Bebop Spoken There

Donovan Haffner ('Best Newcomer' 2025 Parliamentary Jazz Awards): ''I got into jazz the first time I picked up a saxophone!" - Jazzwise Dec 25/Jan 26

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

18146 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 24 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Jan. 7), 24

From This Moment On ...

JANUARY 2026

Sat 10: Mark Toomey Quintet @ St Peter’s Church, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:30pm. £12.00. (inc. pie & peas). Tickets from: 07749 255038.

Sun 11: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Eva Fox & the Sound Hounds @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 12: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.

Tue 13: Milne Glendinning Band @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £11.00. Coquetdale Jazz.
Tue 13: Jazz Jam Sandwich @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: Jam Session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 15: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. Quartet + guest Paul Donnelly (guitar).

Fri 16: Giles Strong Quartet @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 16: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 16: Darlington Big Band @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 16: Leeds City Stompers @ Billy Bootleggers, Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

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

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Album review: Hannah Gill - Spooky Jazz Vol. 2 (Turtle Bay Records)

Hannah Gill (vocals); Gabe Terracciano (violin); Ricky Alexander (clarinet, tenor sax); Mike Davis (trumpet, trombone); Justin Poindexter (guitar, organ); Gordon Webster (piano, organ); Philip Ambuel (bass); Ben Zweig (drums)

If you're sitting in the house with the curtains drawn and the lights out on October 31 then the time is right for you to listen to Spooky Jazz Vol. 2 (with the headphones on).  Thus you will avoid the hordes of feral children knocking on your door and menacingly offering you the choice between 'trick or treat'. This will enable you to celebrate Halloween whilst listening to some killer-diller hot music.

Gill creates the phantasmagoric mood the concept demands to the extent that maybe listening in the dark isn't such good idea after all! Even some of the solos  are likely to have you hiding under the bed. Davis' screaming, growling blast on My Man's an Undertaker, coupled with the line 'he's got a coffin just your size'  could have you loading up the silver bullets. 

When not scaring the pants off the listener, Hannah's doing just that to any wannabe singers in her audience. Away from Halloween, back in 2019, I heard her at Sage Gateshead with Postmodern Jukebox and was as knocked out then as I am now.

Apart from the vocals, Ricky Alexander blows walkin' the bar tenor, Terracciano plays hot fiddle, Poindexter's blues drenched guitar picking is straight out of a mid-west juke joint, Webster and his rhythmic henchmen are the perfect musical pallbearers and Davis, like fellow multi-instrumentalist Colin Hancock on another Turtle Bay recording, also made his mark over here at the Classic Jazz Party and his plunger choruses spook everyone - even Hard Hearted Hannah - a different Hannah to the one singing I hasten to add!

Now here's the good news - it is well worth listening to at any time of year. Lance

I'd Rather be Burned as a Witch; My Man's an Undertaker; Love is a Necessary Evil; Hummin' to Myself; Love Your Spell is Everywhere (Transylvanian Lullaby); Oogie's Song; You Hurt Me; Hard Hearted Hannah; That Old Black Magic; Haunted House Blues; Shine on Harvest Moon.

Available now - check out on BANDCAMP.

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