(Belated) Album review: Ronnie Cuber - Pin Point (Electric Bird)

Ronnie Cuber (baritone sax); David Sanborn (alto sax); George Wadenious (guitar); Rob Mounsey (keys); Will Lee (bass); Steve Gadd (drums); Steve Thornton (perc.); David Matthews (arrangements)

Picked this gem up in a second-hand record shop and it was truly 'a find' -  a day later it still is.

When it comes to baritone players Cuber is up there with best as he proves on this 1986 album. With fellow funky jazz rocker Sanborn alongside him they prove to be an amazing team. Apart from On Green Dolphin Street and David Matthew's Heavy Hang and Two Brothers the other four tracks on this 'preloved' piece of vinyl are all Cuber compositions that seem to fall effortlessly beneath the fingers of all seven. Effortlessly? Try matching the dexterity of the 'siblings' on Two Brothers - it's fast!

Press release: Tomorrow night (Nov. 13) @ Hoochie Coochie - corto.alto

Fast-emerging Scottish composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist corto.alto has been described as a traditional jazz head raised in the age of the internet. The moniker of Glasgow-based Liam Shortall, corto.alto brings a fresh perspective to a heady mix of intuitive improvisation, electronic production, broken beat bounce and bass-heavy dub. His debut album ‘Bad With Names’ out in Oct 2023 was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize 2024. It’s an honest and iconoclastic work. challenging the boundaries of contemporary jazz.

Doors 7:30pm. £14 and Red Stripe only £3 a pint! Lance

7:30 DJ Santa Leticia

8:15 Daudi Matsiko

9:00 corto.alto

10:30 DJ Santa Leticia

Tomasso, Tomasso & Wheatley @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth - Nov. 4

Rico Tomasso (trumpet, vocals); Cia Tomasso (vocals); Martin Wheatley (guitar)

In the early hours of Monday morning (sometime after 3:00am), as the late night jam session drew to a close, the Classic Jazz Party musicians could finally get some shuteye, although three of the musicians would be up and about early to fulfill a lunchtime engagement ten miles up the coast in Blyth.

Yamaha Music School occupies the first floor of an unprepossessing building on Seaforth Street, as the crow (gull, more like) flies, a matter of two hundred metres or so from Blyth Harbour. Once inside, it's striking how well equipped the place is. A Yamaha grand piano, naturally, plus an array of percussion instruments, including marimbas, xylophones and a recently acquired lithophone*. 

The Classic Jazz Party: Sunday evening jam session @ the Village Hotel, North Tyneside - Nov. 3

No time to sleep, the third and final jam session at this year's Classic Jazz Party was about to get underway.

Gone way past eleven o'clock, trumpeter Torstein Kubban assembled the troops and off they went, blowing into the early hours. 

The house band - Kubban, Graham Hughes (trombone), Jean-François Bonnel (reeds), Morten Gunnar Larsen (piano), Martin Wheatley (banjo, guitar), Harry Evans (tuba, string bass), Nicholas D. Ball (drums) - could have played all night, so good are these guys. However, this being a jam session, more than a few hopefuls were looking to get the call. 

The Classic Jazz Party: Sunday evening @ the Village Hotel, North Tyneside - Nov. 3

A long and hugely enjoyable weekend was approaching its end. From Thursday evening's Welcome Concert, a film show, three afternoon sessions, three evening sessions (this Sunday evening session the third of them) and three late night jam sessions, the Village Hotel on North Tyneside reverberated to the sounds of the 'classic jazz' era. 

Musicianship of the highest order, packed houses hanging on every note, there isn't really anything quite like the Classic Jazz Party. A third and final Piano Professor half hour took on a slightly different look when pianist Andrew Oliver was joined by drummer Nicholas D. Ball. A terrific thirty minutes. An Evening in Town transported the full house to London's nightspots of a century ago. The capital's many resident bands of the time entertained revellers looking for a good time. Martin Wheatley (banjo, guitar) presented an overview of the music and the musicians making a living playing in the dance bands and jazz clubs a century ago. 

Preview: John Stowell & Tom Remon (Prohibition Bar - Thursday 14 Nov.)

