Bebop Spoken There

David Bailey (photographer): ''When I was 16 I wanted to look like Chet Baker. He was my idol - him and James Dean.'' (Talking Pictures documentary : Four beats to the bar and no cheating April, 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

18445 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 309 of them this year alone and, so far this month (April 20 ) 43,

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

April

Fri 24: Noel Dennis Trio @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. Dennis, Mark Willams, Andy Champion. 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: Trio Grand @ Land of Oak & Iron, Winlaton. 6:00-9:00pm. Free.
Fri 24: Ben Vince + The Exu @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £14.33., £11.16, £8.00. A ‘jazz adjacent’ gig!
Fri 24: Daniel John Martin w. Swing Manouche @ The Ship Isis, Sunderland. 7:30pm. £13.20 (inc. bf).

Sat 25: Giles Strong Quartet @ Hindmarsh Hall, Alnmouth. 7:30pm. CANCELLED!
Sat 25: Daniel John Martin w. Swing Manouche @ The Old Cinema Launderette, Durham. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £13.20 (inc. bf).
Sat 25: ‘Portrait in Evans’: Noa Levy & Alan Barnes w. Paul Edis Trio @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £24.00. Sage Two. ‘Portrait in Evans’. Levy, Barnes, Edis, Andy Champion & Steve Hanley.

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited: Big Band Blast @ West Hartlepool RFC. 1:00-3:00pm . Free.
Sun 26: Daniel John Martin w. Swing Manouche @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00.
Sun 26: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Ni Maxine + Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £17.51., £14.33., £11.16.
Sun 26: Joe Steels @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. Free (donations direct to the musicians). Joe Steels & Friends.
Sun 26: C.A.L.I.E @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £16.00., £14.00., £7.00.

Mon 27: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 27: House of Blues @ the Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £7.00., £5.00. advance. A student-led jazz session. ‘House of Blues’ is, perhaps, a misnomer.
Mon 27: Littlewood Trio @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £10.00 + bf, £7.00. + bf.

Tue 28: Long/Remon/Zilker @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. Tom Remon plays Irish folk!

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 29: Long/Remon/Zilker @ The Ship Isis, Sunderland. 7:00pm. £10.00. + £1.00. bf. Tom Remon plays Irish folk!
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 29: Hackney Colliery Band @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm. £25.00.

Thu 30: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject: International Jazz Day & JANE AGM.
Thu 30: Duke Junction @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £14.00., £12.00., £7.00. Nadim Teimoori (tenor sax); Jeff Hewer (guitar); Martin Longhawn (organ); Steve Hanley (drums). An International Jazz Day event & the 12th anniversary of Newcastle Jazz Co-op acquiring the Globe!

Monday, October 09, 2023

Bill Coleman (t,scat-v) + Guy Boyer - Metro jazz, 1962 or 63, Antibes, T...


Bill Coleman was probably one of the most underrated of swing-era trumpet players. I was fortunate - or should I say blessed? - to hear him at Newcastle's Connaught Hall with the Alex Welsh Band and later at the North Sea Jazz Festival.

On both occasions I was impressed. 

Coleman first caught my eye/ear when I heard him on an EP with Guy Lafitte. From that day on both became faves. The sad thing is that now, few of today's fans probably remember either of them.  Lance

7 comments :

Bill Montgomery said...

Now that's what I call a jazz gig! The guy sitting on top of the piano, the bottles on the piano, the scatting and the horn playing! This wasn't no posh gig in a so called music college. This was the real deal.

Lance said...

You called it right!

Patti said...

Bill Coleman was born in Paris, Kentucky in 1904 - and it's his swinging trumpet on the Fats Waller classic 'Dream Man'. He joined the guys like Dickie Wells, who went out to Paris, France in the 1930's - and recorded on some of the wonderful 'Americans in Paris' series. He obviously fell in love with the country - it seems he went back to live in France in the 1940's, after WW2 ...... he settled there, after a period touring with Lucky Millinder's band. Anyway, he preferred the life across the pond - Bill Coleman eventually died in Toulouse in the early 1980' - so the lifestyle in France obviously suited him. It's ironic that he was born in that other Paris though!

Lance said...

Bill Coleman also has a bit part in the novel Half Blood Blues recently reviewed. A fantastic must read story.

Tony Charlton said...

My recollection is that Bill Coleman appeared with the Alex Welsh Band in 1975 at Gosforth Civic Hall, not the Connaught Hall.
I can't remember anything about the music, except to say that by that time the Welsh Band was past the tremendous peaks it reached in the period say 1966-71. An earlier performance in the region by Bill Coleman was at Redcar Jazz Club in April 1966,when he was accompanied by the Bruce Turner Jump Band. This is confirmed by the history of the Club published by the local council in 1996.

Lance said...

Yes, it was the Bruce Turner Jump Band that accompanied him at the Connaught in 1966 as confirmed in Chris Yates' book Blue Horizons.

Tony Charlton said...

I think I should have said 1976 not 1975 for Bill Coleman at Gosforth Civic Hall.

And for a really useless piece of information - when Roger Vadim married Brigitte Bardot, Guy Lafitte was his best man.

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