Bebop Spoken There

Melissa Aldana: ''Having to play a ballads album, which is something very revealing for a saxophone player, would help me to question some new aspects of how to go deeper into sound." (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

18656 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 520 of them this year alone and, so far this month (June 25) 72

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

June

Mon 29: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 30: Alan Law Trio @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 2:00pm. Free.
Tue 30: Eva Fox & the Sound Hounds @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

July

Wed 01: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 01: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 01: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 02: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, Mill Rise, South Gosforth, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 02: Paul Skerritt @ Angels' Share, St George's Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle NE2 2SX. 8:00pm. Free. Booking advised (0191 200 1975). Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Thu 02: De’Sean Jones & Blaque Dynamite feat. Urban Art Orchestra @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). De’Sean Jones (MD, tenor sax); Blaque Dynamite (Mike Mitchell, drums); Jamie Murray (drums) with UAO horns & strings.
Thu 02: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.
Thu 02: Howlin’ Mat @ Newcastle Arts centre. 7:30pm. Free. Acoustic

Fri 03: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 03: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 03: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 03: Paul Donnelly Quartet @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 03: Martin Taylor @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. Taylor (solo guitar).

Sat 04: Spats Langham’s Hot Fingers @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club.
Sat 04: Michael Woods @ Cycle Hub, Quayside, Ouseburn. 1:30-2:30pm & 3:00-4:00pm. Free. Acoustic blues guitar. An Ouseburn Festival event.
Sat 04: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £27.50. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. Take the ‘A’ Train to Summertime: From Melody to Masterclass. Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 04: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Sun 05: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £10.00.
Sun 05: Ian Bosworth Quintet @ Chapel, Middlesbrough. 1:00pm. Free. Feat. guest TBC.
Sun 05: Michael Woods @ Cycle Hub, Quayside, Ouseburn. 1:30-2:30pm & 3:15-4:00pm. Free. Acoustic blues guitar. An Ouseburn Festival event.
Sun 05: Lydia Rae Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Rae (vocals); Sam Lightwing (alto sax, tenor sax); Ben Lawrence (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); John Bradford (drums).
Sun 05: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 05: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Table reservations (0191 261 8000). Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 05: Storytellers Street Band @ Ouseburn Woodland, Ouseburn. 5:00-6:00pm. Free. An Ouseburn Festival event.
Sun 05: Gerry Richardson’s Big Idea @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 05: Jambone @ Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:15-9:45pm. Free but ticketed.

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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