Tom Remon continues to do sterling work inviting American jazz guitar greats to join him on a tour of the UK. Following one such recent tour with the legendary Sid Jacobs, this week Tom will be touring with none other than fellow guitarist, the highly respected American John Stowell. Their short tour begins tomorrow night at Cooper's in Stockport, Wednesday sees the duo playing Manchester's Carlton Club, on Thursday, John and Tom will be at Prohibition Bar in Newcastle and the tour concludes at Hampstead Jazz Club on Friday evening.

R.I.P. Lou Donaldson (1926-2024)

Another of the greats has left us and with the passing of alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson on Nov. 9 the list of jazz survivors is becoming smaller by the day.

Donaldson was one of the great alto players who emerged from the influence of Charlie Parker to form his own funky/soul style.

It could arguably be said that his Blue Note album Alligator Boogaloo set the foundation for future funk saxists as Donny McCaslin and Kamasi Washington. However, for straight ahead jazz fans such as myself, it was his other Blue Note albums with Clifford Brown, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Grant Green and Jimmy Smith that overworked the 'play' button.

Lou Donaldson was 98 years old when he died. Rest In Peace. Lance

Richard Wetherall Quartet @ the Moor Club, Heaton Moor, Stockport - Nov. 10

© Jeff Pritchard

Richard Wetherall (keys); Uli Elbracht (guitar); Ed Harrison (bass); Eryl Roberts (drums).

It’s unusual to find Richard playing the main role in a four-piece combo and doing all the announcements. He did them well. Also taking a major part in the proceedings was an old friend of mine who I had not seen for some time. 

I first met Uli Elbracht, originally from Cologne, at the Crown, an old jazz venue under the Stockport viaduct. This  was maybe 20 years ago.He impressed me then and impressed me tonight with his original composition entitled Anything You Like and I liked what he did with it and the Irving Berlin standard How Deep Is The Ocean?. This tune seems to be one that gets played a lot by Stockport musicians, in fact looking at my notes I see Ed Kainyek gave it a thorough workout only last week.

Sunday night @ the Globe: Sh#rp Collective - Nov. 10

© Sheila Herrick

Karen Rann (soprano sax): Mark Squires (piano); Dave Parker (bass); Michael Howard (drums).

 

I was an absentee at Sunday night's Jazz @ the Globe session so I'm unable to review the gig. 

However, judging by the photo that Sheila kindly sent it looks as though it was well-attended. The repertoire, reports Sheila, reflected very much the collective nature of the band with shared announcements and material that ranged from Jelly Roll Morton to Keith Jarrett as well as some originals from within the band.

Thank you Sheila, my sick note is in the post. Lance

Preview: Bud Powell all week on Radio 3!

This week's Composer of the Week features pioneering bebop pianist Bud Powell. In his centenary year (b. 27.9.1924), BBC Radio 3 surveys Powell's contribution to jazz and considers his enduring legacy. Join presenter Kate Molleson and biographer Peter Pullman at four o'clock, Monday to Friday, as they discuss - and listen to - the music of Earl Rudolph 'Bud' Powell. Russell

The Classic Jazz Party: Sunday afternoon @ the Village Hotel, North Tyneside - Nov. 3

The final day of the 2024 CJP, just the nine and a half hours to go, plus, of course, a third and final jam session into the wee small hours of Monday. Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds featuring Nicolle Rochelle helped clear any fuzzy heads resulting from the previous evening's late night jam session. Parisian Ms Rochelle looked a picture, despite having had little or no sleep! Andy Schumm (cornet) and Lars Frank (reeds) joined a stellar British line-up which included drummer Nick Ball playing a xylophone.

R.I.P. Roy Cansdale

Swing City Trio

Readers may have already heard this sad news, but my good friend, bass player Roy Cansdale, who played for so many years with Roly Veitch and myself as one-third of the Swing City Trio (pictured top left), died on November 5 in hospital in Whitehaven. He was 80 years old, and still playing until  he had a bad fall at the end of September.

