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Bebop Spoken There

Steve Coleman: ''If you don't keep learning, your mind slows down. Use it or lose it''. (DownBeat, January 2025).

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

17733 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 53 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Jan. 20).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Wed 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 22: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 22: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 22: Pasadena Roof Orchestra @ Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.

Thu 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free. Fortnightly.
Thu 23: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Obituaries 2024.
Thu 23: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:30-6:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Thu 23: Pedal Point Trio @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 24: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 24: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 24: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 24: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 24: Creakin’ Bones & the Sunday Dinners @ Lindisfarne Social Club, Wallsend. 9:00pm. Admission: TBC. Jazz, blues , jump jive, rock ‘n’ roll.

Sat 25: Boys of Brass @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 25: New '58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson's Wharf, Hartlepool. 6:30pm (doors). Free. A Burns' Night event. Jazz, swing, funk, soul, blues etc.
Sat 25: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 25: Red Kites Jazz @ Parish Hall, St Barnabas’ Church, Rowlands Gill. 7:30pm. £10.00. BYOB (tea & coffee available), raffle. Proceeds to St Barnabas’ Church. Performance feat. Shayo (vocals).
Sat 25: Jack & Jay’s Songbook @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Graham Hardy Eclectic Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 26: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:30pm. Free.
Sun 26: Gratkowski, Tramontana, Beresford, Affifi @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00. JNE.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 28: ???

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 30: Matters Unknown (aka Jonathan Enser, Nubiyan Twist) + support TBA @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). £12.22 (gig & food); £9:04 (gig only).
Thu 30: Soznak @ The Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 30: Struggle Buggy @ Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Rhythm & blues.

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

Monday, August 14, 2023

Pershore: Jazz on a Summer's Day (the evening session) - August 12

The afternoon session at this year's Jazz on a Summer's Day attracted a near full house. A welcome break before the star-studded evening concerts found your correspondent in the Pickled Plum pub, the sole Pershore hostelry to feature in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide. A pint of the North Cotswold Brewery's Cotswold Best, a plate of fish and chips, it was good to chill out for a couple of hours.

County Durham's Emma Fisk would lead the opening set of the evening: Jazz à Paris - Django, Hot Club & the Americans. Violinist Fisk as Grappelli.  

Jazz à Paris - Django, Hot Club & the Americans

Emma Fisk (violin); Tom 'Spats' Langham (guitar, vocals); Martin Wheatley (guitar); Curtis Volp (guitar); Harry Evans (double bass) & 'the 'Americans' - Zoltan Sagi (tenor sax); Alex Clarke (clarinet); Graham Hughes (trombone)

Joining Fisk were three Parisian Hot Club six-stringers, Messrs. Langham, Wheatley and Volp. Singing as Freddy Taylor, vocal duties were handled by Spats Langham (I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby). There was a non-competitive air where our guitarists were concerned; tremendous rhythm players, each taking excellent solos, Langham and Wheatley the senior men, Volp, last year's Young Talent Award-winner at the Classic Jazz Party up on North Tyneside. 

The 'Americans' dropped by - tenor saxophonist Zoltan Sagi just about stealing the show as Coleman Hawkins playing Stardust, Alex Clarke (clarinet) as Frank 'Big Boy' Goudie playing I Found a New Baby, and Dickie Wells, aka Graham Hughes, knocking out a terrific Dinah

Ms Fisk's brilliant Hot Club du Nord (based in the north east of England) have played Nuages and Sweet Georgia Brown on countless occasions, the former elicited audible sighs here in Pershore, the latter a barnstorming set-closer.                    

Hot Harlem - The Fabulous New York Big Bands

Michael McQuaid, Zoltan Sagi, Alex Clarke (reeds); Cia Tomasso (vocals); Rico Tomasso, Jamie Brownfield (trumpet); Graham Hughes (trombone); Emma Fisk (violin, first set only); Tom 'Spats' Langham (guitar, banjo); Martin Litton (piano); Malcolm Sked (double bass, sousaphone); Nick Ward (drums)

Michael McQuaid assembled an all-star band to set up a 'Grand Finale' to the 2023 edition of Jazz on a Summer's Day. At half past eight an eleven piece band, resplendent in evening attire, took to the stage at Number Eight Arts Centre on Pershore High Street. It was to be an evening of Fabulous New York Big Bands, the emphasis on Harlem, NYC. Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson featured prominently. Don Redman, Fess Williams, the Dorsey brothers, they too played their part in two sets of hot, hot, hot big band jazz. 

The reeds - McQuaid, Zoltan Sagi and Alex Clarke - soloed for all they were worth, the ensemble work out of the top drawer. Sitting behind, the box office trumpeters, R. Tomasso and J. Brownfield, 'bone man Graham Hughes alongside. At every turn there was an A-lister - Langham, Litton, Sked and, down from Brum, period percussion specialist Nick Ward. And then there was Emma Fisk (first set only) and the one to watch - and hear! - Analucia 'Cia' Tomasso. 

AJ Piron's Bouncing Around rattled along, Fisk prominent, Sugarfoot Stomp sizzled, Cia Tomasso impressed (again) on White Ghost Shivers. More Ellington - It Don't Mean a Thing with Cia Tomasso insisting it really don't! MC McQuaid offered an entertaining, informative commentary, not forgetting he had some work to do in the section and as a soloist! Luis Russell's Saratoga Drag, more Ms Tomasso on Ellington's Truckin', it had been a cracking night. Pershore 2023 was an unqualified success, it is to be hoped  there'll be a 2024 Pershore Jazz on a Summer's Day. Russell

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