On the solstice when the sun was cracking the pavements of old Durham Town it seemed to me that the only thing that any right-thinking Englishman should do at lunchtime was to find the darkest room in the city and listen to some 'Jazz On a Summer’s Day'. I would guess that somewhere between 80 and a 100 others had the same idea.
The choice wasn't difficult. I could watch Georgia playing the Czech Republic as part of the Euros, or listen to a three disc set of newly discovered, previously unreleased, live recordings by the Art Tatum Trio.
What would you do? Spot on! Me too.
Once again we have to thank Zev Feldman and Resonance Records for their relentless quest to uncover gems from dank cellars and dusty attics or, in this case, Chicago's Blue Note Jazz Club where the trio played in August 1953.
 |
| © Ken Drew |
Playlist 23/06/24 (repeated Tuesday 25/06/24)
Seasonal Memories: Benny Goodman & His Orchestra, Glenn Miller, Ella and Louis.
Tribute to Ken Colyer: Ken Colyer.
Memories: Charles Mingus Sextet (feat Eric Dolphy), Lucky Thompson.
New Releases: Evelyn Rubio, Phil Merriman Trio.
Festivals: Gary Burton, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny.
What’s On in the NE: Chet Baker, Paul Edis, Spats Langham.
Request: McKinney's Cotton Pickers.
https://www.ayclifferadio.co.
Aycliffe Radio is now available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington area.
 |
| © Patti |
The first time I heard Alan Barnes he was blowing alto sax with Tommy Chase's hard bop quartet back in 1986. This lunchtime he was on clarinet in a tribute to Wally Fawkes who would have been 100-years-old this very day.
It would be difficult to conjure up two more contrasting extremes but jazz is a big river and Barnes is one of those rare fish who is never out of the water whatever the prevailing tide. Even the ringing of a member of the audience's mobile didn't faze him!
Whenever a singer and a pianist make a duo recording inevitably the benchmark is that legendary album of Gershwin tunes made over seventy odd years ago by Ella and Ellis Larkins. Some have come close but most miss by a country mile.
If this one misses, and I personally don't think it does, then it's by inches maybe a centimetre.
Yes, it's that good possibly even surpassing Russell's 2022 album Send For Me which was one of my top vocal albums of that year and 2022 was a vintage year for jazz vocalists containing, as it did, albums by Samara Joy and Petra Van Nuis amongst others.
Andrzej Baranek keyboards; Gavin Barras bass.
This is a new pub with an Irish vibe that has introduced a Wednesday jazz night featuring singer Sue Baron plus a keyboard player. Sue was having a two week break and asked Andrzej and Gavin to do the gig. I thought that this place was worth checking out and arranged to meet up with Graham Brook who was the person who first told me about this new jazz venture.
We heard a lot of great tunes from this fantastic duo and I liked every one of them.
 |
| © Jeff Pritchard |
During the first half Mike was joined by Richard Iles on flugelhorn, Andy Hulme guitar, Olly Collins bass, Andrzej Baranek piano and Eryl Roberts drums. The opening number was a lively rendition of Monk’s Straight No Chaser and there were solos from everyone with Andy Hulme’s being one of the evening's highspots. By the end of the first set the room had filled up and as Fats Waller used to say The Joint was Jumpin’.
Dancing Clouds is well-named with the soloists, and Platteau in particular, flying up there where the air is rarefied. It's a lightweight track and none the worse for that, preparing us for the heavier stuff to come on the three part Suite For Africa.
Suite For Africa incorporates the twenty-four strong Matsiko World Orphan Choir who were on the same flight as Figarova and her husband were when the couple returned from South Africa to NYC - the choir, based around orphaned and at risk children from various African countries - were to tour the United States (more about the choir HERE).
Coinciding with this
year’s Glasgow International Jazz Festival, the pop-up will open for four days
only from Wednesday June 19 to Saturday June
22 stocking
the largest physical collection of Blue Note vinyl for sale in the UK, along
with exclusive
merchandise, books, DVDs, branded clothing and more. Located at high-end audio
retailer and record store Loud and Clear, the pop-up will
also present
exclusive album playbacks, providing the opportunity to experience classic Blue
Note albums played through state-of-the-art hi-fi systems.
 |
| © Jeff Pritchard |
This gig was advertised in the June flyer as the Dave Walsh Trio but as you can see from the above line-up, four musicians turned up to play. I only knew that Alex Clarke was involved when during a chance encounter with Graham Brook, jazz promoter and fellow Handforth resident, told me he had seen on her website that she was due to appear here with Dave Walsh.
 |
| © Russell |
As rained threatened in Hexham, drummer Gaz Hughes crossed the Pennines
to player another gig on his trio's mammoth, 'old school' tour. Queen's Hall's
monthly Sunday afternoon jazz concert series is going from strength to strength
and the booking of Gaz, pianist Andrzej Baranek and bassist Gavin Barras served
to illustrate the point.
