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

Wed 13: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 13: Jam session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 13: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 13: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 13: Hey Remember This @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00. JNE.

Thu 14: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject: Philip Larkin’s Jazz Experiment.
Thu 14: Jerron Paxton @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). Superb country blues.
Thu 14: Solcade @ the Bridge Hotel, Newcastle. 7:00pm. EP launch. Rivkala & co..
Thu 14: Jacob Egglestone @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. Egglestone (guitar); Jamie Watkins (bass); Jack Littlewood (drums) & guests.
Thu 14: 58 Jazz Collective @ The Blacksmith’s Arms, Hartlepool. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: 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 15: Conor Emery Quartet @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Line-up Emery (trombone); Alix Shepherd (piano); John Pope (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums). SOLD OUT!
Fri 15: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 15: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 15: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 15: Gerry Richardson Quartet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. £13.01 adv., £15.00 on the door. Old Black Cat Jazz Club.
Fri 15: Puppini Sisters @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. CANCELLED!

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).

Sunday, October 04, 2020

Ray Shenton's Tuba

I noted in John Potts’s story that he said that Ray Shenton’s tuba was the oldest in Western Europe. Ray is my Dad and I have his tuba now (with all the old rubber bands and Gaffer tape holding it together) so he doesn’t feel tempted to have a blow and knock himself out.

I looked up the serial number on the Boosey and Hawkes website and it looks like it was made in January 1918. Dad tells me he got it from Lawrence McBriarty in about 1961, who rescued it for him from the territorial band headquarters on Barrack Road when they disbanded.

He did have another tuba before this one that was bought by Colin Hopper for £3 from a junk shop at the bottom of Westgate Road.
Mark Shenton

4 comments :

NeilC said...

Wonderful Story , thank you so much for sharing it with us .

carstairs said...

Although there are a lot older tubas in captivity. I used my little H B Jay c1909 for many gigs as it was easier to carry than my huge Conn recording bass. There's a really ancient Belgian tuba in the attic. Rita Wheatley gave me John's old tuba ( c1910) which I had restored - including a missing valve! Some of my friends regularly play instruments from the 1860s.

However, Ray Shenton was without doubt the hottest player in the North East.

Lance said...

I need some clarification here. Despite working in the music industry for over 30 years, I had little to do with tubas. However, in my youthful brass band days, there were Eb and BBb basses that were referred to as tubas and, somewhere along the line I came across references to a bombardon. To further complicate the issue, sousaphone players were often listed as playing tuba. Words of wisdom please Carstairs.

carstairs said...

One of the first tubaswas a long trumpet used the Romans! A valved tuba was invented in 1835 by Wieprecht. It quickly replaced the old Serpents and Ophicleides. They come in all shapes and sizes. By the 1860s the tuba family ranged from the Bass in C or Bb ( a tenor tuba) pitched the same as a tenor trombone down to 18ft BBb Contrabass. There was some snobbery in England where the player of an Orchestral tuba in F looked down on the Brass/Military bandsman's Eb and Bb bass - often termed a Bombardon. A circular bass or helicon , with the bell behind the player's left shoulder was often used in Military bands. The Sousaphone is simply a circular bass with the bell pointing forwards - Americans usually refer to it as a 'tooba'.
Many of the early Jazz musicians played brass bass, often doubling string bass and even bass Sax. I'm sure you could name many of them, from Wellman Braud, Billy Taylor to Red Callendar.

Blog Archive