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Bebop Spoken There

Steve Coleman: ''If you don't keep learning, your mind slows down. Use it or lose it''. (DownBeat, January 2025).

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

17733 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 53 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Jan. 20).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Graham Hardy Eclectic Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 26: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:30pm. Free.
Sun 26: Gratkowski, Tramontana, Beresford, Affifi @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00. JNE.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 27: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Free.

Tue 28: ???

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 30: Matters Unknown (aka Jonathan Enser, Nubiyan Twist) + support TBA @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). £12.22 (gig & food); £9:04 (gig only).
Thu 30: Soznak @ The Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 30: Struggle Buggy @ Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Rhythm & blues.

Fri 31: Alan Barnes Quartet @ The Old Library, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 12 noon-2:00pm (two sets). £12.00. admission (card or cash at the door). Barnes (alto sax, baritone sax, clarinet); Alan Law (piano); Mick Shoulder (double bass); Tim Johnston (drums). Note change of venue, no longer at Mrs M’s as advertised, the concert will be in the Old Library (Bishop Auckland Jazz’s regular venue). Important! It’s a ‘BYOB’ arrangement - ie bring your own booze (and/or tea, coffee, soft drinks).
Fri 31: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 31: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 31: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 31: Café Orkestar @ Café Under the Spire, Gateshead. 6:00pm. ‘Klezmer, Gypsy Jazz, Balkan & More!’.
Fri 31: Nothing in Rambling @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £10.00. + bf. Country blues duo.
Fri 31 Zoë Gilby Quartet @ Wylam Institute. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £15.00. + £1.50. bf.
Fri 31: Creakin’ Bones & the Sunday Dinners @ White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm. £10.00 + bf. Jazz, blues , jump jive, rock ‘n’ roll.
Fri 31: Alan Barnes Quartet @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £15.00 Barnes (alto sax, baritone sax, clarinet); Alan Law (piano); Mick Shoulder (double bass); Tim Johnston (drums).
Fri 31: SwanNek + Rivkala @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 8:00pm. SwanNek’s new single launch gig. Pilgrim, formerly Hoochie Coochie.

February 2025

Sat 01: Alan Barnes & John Hallam with the Tom Kincaid Trio @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £25.00. Tutor: Steve Glendinning - Cy Coleman’s Witchcraft. Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Darling Dollies @ St George’s Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 3:00pm. £10.00. Vocal trio.
Sat 01: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 01: Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 01: Rockin’ Turner Brothers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Western swing etc.

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

Friday, August 07, 2020

The Vieux Carre Jazzmen @ The Holystone - August 6

Ray Harley (trumpet); Jim McBriarty (clarinet, vocals); Lawrence McBriarty (trombone); Brian Bennett (banjo, guitar); Bill Colledge (bass guitar); Fred Thompson (drums, vocals) + Herbie Hudson (trombone, vocals)

The Holystone is out of lockdown; arrowed flooring navigating the flow of customers - in one door, out the other. At the front of the pub on Whitley Road stand seaside chalet-style structures, at the rear, a beer garden with socially distanced, numbered tables standing on paving stones and an expanse of artifical turf. A burning sun burned all afternoon, things were set fair, there was one question...would anyone turn out to greet the returning Vieux Carre Jazzmen?


They would and they did! Pandemic? What pandemic?! Shortly before the one o'clock start all tables were occupied, your reviewer nabbing table no. 37 situated next to the pub's aviary. Table service à la sur le continent, a pint of Wainwright's (the solitary handpull on the bar), a toastie with fries as a side. One o'clock came and went as MC Brian Bennett set about herding the Vieux Carre's jazz cats. First Ray Harley disappeared (car? loo?) then, as he welcomed one and all, BB turned round to see a vacant drum stool. Fred Thompson had gone AWOL! After five months without a gig it seems the boys in the band had forgotten about bandstand discipline! 

Sgt Major Bennett marched the VC boys Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (drummer boy Thompson should consider himself fortunate he was assigned to sing on the opening number rather than be peeling spuds!). Troopers McBriarty - Jim, clarinet and vocals, Lawrence, trombone - were in fine form; Jim singing the first of his numbers, Mama's Gone, Goodbye, Lawrence blowing better than ever. A varied, first set concluded with Blueberry Hill (FT's vocals), Bye, Bye Blues and, a rarity, Brian Bennett playing guitar on an effective Autumn Leaves

In these Covid-19 times there would be no interval raffle on the Vieux Carre's return, instead a hat would be passed around the regulars. As the VCJ made a bee-line to the bar the aviary's love birds could once again be heard billing and cooing Dixieland or was it the bebop of Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker? Meanwhile the Wainwright's had been seen off. In its place...London Pride! Hey, you can't go wrong, can you?! 

First set, award-winning trumpet ace Ray Harley, up from Darlington, had perched atop a high stool (ditto MC Bennett). Second set Harley stood up, clearly the man meant business! Thompson's vocals on Ace in the Hole silenced the love birds - or were they riffing away, diggin' it? Up jumped Herbie Hudson. If anyone was in danger of nodding off on this Mad Dogs and Englishmen afternoon then HH is the man to wake 'em from their slumbers. Big Butter and Egg Man followed by A Slow Boat to China (calling at Byker and South Shields!) made for an entertaining few minutes from Mr Hudson. 
  
The three o'clock finishing line was fast approaching - The World is Waiting for a Sunrise (the world is waiting for a vaccine!), Fred Thompson singing I Wish't I Was in Peoria and a last vocal number from McBriarty J (Honeysuckle Rose) and that was about it. The Vieux Carre Jazzmen are back! Same time next week, weather permitting.   
Russell

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