Roy came from Lewes and played banjo, guitar, and then string-bass around the Brighton area from the early 1960s until he and his family moved up to Cumbria around 1982. I first met him at the end of the '80s, playing with Bruce Carnaffin's Mainline Jazz, and after that he was my bassist of choice - we played all over in different bands, but particularly in trios and quartets in the Lake District, for the next 35 years or so. Roy loved to play, and recently had taken up the guitar again in order to get more gigs. In fact, he even went back to his first instrument, the ukulele, but being a bassist at heart, he bought a bass uke!

Sinatra @ Capitol (Part two)

A Swingin' Affair. If any album can follow Songs For Swingin' Lovers for all-round perfection then this is the one. Like Swingin' Lovers and Close to You, it was recorded in 1956 - it was a very good year for arrangements by Nelson Riddle on some of the greatest songs ever written and sung by the greatest ever interpreter of them. A well balanced mix of joy and sadness.

Where Are You? I must confess that of the twelve albums I've selected this is the only one I don't physically possess. True I could get it from Amazon for £80 or a local record store for (maybe) less but that would take away the thrill of the chase. 

However, although I don't have the 1957 album, I do have most of the tracks scattered over various compilations so I feel justified. It's a 'weepie' - they usually are when Gordon Jenkins is at the helm. Listen to the string intro to Laura and the subsequent vocal then sigh...

Jazz Time Aycliffe Radio - Sundays 6.30-8.00pm (repeated Tuesdays 8.00-9.30pm)

https://www.ayclifferadio.co.uk/listen

Playlist 10/11/24 (repeated Tuesday 12/11/24)

RIP: Quincy Jones.

Remembrance: Benny Goodman Orchestra with Peggy Lee, the Andrews Sisters.

Paul Skerritt talks jazz and requests: Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Matt Monro, Quincy Jones.

EFG London Jazz Festival 2024 - Concert reviews wanted.

This year's EFG London Jazz Festival is almost upon us and, for the first time in BSH's 17 years, we don't have anyone eagerly awaiting with notebook and pencil, or the digital equivalent, at the ready to review some of the shows.

 

This is unfortunate as the EFG is the Uk's biggest jazz festival running from Friday Nov. 15 to Sunday Nov. 24 with a whole host of concerts spread over various venues across London. So, if you are planning to attend one or more concerts and would like to submit a review please contact me: lanceliddle@gmail.com. Lance

Pensacola Boulevard @ Dorman's Jazz Club, Middlesbrough - Nov. 7

Django Zazou (trombone/accordion/vocals); Donna Hewitt (clarinet/tenor sax); Josh Bentham (trumpet); Graham Thompson (keys); Ron Smith (bass); Mark Hawkins (drums); Vicky Jackson (vocals).

This recently formed band of familiar local musicians played together for the first time as this month's guest band and provided the audience with a night of fine entertaining jazz mainly from the 1920s to the 1940s era.

The lively T'Aint No Sin sung by Django set the style for the night with solos from

Josh, tonight on trumpet as opposed to his normal tenor or alto sax, Donna on clarinet and Graham on keys. 

The Classic Jazz Party: Saturday evening jam session @ the Village Hotel, North Tyneside - Nov. 2

A mid-morning film screening followed by an afternoon concert schedule and an exhilarating evening session, it had been a long, enjoyable Saturday at the Classic Jazz Party. Time for bed? Don't be silly, it's time for the late night jam session! 

All seats taken, the beer flowing, crisps being munched (oddly, the Pub and Grill stocks Ready Salted, Ready Salted or Ready Salted), at something like 11:15pm Richard Exall mustered the house band and off they/we went. Exall's frontline partners - Malo Mazurié (trumpet) and Alistair Allan (trombone) - helping to share the load before a shedload of hopefuls got the nod.

Album review: the Gerry Mulligan Quartet - Spring in Stockholm, Live at Konserthuset, 1959 (New Land Records)

Gerry Mulligan (baritone sax, piano); Art Farmer (trumpet); Bill Crow (bass); Dave Bailey (drums) + Gene Krupa (spoken introduction)

The third great Gerry Mulligan Quartet. Following on from the groups where Chet Baker or trombonist Bob Brookmeyer shared the frontline with the leader, Art Farmer proves himself to be an equal to his illustrious predecessors.

