Bebop Spoken There

Ludovic Beier (Django Festival Allstars): ''Manouche means 'free man,' and gypsies have been travelers since they migrated west from India to Europe.'' (DownBeat March, 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

18383 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 247 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Mar. 17 ), 57

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

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, October 25, 2022

Spontaneous saxophone music and live art combine in St Giles’ Cathedral

 (© Derek Clark)

(Press release)

Saxophonist Tommy Smith and Edinburgh-based Russian artist Maria Rud unite to present Luminescence in St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh on Friday 18th November.

A new project bringing together aural and visual improvisation, Luminescence will be created spontaneously in front of the audience as Smith and Rud respond to each other’s ideas and interact with the architecture and acoustics of the twelfth century cathedral.

“Images come to me with music,” says Rud, who has collaborated in the past with percussion virtuoso Evelyn Glennie and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. “It is not a single image or a collection of images, but a live "storyboard" in which music plays the role of a script.”

(© Douglas Robertson)
Rud, who was born in Moscow to a Ukrainian mother, sees St Giles’ as the co-creator of the show as her images will be projected onto the East Wall of the church. Smith will also interact with the cathedral’s natural acoustics.

“This gives Luminescence a unique quality as by projecting art onto a particular building’s architecture we can never create the same show twice,” says Rud.

Rud and Smith met at a reception in the National Museum of Scotland and after conversing for a few minutes they agreed that they should work together at some point. They first collaborated when Smith, the founding director of the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, invited Rud to create images in response to the Orchestra’s dedications to saxophone pioneers including Albert Ayler and Ornette Coleman in their Where Rivers Meet concert series in May 2021.

“These were arranged suites and the performance had to be streamed as we were still under Covid regulations,” says Smith. “So, although there was improvisation in Where Rivers Meet, Luminescence will be quite a different experience as Maria and I will both be starting with a blank canvas, as it were. We’ll also have the added inspiration of working in front of a live audience.”

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