Bebop Spoken There

John Donegan: ''What you take in through your ears can come out through your fingers.'' (Notes to Which Direction October, 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

19,057 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 921 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Oct. 29) 100.

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

October.

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.

Sat 31: Saltburn Big Band + Durham Alumni Big Band @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Sat 31: East Coast Swing Band @ Cramlington Village Club, Park View, Cramlington NE23 6QJ. 7:30pm. £10.00. (from venue).

November

Sun 01: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £10.00.
Sun 01: Ian Bosworth Quintet @ Chapel, Middlesbrough. 1:00pm. Free. Quintet w. special guest Donna Hewitt (tenor sax, clarinet)
Sun 01: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: Sarah Heneghan Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 02: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 02: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Tue 03: Alan Law @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 2:00pm. Free. Alan Law (piano) w. guest tba
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.
Tue 03: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, Ferryhill. 7:30pm. Free.

Wed 04: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 04: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 04: An Evening of Erykah Badu @ Holy GrAle, Durham. 7:30pm. £3.00.; £2.50. A Durham University Jazz Society event.
Wed 04: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 05: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, Mill Rise, South Gosforth, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 05: Hejira - Celebrating Joni Mitchell @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm.
Thu 05: Cut Capers @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors).
Thu 05: Northern Reaches @ Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. Free (donations). Pete Tanton, Joe Steels, Laurence Blackadder, John Hirst.
Thu 05: Fergus McCreadie @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Saturday, January 30, 2021

The Johnny O'Neal Trio live streaming from Smalls, NYC - Jan. 29

Johnny O'Neal (piano, vocals); Mark Lewandowski (double bass); Charles Goold (drums)

Smalls Jazz Club live streaming gigs isn't news, this smallest of Greenwich Village venues has been doing just that since September 2007. Over the last thirteen years every performance has been documented. In association with partner venue Mezzrow's (which opened its doors in 2014), no fewer than 17,000 streamed gigs have been deposited in the archives. 

We're at 183 W 10th St., Johnny O'Neal is holding court. Gigging at Smalls is one of the ex-Jazz Messengers' regular engagements. This evening our pianist is working with buddies Mark Lewandowski, bass, and drummer Charles Goold. O'Neal seated at a Yamaha, bass and drums occupying the remaining floor space, a portrait of Louis Armstrong part of the backdrop. Straight in with a swinging take on Witchcraft. Excellent.       

Two thirds of the trio have played gigs on Tyneside, albeit some thirty five years apart. In the early eighties a then young O'Neal arrived in town with Art Blakey to perform at the Newcastle Jazz Festival. Three or four years ago Mark Lewandowski (a lad from Nottingham, by way of the London jazz scene, now making a name for himself in the Big Apple) turned up at Newcastle Jazz Co-op's HQ working with Liam Noble as part of a nationwide tour playing the music of Fats Waller. Charles Goold has yet to make it to the BSH heartland, seemingly the native New Yorker is plenty busy at the moment! 

Oscar Pettiford's Tricotism, the trio swinging, thoughts turned to when we will be able to make the trip across the pond to hear these guys up close, for real. A surprise...O'Neal wanted to sing a number (Blakey wouldn't have countenanced the idea!). A Hundred Years from Today. Great tune, but let's be honest, O'Neal ain't no Sinatra! That said, let's give the guy a break, the vocal mic wasn't the best, that's for sure. Yes, we need to hear the man in a club setting. One day, one day...

More vocals! With Every Breath I Take, as much spoken word as sung, the kinda vocal a non-singer can do well, blues inflection, and all that. I've Got the World on a String, clearly O'Neal was enjoying himself. And to close a marvellous hour - it was marvellous, vocals included! - it was back to what Johnny O'Neal does best, playing piano. And what a way to go out...Oscar Peterson's finger-busting Mississauga Rattler. 

Hello, is that British Airways? Can you do me a cheap flight to JFK? I've just got to get to Smalls to hear Johnny O'Neal!  
Russell
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