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Bebop Spoken There

George Porter Jr.: ''To me, syncopation is like jazz. It wasn't meant for the masses. It was meant just for a hip few". (DownBeat, May 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

18069 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 390 of them this year alone and, so far, 68 this month (May 222).

From This Moment On ...

MAY 2025

Sat 24: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:15pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 24: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Bywell Hall, Stocksfield. 1:30pm. Northumberland County Show.
Sat 24: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 24: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ The Peacock, Sunderland. 6:00pm.
Sat 24: Dean Stockdale Quartet + Mingus Sings @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:00pm. Admission: see website: www.queenshall.co.uk. Stockdale (piano); Tim Williams (guitar); Gavin Barras (double bass); Gaz Hughes (drums) + Mingus Sings: Sara Oschlag (vocals); Alan Barnes (reeds); Tim Lapthorn (piano); Arnie Somogyi (double bass); Clark Tracey (drums). A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sat 24: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 24: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Sat 24: NUJO Jazz Jam @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). £3.00. + bf.
Sat 24: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 25: Northern Monkey Brass Band @ Spanish City Plaza (outdoor stage). 11:30am & 1:00pm. Free. A Whitley Bay Carnival event.
Sun 25: Zoë Gilby & Andy Champion: Bandstand Sessions @ The Sele, Hexham. 12 noon. Free. A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 25: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, North Shields. 1:30pm. Free.
Sun 25: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: Catriona Bourne Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Admission: see website: www.queenshall.co.uk. Bourne (harp), Francis Tulip (guitar), James Owston (double bass), Joe Bainbridge (drums). A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 25: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: Struggle Buggy @ The Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sun 25: Joe Steels Group + Norma Winstone (vocals); Nikki Iles (piano); Mike Walker (guitar); Steve Watts (double bass). 7:00pm. Admission: see website: www.queenshall.co.uk. Steels (guitar); Ferg Kilsby (trumpet, flugelhorn); Ben Lawrence (piano); Paul Susans (double bass); John Hirst (drums). A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 25: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 25: Xhosa Cole/Neil Charles/Mark Sanders @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A JNE promotion. Note: Xhosa Cole replaces Nicole Mitchell.

Mon 26: Catriona Bourne Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 26: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 27: Bold Big Band @ Newcastle Arts Centre, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £12.00. & £10.00.
Tue 27: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Front St., Rothbury NE65 7UT.7:30pm. £12.00.; £10.00. adv. from Tully’s (opp. venue).

Wed 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 28: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 28: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 29: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: That’s the Blues, Dad.
Thu 29: Nova.sol + Mikoudi @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 29: Front Porch Three @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Americana, blues etc.

p>Fri 30: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 30: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 30: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 30: Rivkala @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Fri 30: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Middleton & Tonbridge Village Hall. 7:30pm.

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, January 17, 2021

Dean Stockdale Trio live streaming from The Globe - Jan. 17

Dean Stockdale (piano); Mick Shoulder (bass); Abbie Finn (drums).

(Photo courtesy of Debra Milne).

Kansas Smitty's, Ronnie Scott's, The Globe, Newcastle, - what do they all have in common? Answer is that, come hell and high water, not to mention pandemics, they're continuing to present live-streaming jazz to a virtual audience starved of the live music they love.

Tonight's Sunday night special from the Jazz Co-op's home base featured the Dean Stockdale Trio who stepped in at the last moment after the Leeds' band originally booked wisely pulled out. If the Covid-19 Cops (sounds like an American TV show) had pulled them over, The Globe could have become the jazz equivalent of Barnard Castle.

Fortunately, as a playwright who achieved a degree of fame at that other Globe once said, "All's Well That Ends Well".

And indeed, all did end well.

The three musicians are well known on the local scene so I had no doubts that what would enfold would be well worth the £7.50 up front although this in itself posed another question. Would audience numbers increase if solely dependent on donations as is the case with the other two venues mentioned? It would be interesting to know the percentage of those who donate as opposed to the freeloaders.

Back to the music. It was all done very tastefully and included a lot of my favourite numbers. If I have to be critical it is only to say I'd have preferred a few more uptempo workouts which I know is well within their powers. Nevertheless, that's just me, it was all played beautifully. Great to hear Girl Talk. Like another Neal Hefti Classic - L'il Darlin' - the harmonic structure just oozes class and makes up for the pedantic melody line.

The opening three numbers were by, arguably, three of jazz's greatest composers - Charles Mingus, Tadd Dameron and Duke Ellington - in the form of Nostalgia in Times Square; On a Misty Night and In a Sentimental Mood.

The standards - Moon River and On the Sunny Side of the Street - were followed by a Stockdale original, Another Time, which created the mood of Bernstein's Some Other Time and  brought us to the finale which featured two "freedom tunes". Oscar Peterson's Hymn to Freedom and Billy Taylor's I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free. I wonder, which came first? 

Academic! What matters is that we have such great jazz musicians plying their trade. like all of us, in the face of adversity.

We will overcome! How can we not with musicians like this on the scene.
Lance.
PS: Next week at The Globe it's Emma Fisk's Hot Club du Nord.

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