The Adrian Cox Trio @ The Pizza Express, Soho - Jan. 18

Adrian Cox (clarinet, vocals); Alex 'Honey' Boulton (guitar, vocals); Alex Gilson (double bass)

A Saturday night out in Soho. The Dog and Duck for a pint of London Pride, the place packed to the gunnels, the dated pop music playing over the sound system at a level requiring patrons to bellow at a companion sitting/standing at 0.5 metres' distance. Out on the street it was easier/necessary to walk in the road thanks to the hordes bustling/sauntering along the pavements.

Turning onto Dean Street, our destination was up ahead, but one minute's walk. The Pizza Express was doing good business, upstairs and downstairs. Upstairs it was pizza, pizza, pizza. Downstairs it was jazz, jazz, jazz, and a pizza or two. The sold out first house had been and gone, we were here for the second sold out house featuring the Adrian Cox Trio.

Martin Speake resignation

© Sheila Herrick

The Martin Speake situation is, frankly, appalling. How such a respected jazz musician and educator can be thrown on the musical/educational scrapheap without support from his educational employers, Trinity Laban, beggars belief. Speake a racist? No way.

I hope his court action against Trinity is successful, even though there may be further repercussions effecting the whole future of jazz education at Trinity and the other conservatoires that are currently supporting them.

DETAILS. Lance 

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

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

Playlist 19/01/25 (repeated Tuesday 21/01/25)

Jan 20 is Martin Luther King Day: Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Max Roach.

Requests: Kid Ory, Dexter Gordon.

New Release: Fabienne Ambuehl.

What’s happening: Bridget Metcalfe, SNJO, Matt Camichael/Fergus McCreadie, Tam White/Brian Kellock.

MLK Day: Charles Mingus.

Aycliffe Radio is available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington Area.

Preview: Sunday night @ the Globe - Freight Train

Publicity shot

Freight Train, featuring legendary musicians Christine Tobin (vocals); Liam Noble (keys) and Paul Clarvis (drums), incorporates an intriguing mix of jazz and folk. The late Ann Alex was an enthusiastic supporter of both genres and reviewed several concerts by Christine Tobin at what was then Sage Gateshead and her favourable comments on Christine were fully justified.

Combined with two outstanding musicians, themselves no strangers to the north east and fully paid up members of the UK's jazz hierarchy, this looks to be an exciting gig. Lance

Preview: The Tenements head South to Prohibition Bar (Jan. 19)

The Tenement Jazz Band is one of the great success stories of the Scottish jazz scene. Formed in 2018, the Edinburgh based outfit wasted little time, gigging and busking, whenever and wherever. Newcastle's Prohibition Bar became a regular port of call and the band's first CD, Wiggle, sold like hotcakes. 

Just in case you hadn't noticed ...

7,000,000 and counting!

Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits For No Man @ the Lit & Phil - Jan. 17

Lindsay Hannon (vocals); Alan Law (piano); Brendan Murphy (variou percussion items)

I hold my hand up and confess that Tom Waits' voice grates on me. I'm in a minority of one but, there you are. However, as a composer and a writer of lyric poetry it is a different matter. His streetwise words are up there alongside those of Dylan and Cohen. He's a hardboiled novel set to music.

Bypass the composer and give his raw sentiments to someone who can sing and you've got a recipe that is very palatable indeed. 

Lindsay Hannon is that singer! A singer who conveys the emotions expressed as if they were her own. The sold-out Lit & Phil audience concurred with much deserved applause at the end of her 14 song, one hour, set. 

Pete Tanton and the Cuban Heels @ the Prohibition Bar, Newcastle - Jan. 16

© Russell

Pete Tanton (trumpet, vocal, shakers); Alan Law (piano); Paul Grainger (bass); Mark Robertson (drums, whistle)

Tonight it was Cuban Heels on other days it could have been the Chet Set or the Riviera Quartet. They're interchangeable, all featuring Tanton's blistering trumpet and his cajoling vocals over various, often Latin, but rarely Cuban either geographically or geometrically, rhythms. It didn't matter. We were there to enjoy ourselves and that's what those in the well-attended room did. The music inspired some couples to dance - or maybe it was to keep warm!

