bebop spoken here: Ten north east greats. 2

From This Moment On

March

Mon 30: Gerry Richardson Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm.
Mon 30: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 31: Bede Trio @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. Albert Hills Wright (alto sax); Finn Carter (piano); Michael Dunlop (double bass).

April

Wed 01: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ 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: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject: Musicians playing classical & orchestral music.
Thu 02: The Noel Dennis Band @ Prohibition Bar, Albert Road, Middlesbrough TS1 2RU. 7:00pm (doors). £10.84. Quartet plus special guest Zoë Gilby. Over 21s only.
Thu 02: Renegade Brass Band @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors).
Thu 02: Shalala @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £7.00. adv..
Thu 02: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Ten north east greats. 2 - Ralph Hutchinson

Ralph Hutchinson (1925 - 2008). Born in Newcastle, the trombonist lived, I am told, on Scrogg Rd. in the Walkergate area of the city. He played at the Oxford Galleries with Peter Fielding then with the legendary Tommy Sampson Band in Glasgow. Sadly the Sampson band, said by many to be the greatest British big band of its day, never recorded.

Ralph moved to Chicago in the late 1940s playing and recording with Muggsy Spanier. As the album cover shows, he was moving in fast company! He also recorded with Bob Scobey as well as doing studio work on the Jackie Gleason Show. I believe I read somewhere that he was also a golf club professional!

I was too young to hear him when he was playing in Newcastle but, listening to his playing with Spanier, he was a worthy ambassador from these shores.

Lance