For the past sixteen 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
Ann Braithwaite (Braithwaite & Katz Communications) You’re the BEST!
Holly Cooper, Mouthpiece Music: "Lance writes pull quotes like no one else!"
Simon Spillett: A lovely review from the dean of jazz bloggers, Lance Liddle...Josh Weir: I love the writing on bebop spoken here... I think the work you are doing is amazing.
May
Mon 20: Harmony Brass @ the Crescent Club, Cullercoats. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 20: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30-8:30pm. Free.
Mon 20: Joe Steels-Ben Lawrence Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £8.00.
Tue 21: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law, Paul Grainger, John Bradford.
Wed 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 22: Alice Grace Vocal Masterclass @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:00pm. Free.
Wed 22: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 22: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 22: Daniel Erdmann’s Thérapie de Couple @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.
Thu 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 23: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm.
Thu 23: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Thu 23: Immortal Onion + Rivkala @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 23: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Guests: Jeremy McMurray (keys); Dan Johnson (tenor sax); Donna Hewitt (alto sax); Bill Watson (trumpet); Adrian Beadnell (bass).
Fri 24: Hot Club du Nord @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 24: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 24: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 24: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 24: Swannek + support @ Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle. Time TBC.
Sat 25: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Bywell Hall, Stocksfield. 2:30pm.
Sat 25: Paul Edis Trio w. Bruce Adams & Alan Barnes @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 6:30pm. A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sat 25: Nubiyan Twist @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.
Sat 25: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 26: Tyne Valley Youth Big Band @ The Sele, Hexham. 12:30pm. Free. A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Alice Grace @ The Sele, Hexham. 1:30pm. Free. Alice Grace w. Joe Steels, Paul Susans & John Hirst.
Sun 26: Bryony Jarman-Pinto @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 26: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Clark Tracey Quintet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 6:00pm. A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 26: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Sun 26: Ruth Lambert Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 26: SARÃB @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.
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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