Most jazz fans will, I guess, use the original recordings with Chet Baker on trumpet as the yardstick for anything that followed. This is understandable. At the time they were new, fresh and original. Still this concert, recorded in Sweden as part of a JATP package touring Europe in 1959, loses nothing by comparision.

Album review: Juliana Day – lull (New Jazz and Improvised Music Recordings)

Juliana Day (recorders, whistles, vocals, live electronics); Manon McCoy (lever harp, vocals, live electronics); Zebedee Budworth (hammer dulcimer)

This follows on, in the NJaIM canon, from two pieces by Paul Taylor that acted as interlude music (Interludes) and music to be played on the Civic Centre Carillon (Permutations) as part of the 2023 Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music. This year Juliana Day’s lull provided the interlude music. Taylor’s music still works as a beautiful chilled sound and still gets played here at Sayer Towers. lull is a very different beast; shorn of an aural foreground of chat and the chink of stemware it elbows itself forward. Hearing it in a domestic setting it sounds much more prominent; assertive ambience, if you will.

The Classic Jazz Party: Saturday evening @ the Village Hotel, North Tyneside - Nov. 2

The early evening Piano Professor slot has become a tradition at the Village Hotel. As CJP attendees return from dinner, one of the pianists engaged to perform across the long weekend is afforded a half hour showcase to play a selection of numbers of their choosing. This evening's 'professor', Ulf Johansson Werre, presented a mix of rag to swing numbers.

Josephine Baker singing in French, rather, Nicolle Rochelle singing in French, held a full house spellbound. Living and working in Paris, Rochelle brings something of early twentieth century Paris to the party, that's the Classic Jazz Party. David Boeddinghaus has proven to be the ideal accompanist to Ms Rochelle, here at the Village Hotel and elsewhere, not least the French capital. On this session Rochelle and Boeddinghaus were joined by seven other top class musicians including Rico Tomasso (trumpet), Emma Fisk (violin) and Phil Rutherford (tuba), the latter two hailing from these here parts. Spellbound we were, a non-jazz audience would be similarly captivated. A winning set.   

Press release: Knats announces new single “Tortuga (For Me Mam)”

Today, Newcastle Upon Tyne quintet Knats return with their new single “Tortuga (For Me Mam)”.

STREAM / DOWNLOAD

The track marks their first release for London analogue specialist label Gearbox Records (Elliot Galvin, Cahill//Costello, Village Of the Sun), and comes on the heels of an incendiary year for the band including supporting Geordie Greep (black midi) on a UK tour as well as playing a sold out Jazz Refreshed headliner, supporting Str4ta at a sold Jazz Cafe and performing for the BBC Proms. The band are currently also touring the UK with R&B legend Eddie Chacon as his backing band.

Greg Abate tour to conclude at the Globe on Nov. 24

As the latest DownBeat poll shows Greg Abate is only two places below his rightful top spot in the alto sax section - he's in third place with 980 votes.

Greg, is currently in the UK as part of a multi-date tour that concludes with two gigs in the north east, both on Sunday Nov. 24.

In the afternoon he's at the Queens Hall Library in Hexham and in the evening he's at the Globe in Newcastle. On both sessions he is accompanied by the Dean Stockdale Trio. Details: 

Sun 24: Greg Abate w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Contact.

Sun 24: Greg Abate w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Globe. 8:00pm. Contact. Lance

Album review: Visions Jazz Ensemble - Across the Field (Patois Records)

Sam Butler, Nick Recktenwald (trumpets); Jeff Parker (trombone, bass trumpet); Garrett Fasig (tenor sax); Dan Ventura (piano); Jacob Smith (bass); Frances Bassett-Dilley (drums) + Wycliffe Gordon (trombone on tk 7)

A reimagined collection of college fight songs may seem a strange concept for an album although, after their recent presidential election, nothing surprises me when it comes to our American friends.

However, that's bye the bye and the end results of this album by co-leaders Butler and Fasig's Visions Jazz Ensemble works out surprisingly well.

