For the past seventeen years we've been updating the world about jazz in the north east of England and updating the north east of England about jazz in the world. WINNER of the Jazz Media Category in the 2018 All Party Parliamentary Jazz Awards. Contact lanceliddle@gmail.com
February 2025
Tue 04: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.
Tue 04: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Ben Phillips, Paul Grainger, Bailey Rudd.
Tue 04: Dilutey Juice + Life Aquatics Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.
Wed 05: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 05: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 05: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 06: Lewis Watson Quartet @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 06: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Latin jazz/top-rated dance bands.
Thu 06: Rose Room @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 06: Mostly Moonlight @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Helen Barber (vocals) & Alex Moon (piano).
Thu 06: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. Guests: Richie Emmerson (tenor sax); Donna Hewitt (alto sax); Kevin Eland (trumpet); Graham Thompson (keys); Ron Smith (bass). 8:30pm. Free. A Tees Hot Club promotion. The session is now monthly, first Thursday in the month.
Fri 07: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 07: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 07: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 07: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ Old Lowlight, Clifford’s Fort, North Shields NE30 1JE. 7:00pm. £15.00. + bf. www.oldlowlight.co.uk. SOLD OUT!
Fri 07: Stuart Turner Trio @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Jazz, blues, Americana etc.
Fri 07: Dean Stockdale Quartet @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Fri 07: Rose Room @ Wylam Institute. 8:00pm. £19.67.
Fri 07: John Rowland Quartet @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 08: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 08: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 08: Milne Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 08: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Sat 08: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. ‘Swing Jazz Guitar’.
Sat 08: NUJO Jazz Jam @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A Newcastle University Jazz Orchestra event. All welcome.
Sun 09: Glenn Miller & Big Band Spectacular @ The Forum, Billingham. 3:00pm.
Sun 09: The New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 09: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 09: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 09: Tom Remon & Mark Williams @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 09: Rod Oughton’s Tomorrow’s New Quartet with Ben van Helder @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Line-up inc. Deschanel Gordon.
Sun 09: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.
Mon 10: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
5 comments :
Perhaps it's not so much bias as politic not to say what you really think. Some who would be on the receiving end of a less than complimentary review may not speak to you again, that's assuming they deign to speak to you in the first place!
This is something that has given me sleepless nights ever since BSH started over 12 years ago. By and large, if I don't like an album, I simply don't review it. But is that fair? When it's someone you know personally it becomes even more difficult - particularly if it's a live gig and your presence is noted.
If I hear, say a sax player, who's a much better player than me but I don't like what he's doing, how do I point out the error of his ways when I couldn't do it better myself?
Then again, if you praise a bad player you are equally doing him/her a disservice whereas you should be offering advice, in a friendly way.
The answer of course is objectivity which, unfortunately, usually means boring writing. The public en masse prefer the lurid headlines of a tabloid to the more strait-laced headings of the "the quality papers" even though they may be saying the same thing.
However, it's not just BSH who may (very occasionally) promote the bad to mediocre, the mediocre to good and the good to fantastic. The jazz mags rarely give anything less than 3 stars and the Blindfold Tests where, once upon a time, the testers would never mince their words now find that everything's fine and maybe it is.
Someone once said to me he can get something out of any music he hears whether it be good or bad - even if it's learning what not to do!
At the end of the day, the top and bottom of it is, if you've got the guts to get up and play or record you should be encouraged.
Having said that, would Charlie Parker have become the giant he was if Jo Jones hadn't thrown his cymbal at him?
Lance has made very fair comment, I usually review women singers and don't generally like scat at all, but I have to consider it impartially as it has a valid place in jazz singing. Just 1 small example. I've found that playing an instrument (awkwardly In my case) helps a critic to understand just a bit more about jazz, including knowing the differences between playing a single line instrument and one that can produce chords.
Interesting Ann. The big question is, should a critic be a musician or not? The musician invariably is impressed by the technique of the performer often to the detriment of the content.
For the non-musician he judges by what he hears irrespective of whether or not he knows that the performer is playing in six sharps on a crap reed with a pianist who doesn't play the "right chords".
What do other folk think?
I've said before, Music is not just for musicians, any more than houses are just for builders. As a listener and occasional commentator, I want to be educated and/or entertained and would try to point out why either or neither of these things have been fulfilled.
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