Stu Collingwood Organ Trio @ Blaydon Jazz Club - Aug 15

Stu Collingwood (organ, vocals); Harry Keeble (tenor sax); Abbie Finn (drums)

The Hammond organ sound is as popular today as it has been for many a long year. 1950s'/60s' recordings featuring Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Richard 'Groove' Holmes and others established the art form, since when it has had many adherents. Tyneside boasts its own practitioners and one of them played a storming gig at this month's Blaydon Jazz Club session. 

Stu Collingwood, a 'been there, done that' old school pro, likes to occasionally crank up the Hammond (actually a portable Nord keyboard) and of late he's been working with two of the coming generation - tenor saxophonist Harry Keeble and drummer Abbie Finn. A set list chock full of recognisable numbers written and/or performed by household names (Ray Charles, Pee Wee Ellis, Billy Taylor, Chick Corea, Georgie Fame, Yellowjackets) ensured the session couldn't be anything other than a winner. 

Outdoor shoe off, sandshoe on, Collingwood hit the pedals. How pianists/organists do it is a mystery to mere mortals: hands and feet working overtime, seemingly taking on disparate tasks, yet somehow it all comes together! Hallelujah I Love Her So heard SC in fine voice, musically and vocally. Across two sets Harry Keeble and Abbie Finn more than played their part. Tenor man Keeble ratcheting up his solos, drummer Finn admirably keeping it firmly in the pocket. 

Yeh Yeh sang Collingwood, a swift Devil May Care, the trio's gigs to date have been few, one thing's for sure, on this evidence Collingwood, Keeble and Finn will, likely as not, pick up any number of jazz club gigs. They went out on The Cat. It had been a canny evening. 

As an aside (a separate post is in preparation), earlier in the evening a modest bronze plaque was fixed to the wall to commemorate the occasion (August 2016) when George Wein, in the company of Andy Hudson, visited the Black Bull as a guest of Blaydon Jazz Club. Yes, the George Wein, founder of the Newport Jazz Festival, Rhode Island, New York, sat and listened to the Paul Edis Trio. Suffice to say, Mr Wein was impressed. Russell              

Set list: ?; Hallelujah I Love Her So; Cool Blues; Bemsha Swing; The Chicken; I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free; Got a Match?; Revelation; Yeh, Yeh; I Thought About You; Devil May Care; In a Mellotone; The Cat.