The Classic Jazz Party: Saturday afternoon @ the Village Hotel, North Tyneside - Nov. 2

Beginning at noon, six sets in five hours required stamina. From Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake through to Bennie Moten, the packed house couldn't get enough of the world class performances produced by world class musicians from all four corners of the globe. Pianist Morten Gunnar Larsen and Spats Langham (guitar, banjo, vocals) led the way with a one hour set exploring the post-WWI partnership of composer/lyricist/vocalist Noble Sissle and ragtime composer and pianist Eubie Blake. Their set Just Wild About Noble Sissle & Eubie Blake featured an array of talent, including trumpeters Rico Tomasso and Torstein Kubban, Jean-François Bonnel in the reeds, and Harry Evans doubling on string bass and tuba. 

The Classic Jazz Party: Saturday morning cinema @ the Village Hotel, North Tyneside - Nov. 2

Jammin' the Blues is a priceless black and white short dating from 1944. Its story is complicated and convoluted, in essence, jazz enthusiasts Gjon Mili (the film's director) and Norman Granz battled Warner Bros., resisting the film company's attempts to take the project in a different direction. Here at the Village Hotel, a screening of the film was arranged at short notice, such short notice the event wasn't listed in the CJP's printed programme. 

Existing copies of Jammin' the Blues, online or elsewhere, are of poor quality. Mili and Granz couldn't have imagined that 80 years later an enhanced copy of their Academy-nominated film would be screened in a side room in a hotel on North Tyneside. Dance teacher, film buff and jazz fan, Andy Lewis set about 'upscaling' the film. A laborious, often frustrating, process, Durham based Lewis eventually succeeded in producing a watchable film. That's where the 'upscaling' came in. Thanks to a dogged determination to see it through, Andy is now in a position to present screenings with the bonus of an informative commentary.

Bonfire Night @ The Black Swan - Nov. 5

Stu Collingwood (piano, vocals); Paul Grainger (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums) + Harry Keeble (tenor sax); Kate O'Niell (vocals); Edgar Bell (trumpet); Lara Hopper (trumpet); Dan Potter (drums); Ian Drever (vocals); Olly Styles (tenor sax); Alec Gamble (guitar); Bailey Rudd (drums); Esther Coombes (clarinet, alto sax); Owen Jones (double bass); Hannah ? (vocals);  Darius Oraee (vocals); Jamie Watkins (double bass); Robert Johnson (alto sax); Andrew ? (cornet); Paul Skerritt (vocals); ? (drums); Jack ? (drums)  

Bonfire Night. It could only be a banger, couldn't it? The house trio - Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger and Abbie Finn - lit the blue touchpaper with a slow-burning Days of Wine and Roses. In a Mellotone with a Collingwood vocal and a Latin feel Night and Day augured well. Eddie Harris' Freedom Dance brought tenor saxophonist Harry Keeble to the floor. Staying on to play Oleo, Keeble's soulmate Abbie Finn sketched out the melody. Impressive.

The Classic Jazz Party: Friday evening jam session @ the Village Hotel, North Tyneside - Nov. 1

As if Friday's two sessions totalling some nine and a half hours weren't enough, Classic Jazz Party attendees made a beeline for the Village Hotel's Pub and Grill, determined to secure ringside seats at the first of the now legendary late night jam sessions. The fleet-of-foot nabbed the best seats, others would make do with a table further from the action. The barflies lined the bar and they weren't going anywhere anytime soon. A pint of Guinness in hand, your correspondent opted to make mental notes, after all, several pints of Guinness later scribbles would look more like hieroglyphics...

Ed Kainyek Quartet w. Rachel Howells @ the Moor Club, Heaton Moor, Stockport - Nov. 3

© Jeff Pritchard

Ed Kainyek (tenor sax); Rachel Howells (vocals); Max Rosen (keys); Gavin Barras (bass); Tim Franks (drums);  Paul Hartley (compere) + Al Scott (keys)*  

This was my fourth visit to the Moor Club's Sunday evening jazz nights and one thing I’ve learned is that if you want to get a good seat then get there early. By 8:30pm the room was filling up nicely with plenty of jazz fans that I recall from the Railway as well as a few newcomers which was great to see. I was pleased to note that, just right of the bar, was a poster of the late great Dexter Gordon - the atmospheric one by Herman Leonard with smoke everywhere. I have the very same picture at home but it is in a heavy frame so it just stands against the wall. Paul said to the audience This is a no smoking room by the way which I thought was amusing.

