Bebop Spoken There

Emma Rawicz: "In a couple of years I've gone from being a normal university student to suddenly being on international stages." DownBeat January 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

18219 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 73 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Jan. 24), 73

From This Moment On ...

JANUARY 2026

Fri 30: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 30: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 30: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 30: Castillo Nuevo Trio @ Hotel Gotham, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Fri 30: Pete Roth Trio @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). Feat. Bill Bruford.
Fri 30: Jive Aces @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm.
Fri 30: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Northern Edge Coffee, Silver St., Berwick. 7:00pm.
Fri 30: Dan Coulthurst Quintet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £10.00 + £1.00. bf (www.wegottickets.com). Coulthurst (trumpet); Joel Steadman (bass clarinet, flute); Nico Widdowson (piano); Fergus Quill (double bass); Theo Goss (drums).

Sat 31: Darling Dollies @ St George’s Church, Jesmond, Newcastle. 3:00pm. £10.00. Vocal trio.
Sat 31: Brass Fiesta @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 10:30pm. Free.

FEBRUARY 2026

Sun 01: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £10.00.
Sun 01: Ian Bosworth Quintet @ Chapel, Middlesbrough. 1:00pm. Free. Quintet + guest Bill Watson (trumpet, flugelhorn).
Sun 01: Sax Choir @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 01: Annie & the Caldwells @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £25.00. adv. Gospel/soul.
Sun 01: Jive Aces @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm.
Sun 01: Olly Styles Experience + Jenny Baker @ the Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 02: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 02: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.

Tue 03: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, Ferryhill. 7:30pm. Free.
Tue 03: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.

Wed 04: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 04: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 04: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 05: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject:Times of the Day & Trios.
Thu 05: Jeremy McMurray’s Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. Special guest Emma Wilson.
Thu 05: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

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, 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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