Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey (to Terence Blanchard): ''You ain't Miles find your own shit to do!'' (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

18504 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 368 of them this year alone and, so far this month (May 7 ) 22

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

May

Sat 16: Sing Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £27.50. Tutor: Alexia Gardner. God Bless the Child - Lady Day!. Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 16: Kaberry Big Band @ the Seahorse Pub, Hillheads Rd., Whitley Bay NE23 8HR. From 7:30pm. £15.00
Sat 16: Lady Nade @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. ‘Lady Nade sings Nina Simone’.

Sun 17: Glenn Miller & Big Band Spectacular @ Forum Theatre, Billingham. 7:30pm.
Sun 17: QOW Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £14.00., £12.00., £7.00. Spike Wells, Riley Stone-Lonergan & Eddie Myer.

Mon 18: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 18: Mark Williams Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 19: GoGo Penguin + Daudi Matsiko @ Wylam Brewery, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £22.00 + £4.40 bf.
Tue 19: Danny Lowndes’ Hot Club @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £15.00 + £5.00 bf.
Tue 19: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Mark Robertson (drums).

Wed 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 20: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 20: Jordan Jackson @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £19.80 (inc. bf); £15.40 (inc. bf).
Wed 20: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 21: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, Mill Rise, South Gosforth, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 21: Jazz Classics with Rivkala @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. Rivkala (vocals); Alan Law (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass).
Thu 21: Paul Skerritt @ Angels' Share, St George's Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle NE2 2SX. 8:00pm. Free. Booking advised (0191 200 1975). Skerritt w. backing tapes.

Fri 22: Paul Skerritt @ Market Place, Durham. From 12 noon. Free. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Fri 22: Paul Edis Trio @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £9.00. Edis, Andy Champion, Steve Hanley.
Fri 22: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 22: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 22: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Hotel Gotham, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Fri 22: Paul Edis Trio @ St Cuthbert’s Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £TBC. Edis, Andy Champion, Steve Hanley.

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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