Bebop Spoken There

Donovan Haffner ('Best Newcomer' 2025 Parliamentary Jazz Awards): ''I got into jazz the first time I picked up a saxophone!" - Jazzwise Dec 25/Jan 26

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

18146 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 24 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Jan. 7), 24

From This Moment On ...

JANUARY 2026

Fri 09: The House Trio @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Fri 09: Nauta @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £5.00. Trio: Jacob Egglestone, Jamie Watkins, Bailey Rudd.
Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Warren James & the Lonesome Travellers @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Fri 09: The Blue Kings @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. (£8.00. adv.). All-star band.

Sat 10: Mark Toomey Quintet @ St Peter’s Church, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:30pm. £12.00. (inc. pie & peas). Tickets from: 07749 255038.

Sun 11: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Eva Fox & the Sound Hounds @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 12: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.

Tue 13: Milne Glendinning Band @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £11.00. Coquetdale Jazz.
Tue 13: Jazz Jam Sandwich @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: Jam Session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 15: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. Quartet + guest Paul Donnelly (guitar).

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

Sunday, December 13, 2020

Francis Tulip Quintet livestreaming from The Globe - Dec. 13

Francis Tulip (guitar); Xhosa Cole (tenor sax); Tuoyo Awala (piano); Louis Stringer (bass); Matt Holmes (drums).

(Photos courtesy of Debra Milne)

I approached with caution, was this going to be a gig of forgettable originals or bland covers? Well yes and no. We had originals and covers but, fortunately, they were neither bland nor forgettable - quite the opposite in fact.

Oh ye of little faith I remonstrated with myself. Musicians don't pick up awards such as the Jazz Performance Prize from the Birmingham Conservatoire (Tulip) or the 2018 BBC Jazz Musician of the Year as well as recently copping a Peter Whittingham (Cole) without deserving it. And, with that kind of quality out front, you need the same clout at the back.

They got it!

As always when watching a live stream from the Globe I get, what Ellington called Blues to be There. Stringer brushed those blues away with his intro to Kenny Dorham's Short Story. A nice groove and good solos segueing into drummer Holmes' Light Music. This wasn't light music at all and was probably one of the more freer parts of the evening.

Don Garcia's Giraffe, as the name suggests was quite an angular number and Cisk, a Tulip original inspired by a Maltese lager, got the adrenalin going and so it should - it's 9%vol - the tune was equally potent!

Invitation featured guitar, bass and drums followed by Trane's Straight Street and the temperature was rising. Benny Golson's Stablemates kept it there before Tulip's own The Brunswick, named after a pub in Derby and said by Tripadviser to be a jewel in the crown of the city. Certainly this tune did it no harm.

The finale aka the encore was Freddie Hubbard's Birdlike. A complex number that seemed to be a mix of fours - except they weren't fours - as all five exchanged with each other both singly and in a vaguely contrapuntal manner. If this had been a live live gig the punters would have been whooping and hollering, stamping their feet and demanding more, more, more. I certainly was although I don't suppose the band heard me (I'm not into hand-clapping emojis)  although I'm sure the neighbours did!

The Jazz Centre of The Globe? You betcha!    

Lance

Photo album.

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