TJ Johnson @ Darlington New Orleans Club - March 5

TJ Johnson (piano, vocals); Alex Clarke (alto sax, tenor sax); Curtis Volp (guitar); Ed Harrison (double bass); Jack Cotterill (drums)

Saturday March 5 was a homecoming for jazz at St Augustine's, after the last two years. With Darlington bathed in early March sunshine, over 70 excited jazz fans queued up to pay their entrance fee.

T J Johnson is one of the UK's most popular jazz and blues musicians. He's been an entertainer on piano and vocals since he was 16 years old, when he was discovered by Pete Cotterill, drummer on the north west jazz scene (and Jack Cotterill's grandfather!), and joined the legendary Max Collie's Rhythm Aces in 1986, touring extensively across the UK, Europe and beyond. 

Alex Clarke is an amazing young talent on clarinet and saxes, and a 2020 BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year finalist. Alex will be well known to BSH readers, with recent appearances at the Lit and Phil, plus the Salute to Humphrey Lyttelton show at Newcastle's Black Swan venue. Ed Harrison is a fine young bass player, with technique across all jazz styles - he's played with our very own Dean Stockdale. Jack Cotterill is based in the Potteries, and another young talent on the UK jazz scene. It's not surprising that he started on the drums when he was a toddler, with dad and grandfather both drumming aces. Curtis Volp is another youngster, a busy multi instrumentalist specialising in guitar and banjo, from London. He's a recent graduate from the renowned Guildhall School of Music, has made festival appearances in Holland and France, and released to wide acclaim a duets CD with reeds specialist Michael McQuaid.

The room was buzzing with anticipation as the band took to the stage. Ray Sams, organiser of the Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club gigs, welcomed us all back - and we were off. We were treated to two 50 minute sets of highly entertaining jazz, blues and country. T J started out as a young folk and country music singer, before jazz took over - but he still loves to sing those old numbers about heartache and lost love. Several of the numbers were requests from fans in the audience - T J and his bands are hugely popular with the Darlington crowd. We got classics from Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, sung engagingly by T J at the Korg keyboard, with super Alex on sax, and rhythmic support from Ed, Jack and Curtis. T J loves to sing the blues too, and we got a swinging take on the Jimmy Witherspoon classic When the Lights Go Out. This really gave Alex and the rhythm section a chance to rock, and the audience loved it. Poor Butterfly closed a highly entertaining first set - first published in 1916, this was a feature for Alex, and she played it beautifully.

Ray's Raffle is a fixture at these Darlington gigs. Your BSH correspondent always buys a couple of strips, in the faint hope of reward. The stars must have been aligned on this occasion, as my number was the first one pulled out of the hat! My companion had the second ticket too - how's that for a coincidence! Anyway, after this exciting interlude, we were ready for another 50 minutes of TJ. We started with a trip to New Orleans, with Bourbon Street Parade - and rocking second line drumming from Jack Cotterill. Then it was a real, eclectic mix of country, blues, and jazz classics - Willie Nelson, followed by Lester Leaps In and Body And Soul (two fine features for Alex) and a gorgeous take on You Turned The Tables On Me. If you've ever wondered what happened in the Black Mountains, T J told us the sorry, mean tale of Black Mountain Blues - as originally recorded by Bessie Smith in 1930.

The next session at Darlington New Orleans Club is on Saturday April 2: The New Century Ragtime Orchestra, performing rags, hot dance numbers from the 1920s and early swing from the 1930s. Patti

See www.darlingtonjazz.co.uk for more details.

Set list: My Old Kentucky Home; On the Road Again; Songs from the Jazz Country; When the Lights Go Out; Curse of an Aching Heart; He'll Have to Go; Poor Butterfly; A Man with the Blues; Without a Song; Red Wing; Bourbon Street Parade; You Do Something to Me; Rambling Fever; Blueberry Hill; Lester Leaps In; You Turned the Tables On Me; Body and Soul; Black Mountain Blues; Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground; In a Mellotone; Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.