Bebop Spoken There

Art Blakey (to Terence Blanchard): ''You ain't Miles find your own shit to do!'' (DownBeat May, 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

18504 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 368 of them this year alone and, so far this month (May 7 ) 22

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

From This Moment On

May

Thu 14: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject: Philip Larkin’s Jazz Experiment.
Thu 14: Jerron Paxton @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). Superb country blues.
Thu 14: Solcade @ the Bridge Hotel, Newcastle. 7:00pm. EP launch. Rivkala & co..
Thu 14: Jacob Egglestone @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. Egglestone (guitar); Jamie Watkins (bass); Jack Littlewood (drums) & guests.
Thu 14: 58 Jazz Collective @ The Blacksmith’s Arms, Hartlepool. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 14: Paul Skerritt @ Angels' Share, St George's Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle NE2 2SX. 8:00pm. Free. Booking advised (0191 200 1975). Skerritt w. backing tapes.

Fri 15: Conor Emery Quartet @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Line-up Emery (trombone); Alix Shepherd (piano); John Pope (double bass); Abbie Finn (drums). SOLD OUT!
Fri 15: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 15: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 15: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 15: Gerry Richardson Quartet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. £13.01 adv., £15.00 on the door. Old Black Cat Jazz Club.
Fri 15: Puppini Sisters @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. CANCELLED!

Sat 16: Sing Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £27.50. Tutor: Alexia Gardner. God Bless the Child - Lady Day!. Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 16: Kaberry Big Band @ the Seahorse Pub, Hillheads Rd., Whitley Bay NE23 8HR. From 7:30pm. £15.00
Sat 16: Lady Nade @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. ‘Lady Nade sings Nina Simone’.

Sun 17: Glenn Miller & Big Band Spectacular @ Forum Theatre, Billingham. 7:30pm.
Sun 17: QOW Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £14.00., £12.00., £7.00. Spike Wells, Riley Stone-Lonergan & Eddie Myer.

Mon 18: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 18: Mark Williams Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 19: GoGo Penguin + Daudi Matsiko @ Wylam Brewery, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £22.00 + £4.40 bf.
Tue 19: Danny Lowndes’ Hot Club @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £15.00 + £5.00 bf.
Tue 19: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Mark Robertson (drums).

Wed 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 20: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 20: Jordan Jackson @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £19.80 (inc. bf); £15.40 (inc. bf).
Wed 20: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Saturday, November 09, 2024

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.

Swing That Music set an impossibly high standard, the joint jumpin', top that! Well, with A-listers at every turn - David Boeddinghaus (piano), the French rhythm aces Félix Hunot (banjo, guitar) and Henry Lemaire (string bass) and Londoner Richard Pite swinging like nobody's business behind the traps - the pace didn't flag for so much as a nanosecond. Cia Tomasso singing Drop Me Off in Harlem...were we in a hotel around the corner from West Allotment or in a NYC jazz joint? Superb! Alistair Allan's ballad feature Stardust deservedly won sustained applause. Magical.

Another pint of Guinness, please. And some crisps. Oh, yeah, Ready Salted. Meanwhile, from the jazz stage (more like the floor) Panama tore the place apart. This was thirsty work. Another pint of Guinness, please! The Tenements' John Youngs was in the house, first sitting in on banjo, later string bass. Top man, JY. Graham Hughes ditched his trombone to wrestle with a sousaphone, Rico Tomasso laid down his more familiar trumpet to play trombone - great stuff! Michael McQuaid, on alto sax, later switching to tenor, Jack Calloway blowing clarinet as if there were no tomorrow, Gavin Rice playing drums (the award-winning Rice is a veritable multi-instrumentalist), Harry Evans taking up the string bass, Big Butter and Egg Man and many, many more favourites kept the pot boiling. It was gone 1:00am. Another pint of Guinness and a Pinot Grigio, please! Do you have any crisps? Ready Salted? They'll do. Thanks. West Allotment or NYC, we weren't going anywhere, anytime soon. Russell  
at

No comments :

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )

Blog Archive