DECEMBER 2025
Fri 19: Fraser Urquhart @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £8.00. 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 @ Hotel Gotham, Newcastle. 5:00pm. Free. .
Fri 19: Alexia Gardner @ FIKA Art Gallery, Morpeth. 6:30pm. Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy..
Fri 19: Paul Skerritt @ Middlesbrough Town Hall. 7:00pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes. .
Fri 19: Giles Strong Quartet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. Old Black Cat Jazz Club..
Fri 19: Creakin’ Bones & the Xmas Dinners @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm. £13.01 (inc. bf)..
Fri 19: Mark Toomey Quintet @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Sat 20: Jazz Attack @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 11:00am. Free.
Sat 20: Alexia Gardner @ FIKA Art Gallery, Morpeth. 6:30pm. Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy. SOLD OUT!
Sat 20: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. CANCELLED!
Sat 20: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 20: Hoodoo Blues @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:15pm (doors). £14.25, £11.55. Dance class, social dancing, live music & Xmas Party. Live music from 9:00pm - Ruth Lambert, Giles Strong, Ian Paterson & John Bradford (jazz and blues).
Sat 20: John Pope Quintet @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 7:30-8:30pm. £7.70 (inc. bf). Album recording session.
Sun 21: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. ‘Xmas Swingalong’. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 21: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00-5:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ o2 City Hall, Newcastle. 6:00pm. £35.80., £33.25., £31.00.
Sun 21: The Globe Xmas Party @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Live music.
Sun 21: Tweed River Jazz Band @ The Barrels Ale House, Berwick. 7:30pm. Free.
Mon 22: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Tue 23: Paul Skerritt @ Chakh Dhoom, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Indian restaurant. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Wed 24: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 24: Alexia Gardner @ The Townhouse, Bridge St., Morpeth. 1:30-4:30pm. ‘The A Capella Sessions’. Gardner, Paula Gardner, Alexia Hope Gardner Diamany.
Wed 24: Paul Skerritt @ Mambo Wine & Dine, South Shields. 1:30pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Thu 25: Alexia Gardner @ The Townhouse, Bridge St., Morpeth. 1:30-4:00pm. ‘All About the Bass Sessions’. Alexia Gardner, Paula Gardner, Jude Murphy.
4 comments :
Dave, I was at the concert, 1997 if memory serves. Some years earlier - or was it later? - Bley appeared at Newcastle City Hall as a member of the Jack Bruce Band.
I worked in Glasgow for a few months in 1992. While there I went to a couple of Glasgow Jazz Festival events. One was the trio with Carla, Steve Swallow & Andy Sheppard. Beautiful playing
and I often think back to that concert. It was one of those you never forget. Incidentally the other concert was Irakere who were great too.
I missed the Newcastle gig! Only saw her the once, with the trio (Swallow and Sheppard) in Istanbul. Must have been 1994/5
Jude
I was also at that concert (well, at least half of it). I was driving back from London and arrived about 9pm which turned out to be the interval at the Playhouse. As was the thing in those days there was no one at the booking office or on the doors so I wandered into the hall with the crowds returning from the bar and found an empty seat.
The music was great but my abiding memory was that there were two women with the same amazing hairstyle. The second one obviously Carla Bley's daughter who was playing the piano. She is listed amongst the band members above as Karen Mantler.
Escalator Over The Hill was a big thing for me and my jazz buddies when it came out and we spent rather too long analysing its lyrical intricacies. A few years later in the mid 70s, some of my friends went to New York for the summer and went to every jazz gig going. Somehow they were invited (or invited themselves) to Carla Bley's house and it turned out she was happy to chat to them. Amazingly she also gave them a copy of a ten page document which was supposed to be the outline for 'Escalator'.
When I looked at it I was no wiser but I think I understood she was more interested in the musical ideas rather than the plot.
JC
Post a Comment