DVD review: Ella & Basie - The Perfect Match

Ella Fitzgerald (vocals) with: 

The Paul Smith Trio: Paul Smith (piano); Keeter Betts (bass); Mickey Roker (drums)

Count Basie & his Orchestra: Count Basie (piano); Freddie Green (guitar); Keeter Betts (bass); Mickey Roker (drums); Pete Minger, Sonny Cohn, Paul Cohen, Ray Brown (trumpets); Bootie Wood, Bill Hughes, Mel Wanzo, Dennis Wilson (trombones); Bobby Plater, Danny Turner (alto sax); Eric Dixon, Kenny Hing (tenor sax); Charlie Fowlkes (baritone sax) 

You know how it is. Some days you are walking along, minding your business, when, inside a charity shop, you spot a DVD of Ella and Basie at Montreux in 1979! That's what happened to me today and, to make it even sweeter, the asking price was 20p! I didn't haggle, it was cash on the barrelhead. Transaction completed, it was home Lance  and don't spare the horses.

Album review: Barb Jungr and her trio - Hallelujah on Desolation Row (Absolute)

Barb Jungr (vocals); Simon Wallace (piano, keys); Davide Mantovani (bass); Gary Hammond (percussion)

Eleven songs by two of the greatest contemporary wordsmiths -  Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.

Cohen provides five of them: Hallelujah, Slow, Tonight Will be Fine, Tower of Song and You Got me Singing whilst Dylan goes numerically two better with: Handle With Care, Desolation Row, Love Minus Zero/No Limit, Mississippi, Kansas City and New Morning.

Rossano Sportiello: Live at the Flat in Greenwich Village (#123) - Jan. 14

Rossano Sportiello (piano); Joey Ranieri (double bass); Aaron Kimmel (drums) 

#123 of Rossano Sportiello's Live at the Flat livestreams more than met the highest of standards set way back when with (lockdown) livestream #1. Pianist Sportiello's no frills presentation - one fixed camera - affords the listener/viewer the luxury of concentrating on the music without distraction. Joining our host this evening, Live at the Flat debutant, bassist Joey Ranieri and drummer Aaron Kimmel. 

Lily Dior Quartet @ Burford Jazz, Warwick Hall, Burford, Oxfordshire - Jan. 10

Lily Dior (vocals); Jez Cook (guitar); Paul Jeffries (bass); Rob Bryan (drums).

The display stands for Burford Jazz promises “Top quality live jazz every month with an accent on entertainment” so let’s see if that promise is met. Lily Dior, in turn, told us that she would be singing all wonderful old standards with her twist on them, and, in fairness, she did that.

She opens with My Foolish Heart, an easy grooving intro to the night’s entertainment, with rolling mallets and glowing guitar chords, with Montgomery-ish, spring-loaded, single notes soloing from Cook. Angel Eyes, as a Latin shuffle follows. It’s mainstream jazz but Dior puts herself into it; she has a flexible voice of some corners and angles. She seems to thrive on stage as if it’s her Friday, end-of-the-week release as much as it is the audience’s. There’s a strong hint of Cleo Laine, but with less scatting.  Jeffries adds a bouncing bass solo.

Album review: Emily Masser Quintet - Songs With My Father (self-released)

Emily Masser (vocals); Dean Masser (tenor sax); Matyas Gayer (piano); James Owston (bass); Steve Brown (drums)

The clue is in the album title. This is indeed a father and daughter based quintet and a brilliant one it is too!

Emily first appeared on my radar last year as part of Clark Tracey's album Introducing Emily Masser which, paradoxically, I chose as my UK Jazz Instrumental Album of the Year mainly on the basis of Emily's vocalese/scat. It could easily have been my Vocal Album of the Year - I may well be once again faced with this dilemma at the end of 2025!

Her dad has been around longer! Dean impressed me on an Art Blakey tribute album and gig he did with drummer Gaz Hughes' sextet. Here, father and daughter together, along with a sympathetic rhythm section, create more magical moments than in all of the Harry Potter books and films combined.

Press release: Ronnie Scott’s Announces New Musical Instrument Amnesty to Support Aspiring Musicians in the UK and Beyond

Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club has announced its latest Musical Instrument Amnesty*, an initiative designed to repurpose unused or unwanted musical instruments by donating them to children and young people. The amnesty will take place on Saturday January 25, 2025 at the club’s renowned Frith Street location in Soho, London, between 10am and 3pm. Members of the public are invited to contribute instruments, which will subsequently be distributed to school-aged children participating in transformative music programs in the UK and overseas.