The Classic Jazz Party: Friday evening @ the Village Hotel, North Tyneside - Nov. 1

Friday evening at the Village Hotel opened with the first of the weekend's three Piano Professor sets featuring Morten Gunnar Larsen. The accomplished, elegant Norwegian pianist entertained an attentive full house. Three further sets would take us up to the 11:00pm finish when all present would adjourn to the Pub and Grill for the first of the Classic Jazz Party's late night jam sessions.

Trumpeter Torstein Kubban led a stirring Livin' High - Clarence Williams Blue Five set. Kubban, of the Norwegian Jazz Kings, has come a long way from his days - or rather nights - sitting in on the high-octane CJP jam sessions. This evening, Kubban led a top notch ensemble, including first timer Natalie Scharf (reeds) from Chicago, Andrew Oliver (piano) from Portland, Oregon and, from France, the wonderful Félix Hunot (banjo) and the equally wonderful singer Nicolle Rochelle.

Preview: The Gil Scott-Heron Songbook is coming to Gosforth Civic Theatre (Thursday Nov. 7)!!!

At Gosforth Civic Theatre tomorrow (Thurs. 7) it's the last date of the Aki Remally-Fraser Urquhart tour celebrating the music of Gil Scott-Heron.

 Fixtures on the Scottish jazz scene, Remally (guitar, vocals) and Urquhart (piano) have been touring their Gil Scott-Heron project as a quartet with the ace rhythm section of bassist Tom Wilkinson and drummer Max Popp. Their focus is on the life and music of poet, composer, jazz musician and pioneering rapper, Gil Scott-Heron. 

Some of us were at Riverside circa 1990 when the legendary American appeared at the 'old place' on Melbourne Street. For those of us who weren't, Thursday evening at Gosforth Civic Theatre is the closest we'll get to experiencing the life and times of Gil Scott-Heron. Book now at: www.gosforthcivictheatre.co.uk. Russell     

Guy Davis @ the Witham, Barnard Castle, - Nov. 2

I've often said there's no such thing as a crap gig by a black American blues artist and this was no exception, however...

In West Yorkshire in a previous life I would regularly cross the border to Colne and Burnley for their annual blues festivals and - time and time again - there'd be a buzz around the latest bar-room rocker and his guitar skills, only to have any recollection of them obliterated within seconds of the headline act taking to the stage. 

Guy Davis is one of those journeyman bluesmen who straddles country blues from the beginning of the last century through to Chicago's electric blues of the fifties. This meant he could turn up with a small band or a selection of string instruments and accessories. I'd have preferred a band of course, but the latter was fine also: two acoustic guitars (a six string and a twelve string), plus a harmonica and some heavy foot-tapping providing rhythm. And crucially no banjo, which features prolifically - though tastefully - on most of his albums.

Album review: Bill Frisell, Kit Downes, Andrew Cyrille - Breaking The Shell (Red Hook Records)

Bill Frisell (electric guitar); Kit Downes (organ); Andrew Cyrille (drums); Lucy Railton (cello on El)

What do you expect from an instrumental line up like that? Guitar, organ drums – a classic organ trio. Surely, a bit of the old funked-up electric boogaloo is in store? Not this time kids. This is less predictable, more stripped back, though not laid-back. It’s intense, angular and unlike recent works by Frisell and Downes. For a start, the organ isn’t electric; the album was recorded using the Church organ at St. Luke in The Fields in Greenwich Village, New York.

It opens with an ominous low drone and some delicate tracery of notes on the organ, little more than aural scratches; the drone fades and Frisell steps into the gap whilst Cyrille skirts around the proceedings, adding some propulsive skitterings. Second track, Untitled 23, is all angles from Frisell, ably supported by rolls and crashes and more skittering from the drummer. Frisell’s voice on the guitar rises and stops with a melancholy fall, he questions and probes and Cyrille fills in the colours in between.

