Bebop Spoken There

Melissa Aldana: ''Having to play a ballads album, which is something very revealing for a saxophone player, would help me to question some new aspects of how to go deeper into sound." (DownBeat May, 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

18621 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 485 of them this year alone and, so far this month (June 14) 37

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

June

Thu 18: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, Mill Rise, South Gosforth, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 18: Castillo Nuevo Orquesta @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. £6.50. 7:30pm (doors).
Thu 18: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 18: Paul Skerritt @ Angels' Share, St George's Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle NE2 2SX. 8:00pm. Free. Booking advised (0191 200 1975). Skerritt w. backing tapes.

Fri 19: Joe Steels Group @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 19: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 19: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 19: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 19: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Hotel Gotham, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Fri 19: Ferg’s Imaginary Big Band @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £14.33., £11.16., £8.00.
Fri 19: Martin Litton @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. £13.01 (inc. bf); £6.50 (inc. bf); £15.00 on the door. Solo piano. CANCELLED!
Fri 19: Jools Holland’s R&B Orchestra @ Hippodrome, Darlington. 7:30pm. Joe Webb support set.
Fri 19: Hot Club du Nord @ Warkworth Memorial Hall. 7:30pm.
Fri 19: Jive Aces: The Roots of Rock & Roll @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £20.00 + bf.

Sat 20: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Tynedale Beer Festival, Corbridge. 5:00-6:00pm.
Sat 20: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 20: Red Kites Jazz @ Staithes Café, Dunston. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Sat 20: New Century Ragtime Orchestra @ Trinity Church, Gosforth, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £20.00. NCRO w. guests Dean Stockdale & Nick Ward.

Sun 21: From Lagos to Longbenton: Unity in the Community @ Sunderland Minster. From 1:30pm. Free. A multi-bill Unity in the Community event, inc. From Lagos to Longbenton.
Sun 21: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Table reservations (0191 261 8000). Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 21: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 2:30pm. Free. Trio w. Graham Hardy.
Sun 21: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: Magpies of Swing @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 22: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 23: Alan Law Trio @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 2:00pm. Free.
Tue 23: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Wed 24: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 24: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 24: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Friday, August 18, 2023

Newcastle Jazz Festival: Strictly Smokin' Big Band @ the Bridge - August 17

(© Malcolm Sinclair)
Michael Lamb (MD), Pete Tanton, Dick Stacey, Gordon Marshall (trumpets); Jamie Toms, Matt Forster, Keith Robinson, Dave Kerridge, Sue Ferris (reeds); Mark Ferris, Kieran Parnaby, Ben Haslam, John Flood (trombones); Pawel Jedrzejewski (guitar); James Peacock (keyboards); Michael Whent (bass guitar); Guy Swinton (drums); Alice Grace (vocals)

One of the established traditions of the Newcastle Jazz Festival is that Thursday night's action takes place at the Bridge where the Strictly Smokin' Big Band pull in the punters and not just because it's free. If it were ten times the price (joke) they'd still show.

They had a few deps in but such is the depth of talent that they have to draw from it didn't show.

The solos were spread around the saxes with Toms and Robinson picking up the lion's share and only Sue Ferris missing out. However, Sue's festival moment will come on Saturday at Tyne Bank Brewery when, along with SSBB colleague (missing from last night's concert) Steve Summers, they will recreate the Gerry Mulligan/Paul Desmond session Two of a Mind which they debuted at the Globe last year, following up at Blaydon. Matt Forster too will be featured on Saturday leading his quartet.

Pete Tanton handled most of the trumpet solos, although leader Lamb, in between directing from front and rear, had some blasts of his own. His kicker on Dizzy's Things to Come was the biz.

Parnaby took care of the trombone solos with bass 'bone Flood playing a burping intro to Alice's irreverent version of It Was a Very Good Year and the sound you heard wasn't Frank turning in his grave, even though the previous number was Maynard Ferguson's Knarf which is actually Frank spelt backwards, but the 19:20 Newcastle to King's Cross crossing the High Level Bridge. I'm sure Sinatra would have been clapping his hands as did Alice on her final number, the encore, called, appropriately enough, Clap Your Hands which we duly did.

I could go on and on about each and every number but that would take too long. So I'll just mention the piano/guitar exchanges on a number which I didn't catch the title of, the three part Film Noir Suite that had everything apart from Bogart and Bacall although there were a few hardboiled characters and a couple of femme fatales in the audience and, of course, all of Alice's vocals.

The festival continues tonight at the Black Swan with the Alex Clarke Quartet. Lance

TNT; You Turned the Tables on me (v); Things to Come; Knarf; It Was a Very Good Year (v); Film Noir Suite; Love me or Leave me (v); Tickletoe; Late Late Show (v); ?; You Can Feel it All Over (v); ? ? (two numbers from Kenton's Cuban Fire album); Lullaby of Bigfoot; Midnight Prayer (v); Avalon (v); Clap Your Hands (v)

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