died in 2008, it got me thinking about street names. South Shields has a Mozart St. and a Beethoven St. yet I doubt if they ever visited the town. Muhammad  Ali did, but even he hasn't had a street named after him so what chance does South Shields have of getting a Kathy Stobart St., a Mike Carr St.? In Sunderland, there is a Stobart St., although I doubt if it has anything to do with Kathy and, the home of the northeast's premier third tier football team, has yet to name one of its boulevards after  legendary drummer Ronnie Stephenson.

Are there any UK towns/cities with streets named after jazz people?
Lance

5 comments :

Anonymous said...

Kel Dennis is the late father of jazz musicians Noel and Adam. He was a fine drummer and very highly regarded as a music teacher in the Teesside area, much loved in fact. After he passed away a street was named in his memory. Kel Dennis Close in the Eston area.
Roly

Ann Alexander said...

Surely there should be a street somewhere named after Duke Ellington. What's the matter with the town planners these days?

Patti said...

Well now - Ellington is a small village on the Northumberland coast - and obviously renamed Ellington in honour of the Duke! Not really, but there is a place with this honourable name. Plus, maybe the Stobart Street in Sunderland was named for Eddie Stobart, the mass haulage company guy?

Russell said...

Fore Bondgate in Bishop Auckland could be renamed Paganini-Martin Boulevard in honour of two of the great violinists - Niccoló Paganini and Daniel John Martin - who played in the room on Fore Bondgate above what is now Sam Zair's cafe. Paganini got there first, some two centuries before DJM. I've visited the premises...homely and, as yet, no commemorative plaque.

In Brook Street, Mayfair, London there is a plaque - but no change of street name - commemorating the fact that George Friederich Handel and Jimi Hendrix shared the same flat, albeit 250 years apart!

Lance said...

In Hebburn, on Victoria Road East, there is a blue plaque to Robert Saint who composed the miner's hymn Gresford - played every year at Durham Miner's Gala. His sons, Ronnie and Stan, played tenor sax and double bass respectively in local dance bands and Ronnie could knock out a fair chorus or two on his old Conn tenor.

Robert's grandson David took piano lessons from my mother and, ultimately, became organist at Birmingham Cathedral. A talented family.

Of course, when your surname is Saint, there are streets named after you in just about every town and city!

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