Sinatra @ Capitol: Part one

Frank Sinatra was, indisputably, the greatest ever purveyor of the Great American Songbook. From his early days with the bands of Harry James and Tommy Dorsey through to his latter years when, although the voice had lost some of the magic it once had, he could still get to the essence of a lyric. More so even than Ella who, via the series of songbooks she recorded for Norman Granz, never quite matched Sinatra on the emotional level.

However, from all of his many albums, none of them quite reached the standard of those he recorded for Capitol during the 1950s. This was the period when, in popular music terms, he wrote Shakespeare's sonnets, painted the Mona Lisa, composed Beethoven's Fifth and kayoed Rocky Marciano.

In the above collage I've highlighted  the first six of twelve of my favourites. The other six will follow in a second post.

Afternoon Jazz @ Saisons, Burton Road Didsbury: Richard Iles Trio - Nov. 3

© Phil Portus

Richard Iles (flugel); Richard Jones (piano); Joshua Cavanagh-Brierley (bass).

After such a great gig by Greg Abate and his amazing musicians at Cheltenham's  Victory Club on Friday, I was not expecting much from this, my first visit to the Saisons, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the music. 

The venue is small and has seating outside which was already occupied when I  arrived by taxi just in time for the 3pm start. There are no buses running at all in Handforth on Sundays and you are lucky if any of the trains are not cancelled. 

Saisons is in West Didsbury and is very close to where the Midland Hotel was once situated and was the scene of many legendary jazz encounters. I think the pub is still there but has a new name. The famous Alan Hare Big Band used to play every week and that band was known world wide. Yep, Didsbury was buzzing back then!           

Press release: Pete Allen Jazz Band -Touring dates (down south) November 2024

During a professional career in show business that has spanned over 46 years, there is so much Pete has achieved that it is impossible to list everything. During the past 46 years, his band personnel has always featured a host of British talent, and his present line-up is no exception:  Pete Allen on clarinet and saxes,  Roger Marks (trombone), Chris Hodgkins (trumpet) - who has rejoined the band after 41 years - Jim Newton (drums), Dave Hanratty (bass), James Clemas (piano) plus Trevor Whiting (clarinet and saxes) and Max Brittain (banjo and guitar) on the 21st and 27th November.

Press release: Orchestras celebrate Duke royally across Scotland

© Shawn Pearce

Comprising thirty-four musicians, Remembering Duke will feature an opening set by the seventeen-strong Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra. The SNJO will then play its internationally acclaimed Ellington interpretations with their special guest, singer Lucy-Anne Daniels adding gospel music-inspired selections of the great composer’s songs.

“Duke Ellington has been an inspiration to musicians and composers across the musical spectrum for almost 100 years,” says SNJO founder and musical director, saxophonist Tommy Smith. “The breadth of his writing encompasses songs that were the pop music of the day and hugely descriptive suites that compare with works in the classical canon in terms of ambition. It’s wonderful to witness young players from the TikTok era finding their way into playing jazz through Ellington as generations before have done.”

Yellowjackets @ Stoller Hall, Manchester - Nov. 2

Bob Mintzer (tenor sax, EWI); Russell Ferrante (keyboards); Dane Alderson (bass); Will Kennedy (drums)

After an incredible week away in Cologne and Amsterdam, with an added opportunity to see the incredible Bjørn Solli and Johan Hörlén at Salon de Jazz, you would think that coming home back to the UK would feel somewhat deflating, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Staying an additional night in Manchester, we got to see the famous Yellowjackets at Stoller Hall, comprised of Russell Ferrante on keys, Bob Mintzer on tenor sax and EWI, Dane Alderson on bass and Will Kennedy on drums. Shockingly, the audience seemed rather thin on the ground, and despite a rush of people grabbing their seats only seconds before the gig began, there were plenty of empty seats. It seemed a real shame to us, but it certainly didn’t seem to have any kind of negative impact on the exceptional performance to come.

Soul Bossa Nova

I just had to post this recording of the Quincy Jones Orchestra playing Quincy Jones' composition Soul Bossa Nova. It was a staple feature of the Newcastle Big Band's repertoire on their Sunday lunchtime gigs in what was then, back in the early '70s, the University Theatre. It's good to hear it played again - properly!