Raymond MacDonald & Andy Champion @ The Globe, Newcastle - Jan. 13

© Ken Drew

Raymond MacDonald (alto sax, vocals, whistling); Andy Champion (double bass, electronics) 

Upstairs at the Globe, Monday night, mid-January. The clan (the tightly-packed audience) would listen intently to two improvised solo sets followed by an improvised duo finale. The participants - Tyneside's Andy Champion and Scotland's Raymond MacDonald - were reunited in this one-off gathering.

Bassist Andy Champion opened proceedings with an assured performance: virtuosic 'conventional' jazz bass and sonorous bowed sections combining/competing with pulsating electronic sheets of sound. 

Johnny Staccato - E01 (The Naked Truth)

Johnny Staccato, like Peter Gunn, was another jazzy private eye TV show with John Cassavetes as the eponymous piano playing investigator. The house band comprised Pete Candoli (trumpet); Red Norvo (vibes); Barney Kessel (guitar); John Williams (piano); Red Mitchell (bass) and Shelly Manne (drums). The music is by Elmer Bernstein and the black and white footage is very evocative of New York in the 1950s.

This particular shot was broadcast on Sept. 10, 1959. Lance

Sunday night @ The Globe, Newcastle: Jack Pearce Quintet - Jan. 12

© Sheila Herrick

Jack Pearce (alto sax); Sam Hughes (guitar); Jascha Bingham (piano); Dan Sanderson (bass); Angus Haygarth (drums)

I wasn't sure what to expect. Five, unknown to me, young musicians on the first date of their first tour playing before  a relatively sparse  audience. However, they were alumni of the prestigious Leeds Conservatoire and I don't recall any duds emerging from there.

The jury was still out after the first number, Pearce's Icarus. An ephemeral composition that suggested they were still finding their way and not flying too close  to the sun. Another original, inspired by a town in Italy that Pearce had visited, saw them moving up a gear and, with Sam Rivers' Beatrice, it all began to fall into place. Their technical ability beyond question.

Ken Marley Quartet plays the Benny Carter Songbook @ the Moor Club, Heaton Moor, Stockport - Jan. 12

© Jeff Pritchard

Ken Marley (bass); Liam Byrne (tenor/bass sax); Paul Hartley (guitars); Dave Walsh (drums)

Ken Marley likes the tunes of legendary saxophonist and arranger Benny Carter and tonight he took centre stage and played two very interesting sets, six tunes each set all composed by Carter. For those amongst you who never got to hear Benny Carter during his many tours of the UK and Europe he was an impressive musician with a great sound on alto sax, his main horn, but he could also play trumpet which he did on occasion.

Martin Hummel (Feb. 2, 1955 - Jan. 10, 2025)

It was on Jan. 10, 2024 that Martin Hummel revealed to myself and others in the jazz community that he had been diagnosed with  esophageal (oesophageal) cancer. Exactly a year later, after a brave and courageous fight, he eventual succumbed to its unstoppable growth.

Of dual nationality, hence the US/UK spellings of the disease, he first came to prominence as founder of the Ubuntu Music record label releasing albums by jazz artists past and present from both sides of the Atlantic. I met Martin a couple of times: once at Pizza and once at 606. On both occasions he took photos for me to use with my BSH reviews.

The Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman's Jazz Club, Middlesbrough - Jan. 9

Mark Toomey (alto sax); Jeremy McMurray (piano); Peter Ayton (bass); Mark Robertson (drums).

The jazz club's first meeting of the year was well attended with the audience giving  a warm welcome on a bitterly cold winter night to this quartet, comprising as it does with some of the best jazz musicians of the area and thus with high expectations of a night of interesting and exciting jazz. This also gave Mark the opportunity to demonstrate his considerable skills as a talented composer and arranger with a good number of his own compositions.

From JRR to Tyneside - Jan 12 then March 2 & April 26

This afternoon's edition of Jazz Record Requests includes two musicians/bands who are heading to Tyneside in the near future. Bassist Ali Watson will be at the Globe on Sunday March 2 with his all-star band and at the end of April (Saturday 26) at Gateshead's Glasshouse, it's the Neil Cowley Trio. 