Blur! that's what crossed my mind midway through this superb gig. Blur, but nothing to do with the rock band of the same name. It was my reaction to Hughes' hand-drumming on the band's Latin take on Lullaby of Birdland. His hands became just a blur as he pounded the skins so fast it was impossible to tell left from right and the blurring wasn't finished yet. On the number that followed, Nuclear Bebopalypse* - the title track of their latest album - was driven along so fast they would have broken the lap record at the Indy 500 (237.5 mph). This time it was pianist Baranek who did the blurring. Same thing happened with my photos!
Playlist 16/06/24 (repeated Tuesday 18/06/24)
Fathers’ Day: Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra.
Requests: Clark Tracey Quintet, Barney Kessel/Herb Ellis/Charlie Byrd.
Fathers’ Day (cont.): Artie Shaw (Kitty Kallen), Brad Mehldau, Benny Golson, Earl Hines, Cannonball Adderley.
Memories: Chick Corea, Erroll Garner, McCoy Tyner.
What’s On in the NE: Dean Stockdale, Matt Carmichael, Abbie Finn.
https://www.ayclifferadio.co.
Aycliffe Radio is now available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington area.
Ella & Ellington. The SSBB's tour continues, this evening's concert a return visit to Beaumont Street, Hexham. The A-Team reported for duty, the stalls all but full, Michael Lamb's superb big band is on a roll. Evocative images of Ella, Duke et al projected onto a backcloth, the scene was set.
Lounge suits across the sections, a sequined Alice Grace out front, the Strictly Smokin' do it in style. Opening with Something's Gotta Give, the sound balance just right, vocalist AG heard loud and clear. Quite some start! More a potted history than a chronological sweep down the decades, Ella F, Edward K and their various collaborators - Billy Strayhorn, Chick Webb, Norman Granz, Nelson Riddle, Frank De Vol, Marty Paich et al - would receive name checks throughout the evening.
A triple choice: Hexham, Germany or South Shields. Russell was at Hexham for SSBB, Germany was the setting for the biggest Scottish massacre since Glencoe so, it being a sunny summer's night in South Shields - it may be a thousand years before that happens again - I opted for the CHBB on their home ground.
Korean singer Hyeonseon Baek arrived in NYC via Maastricht University, in The Netherlands and the New England Conservatory in Boston, Mass.
Upon first listening I was somewhat gender-confused, the name (pronounced Hen-son Bek) gave no clues and nor did the voice which initially had me thinking mezzo-contralto or maybe a tenor with a wide range. As Caravan rolled along I began to lean towards the latter and I was right although his wide range made my earlier hesitation understandable.
It's that time of year again! Join us on Wednesday 3 July at Kanteena
for the 2024 Lancaster Jazz Festival programme launch!
¡Up Yours! Fergus Quill Plays Xero Slingsby is a celebration of the music of Xero Slingsby, a Leeds punk/jazz icon of the 1980s, and his trio The Works. The project brings a reimagined take to Xero's tunes, keeping the same high-energy spirit and grit whilst reintroducing the music to a 21st century audience.
 |
| © Benjamin Ealovega |
Aspiring jazz musicians can develop their skills with top instrumental
tutors in an idyllic location in Scotland’s South Lanarkshire hills from 8th to
12th August.
Now in its second year, Summer Jazz Camp Scotland aims to take jazz
players to the next level in their musical journey under the guidance of a team
led by internationally respected trumpeter Ryan Quigley and hugely experienced
drummer Andrew Bain, the current Deputy Head of Jazz at the Royal
Birmingham Conservatoire.
Located at Wiston Lodge, a Victorian hunting lodge near the attractive Clydesdale town of Biggar, the summer camp is designed to cover all aspects of jazz music, from the fundamentals of jazz theory to advanced techniques in big band and ensemble playing.
The Roots
Beneath is the new album from The Phil Merriman Trio, due to be released on June 21. With a foundation grounded in classical technique, Phil Merriman studied jazz piano with John Taylor, steering his focus
towards improvisation. Through this experience, Merriman has
developed a distinctive compositional style that integrates instrumental
contemporary jazz, with bold spontaneity and classical nuances.
 |
| © Russell |
“If you build it,” says Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, “they will come.” And lo, in Rothbury they did build it and lo further, they did come. This was the fourth in Coquetdale Jazz’s increasingly successful programme and with a quintet, their biggest band yet. So, having bought my ticket at the local delicatessen the week before, I donned my coolest shades as protection against the bright lights of Rothbury and headed north-west.