Incidentally the bass player with the NBB was Sting who, in those days, probably never imagined that one day he, Sting, would be introduced on stage in glowing terms by the late great man himself! Check out the occasion HERE Lance

Greg Abate @ the Victory Club, Cheltenham - Nov. 1

Greg Abate (alto sax/flute); Dave Newton (piano); Alec Dankworth (bass); Sebastian de Krom (drums)

After a month of little or no live jazz activity that interested me, I realised that Greg Abate was due to arrive in the UK on October 30 to begin his second tour of England and Wales this year starting at Swansea and ending at Newcastle on November 24. 

I counted 19 gigs in his tour itinerary and I decided to attend the Cheltenham one,  remembering that my only other visit to Cheltenham was to see Johnny Griffin and Jackie Mclean at a large theatre. That was way back in the day. I had a car then and the journey was so much easier. These days I use trains a lot and I was very lucky that, on this occasion by way of a change, I had minimal problems although, for many, the delays and cancellations continue.

R.I.P. Quincy Jones (1933 - 2024)

'Q' as Quincy Jones was known was, arguably, jazz's greatest all-rounder. Trumpet player, composer, arranger, producer and recipient of many awards in many genres. To list his achievements would require a volume twice the size of his excellent 2001 autobiography Q.

I never came across him live but his recording legacy is without parallel. With Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie and his own bands - Birth of a Band is surely one of the best big band recordings ever. 

Dean Stockdale Trio @ the Central Bar Jazz Club, Gateshead - Nov. 3

Dean Stockdale (piano); Mick Shoulder (bass); John Bradford (drums)

There's something about the Central Bar Jazz Club that's hard to describe. The darkened room creates an atmosphere that gives you the feeling of being anywhere. New York, London, Paris, anywhere but Gateshead. Although it's in an upstairs room, the ambience is that of a cellar club back in the day when you saw the band through a magenta mist or, to be more accurate, cigarette smoke.

Fortunately, the cigarette era is gone and the air is cleaner and the music is as good as ever - at least it was this afternoon.

Album review: Jim Self/John John Chlodini - Feels So Good (Basset Hound Records)

Jim Self (tuba, fluba); John Chlodini (guitar) + Kris Bergh (trumpet); Bill Booth (trombone); Phil Feather (alto sax); Steve March (tenor sax).

Reviewing an album by Self and Chlodini is becoming an annual thing. Feels So Good is the third one in as many years: Touch and Go in 2023 and My America 2: My Destinations in 2022. On both occasions I expressed my reservations in advance. Happily, those reservations proved to be pleasantly unfounded.

Such is the case with this latest offering. Self plays with a mellifluous tone on both F tuba and his own invention the fluba -  the offspring of crossing a tuba with a flugelhorn. 

The Classic Jazz Party: Friday afternoon @ the Village Hotel, North Tyneside - Nov. 1

Musicians and audience turned up from far and wide at the Village Hotel for the annual, and appropriately named, International Classic Jazz Party. Yes, they came from NYC and other locations in the US, from various European towns and cities, maybe even further afield as well as from all over the UK.

They came to play, dance and listen to the jazz and swing from the 1920s & '30s. Each set was themed and today's opened with a tribute to the late Mike Durham who originally inaugurated the three day event as the Whitley Bay Jazz Festival back in (circa) 1990. The opening set also centered around the annual Young Talent Award which this year went to multi-instrumentalist Gavin Rice from Cape Cod MA.

Shellac (O): Sy Oliver - For Dancers Only/Four or Five Times

In 1937 Jimmy Lunceford and his Orchestra recorded For Dancers Only, a tune composed and arranged by Sy Oliver.

In 1950 that same Sy Oliver recorded what was virtually the same arrangement  with his own orchestra. The big difference was the screaming out chorus by the trumpets with, I guess, Bernie Priven taking what was Freddie Webster's solo on the original version. Both versions are are excellent.

Again another, or rather two, of those long forgotten record shops - J. Stanley Penney had a shop in South Shields and one in Hexham. I seem to remember that the one in South Shields was at the top of Fowler St. but I could be wrong. The Hexham one I know nothing about. Lance

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