Tune in to BBC Radio 3 at four o'clock. Oh, then book your concert tickets  - www.theglobenewcastle.bar and 

www.theglasshouseicm.org. Russell 

Album review: Meredith d'Ambrosio - Midnight Mood (Sunnyside Records)

Meredith d'Ambrosio (vocal); Frédérik Loiseau (guitar); Paul McWilliams (piano)

I know it's early in the game but, come New Year's Eve, this could well be a contender for Vocal Album of the Year  it's that good!

A choice selection of songs, some of which I knew and some of which I thought I knew only to have them interpreted tantalisingly differently by three performers who really get to the heart of the lyric and the melody.

d'Ambrosio has that husky Jeri Southern, Julie London edge to her voice that, if I'd been listening to it alone, in bed, in the wee small hours, it would have driven me slowly out of my mind. As it was, it came pretty close to doing that in the cold light of morning. It conjures up a night club scene in an old black and white movie just before somebody gets shot.

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

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

Playlist 12/01/25 (repeated Tuesday 14/01/25)

Requests: Woody Herman, Stan Kenton/Lionel Hampton, Martin James Bartlett, Jeremy Pelt, Lester Young.

Memories: MJQ/Kenny Clarke, Wilbur De Paris, Chris Barber +Trummy Young. Kenny Wheeler, Gene Krupa.

What’s happening in the NE: Glenn Miller, Tenement Jazz Band.

Memory:  Duke Ellington/Sam Woodyard & Coleman Hawkins.

Aycliffe Radio is available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington Area.

Laurie Holloway MBE (March 31, 1938-Jan. 9, 2025)

The passing of Laurie Holloway, not surprisingly, for me was tinged with sadness. Not because he was born 22 days after me in 1938, but that a concert by the Laurie Holloway Trio at Leeds College of Music back in 2009 was lovingly reviewed on BSH by my dear friend Liz Harris that perfectly captured the essence of the man both musically and personally - read it HERE.

Although most people will remember him via his contributions to the success of many pop stars such as Petula Clark, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck and others, I recall him from a Jazz 625 TV broadcast alongside Clark Terry, Bob Brookmeyer, Rick Laird and Allan Ganley - HERE.

One of the relatively unsung greats of British jazz.

R.I.P. Lance

Press release: Jack Pearce Quintet @ the Globe - Sunday Jan. 12

The Jack Pearce Quintet showcases Jack’s original compositions that pay homage to jazz traditions while injecting a fresh, inventive spirit. A band of Leeds Conservatoire Alumni, the Jack Pearce Quintet focuses on a fusion of melodic and technical excellence.

New single from Knats

Local north east heroes Knats continue to storm the bastions of our capital city with a new album to be released in February on the iconic Gearbox label.

In the meantime, They've gifted a single to fans past, present and future which can be downloaded/streamed via your favourite platform (click on graphic below).

The original trio of Stan Woodward (bass guitar); King David Ike-Elechi (drums) and Ferg Kilsby (trumpet) are augmented by Cam Ross (tenor sax) and Sandro Shar (keys). Plus, on the album, various other topnotchers are included on individual tracks. It promises to be a one to look out for and it will, of course, be reviewed on BSH when available. 

Howay the lads! Lance

Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar - Jan. 9

Merlin Roxby (piano)

Following a break of a couple of months or so, pianist Merlin Roxby returned to Prohibition Bar to play an eclectic selection of numbers, most of them in a ragtime vein, one as a rolling boogie-woogie. On a bitterly cold night the expectation was few, if any, punters would brave the elements. How wrong can one be? A couple of dozen hardy souls turned up, most of them there to listen to Merlin, one or two others there simply to enjoy a drink down on Pink Lane.

Album review: Dayna Stephens - Hopium (Contagious Music)

Dayna Stephens (alto/tenor sax); Aaron Parks (piano); Ben Street (bass); Greg Hutchinson (drums) + Charles Altura (guitar on final tk)

Seven originals by Stephens, seven ambiguous titles, seven compelling tracks that deny definition ...

Whether on alto or tenor Stephens is very much his own man. No licks 'borrowed' from Bird or Trane. No contrafacts courtesy of Cole Porter, nothing that isn't his own.

The sound is full and as modern as tomorrow. It's without distortion, it's the sound of  the saxophone in the present day. He catches the mood, the moment in time that belongs to him alone although, in fairness, it's a bubble containing four musicians joined at the hip, and I use the word intentionally. These days 'hip' has probably been replaced by some newer expression - if it has then it's that new expression as well.

