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HOWAY THE LADS!

Bebop Spoken There

John McLaughlin: '' A Love Supreme coincided with my search for meaning in life". (DownBeat, March 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

17873 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 194 of them this year alone and, so far, 41 this month (March 14).

From This Moment On ...

MARCH 2025.

Sat 15: Hot Teapots @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm.
Sat 15: Lagos to Longbenton + Belladonna @ Whitley Bay Big Social, Whitley Road, Whitley Bay. 2:00pm. Free. Afrobeat/jazz fusion + soul/funk/R&B
Sat 15: Creakin’ Bones @ Billy Bootleggers. Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free.
Sat 15: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 15: Is This Jazz? @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk. Performances by Mu Quintet, Jinjé, A Brief Utopia, John Pope & Co + André Marmot (author of Unapologetic Expression: The Inside Story of the UK Jazz Explosion) in conversation + DJ sets ‘til 3:00am. ‘A Festival of New Jazz’.
Sat 15: Vintage Explosion @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm. SOLD OUT!
Sat 15: Alligator Gumbo @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Sat 15: One Night Standards @ The White Room, Stanley. 8:00pm. £8.67 (inc. bf). Note - previously advertised Salty Dogs cancelled.
Sat 15: Howlin’ Mat @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Blues guitar.

Sun 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 16: Pearl Blossoms @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Ragtime.
Sun 16: Hot 8 Brass Band @ Wylam Brewery. 7:30pm. ‘Big Tuba Tour’.
Sun 16: ARQ @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 16: Air4ce @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:30pm (8:00pm doors). £12.00.; £10.00. Tom Atkinson’s all-star band (line-up inc. Lindsay Hannon & Sue Ferris).
Sun 16: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 17: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 17: Jamie Toms Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 18: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Laurence Harrison, Paul Grainger, Tim Johnston.
Tue 18: Phil Bancroft’s Beautiful Storm @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £13.20 & £11.00.. A JNE-Gem Arts co-promotion.

Wed 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 19: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 19: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 20: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Nicknames.
Thu 20: Terri Green Experience @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £15.90.
Thu 20: Lindsay Hannon Trio @ The Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Hannon’s ‘Tom Waits for No Man’ set.
Thu 20: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:30pm. Free.

Fri 21: Paul Skerritt @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 21: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 21: Giles Strong Quartet @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. CANCELLED!
Fri 21: New Century Ragtime Orchestra @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Featuring special guest Martin Litton (piano).

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, October 30, 2020

Rico Tomasso's Whitley Bay Special live stream - Oct. 30

At the time of writing - nine o'clock in the evening - we should be nicely sozzled, some nine hours into the first day of Mike Durham's International Classic Jazz Party. However, like most everything else, the world renowned festival celebrating the pioneers of the music has opted to take a year out, skirting the pandemic, with the intention of returning next year bigger and better than ever. 

During lockdown, Classic Jazz Party regular Rico Tomasso has been live streaming week after week to a hugely appreicative worldwide audience and he wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to reunite, albeit virtually, with some of his fellow CJP mainstays. Rico opened a bottle of Abbot Ale (a tipple not unfamiliar to BSH Editor-in-Chief LL), your reviewer did a 'dip-do', choosing a bottle of Landlord, the first of five different bottled beers waiting to be consumed. 

Described by Rico as 'the orchestra', pianist Martin Litton was the first to join the festivities to play My Sweet (Rico trumpet and vocals). Ellington's East St Louis Toodle-oo required something more like a recogniseable orchestra, at least in terms of numbers, so our host spent the week rounding up a band bus-load of Whitley Bay habituées: Hughes, McQuaid, Ball, Langham and Horniblow. Good stuff. 

Rico reached for his cleartone mega mute to duet with Maestro Keith Nichols on Maori. Nichols will return to the Village Hotel, near Whitley Bay, for next year's CJP. Regular Whitley Bay performers were tuning in from all four corners, announcing their presence with real time online comments - Nick Ball, Andrew Oliver (seven hours behind UK time in Portland, Oregon), Alistair Allan, Henry Lemaire. Other jazz world luminaries were watching and listening - Luca Filastro and Adrian Cox two of them. At this point the second of the bottled beers - Shipyard American IPA from Portland, Maine, USA - had been seen off. Don't be fooled, it ain't from the US of A, it's brewed on license by Marston's in the Black Country.  

Portland's Andrew Oliver (that's Portland, Oregon) provided the principal accompaniment to Rico on Wolverine Blues ably supported by the star-studded ensemble. Martin Wheatley popped up on this Popup Louis special to accompany RT on Positively-Absolutely, swiftly followed by Italian piano virtuoso Luca Filastro leading the band on Miss Brown to You with Analucia Tomasso singing Billie. 

Guitarists Wheatley and Langham (Langham singing) reappeared on Ol' Man River and That's My Home respectively and, before we knew it, the hour was up. Analucia Tomasso, backed by the CJP ensemble, took it home on Cake Walking Babies from Home. At about this time of night - gone nine - thoughts would be turning to the Classic Jazz Party's legendary late night jam session starting at eleven and winding up sometime around three in the morning. Next year...next year.     
Russell

Rico Tomasso (trumpet, vocals) with (in order of appearance) Martin Litton (piano); Graham Hughes (trombone); Michael McQuaid (clarinet); Nick Ball (percussion); Spats Langham (guitar, banjo, vocals); David Horniblow (bass sax, tenor sax); Andrew Oliver (piano); Martin Wheatley (guitar); Luca Filastro (piano); Analucia Tomasso (vocals).

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