Bebop Spoken There

Donovan Haffner ('Best Newcomer' 2025 Parliamentary Jazz Awards): ''I got into jazz the first time I picked up a saxophone!" - Jazzwise Dec 25/Jan 26

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

18146 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 24 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Jan. 7), 24

From This Moment On ...

JANUARY 2026

Fri 09: The House Trio @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church. 1:00pm. £9.00.
Fri 09: Nauta @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £5.00. Trio: Jacob Egglestone, Jamie Watkins, Bailey Rudd.
Fri 09: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 09: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 09: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 09: Warren James & the Lonesome Travellers @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Fri 09: The Blue Kings @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. (£8.00. adv.). All-star band.

Sat 10: Mark Toomey Quintet @ St Peter’s Church, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:30pm. £12.00. (inc. pie & peas). Tickets from: 07749 255038.

Sun 11: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Eva Fox & the Sound Hounds @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 12: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.

Tue 13: Milne Glendinning Band @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £11.00. Coquetdale Jazz.
Tue 13: Jazz Jam Sandwich @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: Jam Session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 15: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. Quartet + guest Paul Donnelly (guitar).

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

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

Black Swan Jam Session - August 9

Mark Williams (guitar); Katy Trigger (bass guitar); King David Ike-Elechi (drums) + Ed Bell, Ferg Kilsby (trumpet); David Gray (trombone); Paul Gowland (alto sax); ? (tenor sax); Edgar Ho, Martin Schultz, Alon Dagan (keys); Oscar Ho, Stan Woodward (bass guitar); ? (Hawaiian lap steel guitar); Kris Finney, Michael Mather (drums); Ian Dreever (vocal). 

Not a vintage jam, just another day at the office albeit not without its highs and its lows. Among the highs were some impressive trumpet playing by teenage protégé Kilsby whose After You've Gone could have been mistaken for Red Allen or Blue Mitchell in a blindfold test - that's how colourful it was. His cohorts from Knats, Woodward and King David, were also in top form although the latter was perhaps a tad over forceful in the opening trio set. However, he did atone for it as the evening progressed.

Good to have Katy aboard. I hadn't heard her for a while and I was enjoying her well-structured solo on There Will Never be Another You when she was cut off in mid-flight by an explosive intervention by Ed Bell that would have done some irreparable damage to Jericho's walls! Talk about coitus interruptus! Not cricket Ed old boy!

Gray and Gowland always work well together and they were cookin' with gas on How High the Moon?

The brothers Ho, inscrutable as ever, slotted in nicely on bass and keys.  Finney and Mather spelled King David on the kit with more keyboard capers from Dagan and Schultz. There was also a tenor saxist and a Hawaiian lap steel guitar player whose names I failed to get.

I also missed Dreever's vocal - a timetable change to the 27 bus service (now one an hour after 9pm) meant leaving before the finale. Still, all in all, it had been an interesting evening - Lance

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