Tonight’s gig saw three members of the magisterial Voice of The North Jazz Orchestra on stage. The VOTN was an early victim of Tory austerity implemented by politicians who wouldn’t understand the word culture if you wrote it on the side of a banana milk-shake and threw it at them.
If you live in and around Hexham then SSBB is a no-brainer.
If you live in and around South Shields then CHBB is a no-brainer.
If you live somewhere in between then spin a coin as both bands are first class each with a great singer, tight section work, excellent soloists and polished presentation. Lance
Fri 14: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. ‘Ella & Ellington’. 7:30pm. £18.00.
Mick Shoulder (guitar); Dave Smith (rhythm guitar); Jim McBriarty (clarinet); Paul Grainger (double bass)
© Roly Veitch
 |
| © Russell |
Playlist 09/06/24 (repeated Tuesday 11/06/24)
Congratulations to Dean and Lindsey Stockdale: Ella Fitzgerald.
Celebrating Cole Porter: Cole Porter,
Ella Fitzgerald.
Requests from Darlington New Orleans Club: Bunny Berigan, Wes Montgomery Quartet, Billie Holiday, Ottilie
Patterson, Ted Lewis and his Band, Fats Waller/Zutty Singleton, Frank
Sinatra/Nelson Riddle, Stéphane Grappelli, Gil
Scott-Heron.
Cole Porter Remembered: MJQ, Nina Simone,
Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, Sarah Vaughan.
Request: Louis Armstrong.
What’s on in the NE: Birkett and Fisk, Gaz
Hughes.
Cole Porter: Wynton Marsalis.
https://www.ayclifferadio.co.uk/listen
Aycliffe Radio is now available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington area.
Jonathan Chung (tenor sax, effects); James Kitchman (electric
guitar, effects); Corrie Dick (drums).
This
is another of those ‘Wot no bass player?’ groups that seem to be popping up all
over at the moment. Jonathan Chung is the lead man in this outfit but Corrie
Dick has a record of playing with all the right people in recent years and
James Kitchman was a solid addition to the Rob Luft and Elina Duni performance
I saw a few months back. He’s also a local lad, hailing from the wilds of
Hexham.*
And so, here they are, back for Glasshopper’s second album after 2020’s Fortune Rules. Immediately, what I like about I’m Not Telling You Anything is that it’s just the right amount of weird, just the right amount of fun, just the right amount of loud. It’s the Baby Bear’s album of the year in that, just at the moment, it’s just right.
First Kansas Smitty's lockdown livestreams, now the world. Jalen Ngonda is touring worldwide, performing to sold out houses wherever he goes. This rescheduled Newcastle University Students' Union concert similarly attracting a capacity audience. All standing, drinks in plastic glasses, the merch stall groaning under the weight of vinyl albums and tour t-shirts at £25 a pop, we were there in anticipation of something special.
Carrie McCullock; Jenny Lingham; Paul Close; Jen Errington
(individual singers)+ Alan Law (piano); Paul Grainger (bass); Rob Walker
(drums)
Yes, you could be making whoopee this Thursday, June 13 because Making Whoopee is just one of the twenty songs that you'll hear, sung by these talented and experienced performers. Yes, I did say twenty songs, five from each singer, excellent value for a mere £5 admission at the door of the Globe.
Yes, the icing on the cake is the accompanying band as listed above, three musicians who are superbly skilled and well used to performing with singers.
Yes, I'll tell you the names of some of the other songs, Too Marvelous For Words; Secret Love; Besame Mucho; but you must get along to the Globe for 7.45pm to find out what the other songs are. Don't miss this gig! Ann Alex
 |
| © Sylvia |
The room was rammed. John West couldn't have squeezed any more in. It's always like this when the House of the Black Gardenia meet up with the swing dance fraternity. Inhibitions disappear. The dancers dance, the drinkers drink and the flirtatious flirt. I glanced enviously at a couple at the bar who seemed to be trying to eat each other.
However, all of that was forgotten when the band struck up with Tin Roof Blues. The sardines, sorry, the dancers smooched around the floor like they did in that movie They Shoot Horses Don't They? Everything changed though after an explosive drum break from Haigh. The tempo doubled and suddenly the shot and shell were flying. The horns were wailing, the washboard scrubbing and the rhythm section taking them down to New Orleans or maybe Harlem. It was hard to believe we were still in Newcastle.
Jazz writing for larger ensembles these days is becoming more and more
complex with the ensembles larger, the inspirations more varied and the genre gaps
ever narrowing.
The project description of This Rock We’re on: Imaginary Letters is described in the notes as ‘a meditation on the beauty of nature and the fate of the planet’. Holober has channelled those sentiments through the imagined words of six ‘protagonists’ each one an author, artist and/or activist who has dedicated their life to the natural world (more details can be found on the composer’s website HERE).