Film review: Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat @ Tyneside Cinema - Jan. 9.

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat is director Johan Grimonprez's 2024 documentary exposing the activities of the CIA, UN delegations, mercenaries and others in the overthrow and subsequent assassination of Congo's post-colonial prime minister Patrice Lumumba. The events focus on the African country's 1960 election and the subsequent political machinations of various, largely dubious, parties. Sounds heavy going? It was, all two and a half hours of it!     

Album review: Glebe – Gaudi (ECN/Propermusic)

Chris Bland (piano, keyboards); Kieran Gunter (electric and acoustic guitars; Dom Pusey (tenor and soprano saxophone, bass clarinet); Jack Tustin (bass); Filippo Galli (drums, percussion); Tara Minton (vocals, harp, lyrics); Clare Wheeler, Francesca Confortini (vocals); Tom Smith (soprano sax, flute)

This is a new guitarist/pianist led band out of the Leeds College of Music and this is their first album. The interweb points to similarly led ensembles the Pat Metheny Group (Metheny/Lyle Mays) and the Impossible Gentlemen (Mike Walker/ Gwilym Simcock) as influences and you can see where the interweb is coming from with that. There is a similar widescreen, panoramic vision and new music that blends jazz with hints of prog-rock, third-stream, some smooth soul (Ruby) and that point where the Doobie Brothers meet Steely Dan. (I like Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers; it’s not intended as a negative comment).

The Jazz Cavern on Pure Jazz Radio - Latest

Below is information of my weekly radio show- THE JAZZ CAVERN on www.purejazzradio.com

My next show show will be broadcast  starting Monday,13 January It will feature new (or newish) releases from the likes of Conrad Herwig, Alex Webb, Michael Jefry Stevens, Olvine and a clutch of guitarists including Jiannis Pavlides, Andy Robinson, Thom Rotella and John Hart. Frank Griffith

Album review: Arild Anderson – Landloper (ECM)

Arild Andersen (double bass, electronics)

Despite its dawn evoking slow motion opener, evocative of the first fingers of sunlight across the long-frozen tundral wastes this is, in the main, a free-wheeling, entertaining, even, at times, humorous work. It’s a far cry from the usual intense, immersive, contemplative ECM fare and at 35 minutes, it feels more like an interlude, rather than a full set. It’s a set of works for solo bass and effects pedals with no recorded backing tracks and the sleeve notes clarify that “All the loops used were produced live during the performance.”

R.I.P. George Robinson

Mick Donnelly has posted the sad news on Facebook that saxophonist, teacher and instrument technician George Robinson died on Sunday, January 5. He was well known and respected throughout the UK but particularly in the Teesside/County Durham area as a go-to teacher, player and repairer.

In this YouTube clip he can be seen playing baritone with the Ivor/Basil Kirchin Band. 

He will be sadly missed by all who knew him. Lance

Press release: Copasetic Foundation's new year programme

The Copasetic year gets off to a furious start with gigs at the new east London jazz venue, Soul Mama, and a new project debuting at Brasserie Toulouse Lautrec – It Takes Two: Lulu Pierre and Marvin Muoneké revisit the great jazz duets (31st Jan).

Ineza’s debut album continues to earn great reviews (‘Immensely enjoyable … scores highly for its immaculately chosen song list’ – Jazzwise, December) and in February Ineza and the trio return to Hampsted Jazz Club, where they played their first gig in 2022.

In the meantime there are plenty of other live gigs – see below - and if you need more information, photos, or if you would like review tickets for any of them, please contact alewebb@gmail.com

Sunday 12th January 2025

Press release: Fergus McCreadie and corto.alto join stellar cast for SNJO’s Planet World

© Derek Clark

Mercury Prize nominees Fergus McCreadie and corto.alto join a stellar cast of musician-composers on tour with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra for Nu-Age Sounds ll – Planet World with gigs in Edinburgh, Dundee and Glasgow from January 31 to February 2.

Following the resounding success of the inaugural Nu-Age Sounds tour in March 2024, the SNJO has again commissioned new music from eight of Scottish jazz’s most exciting young representatives.

Pianist McCreadie and corto.alto (aka multi-instrumentalist-producer Liam Shortall), along with singer kitti, saxophonists Helena Kay and Matt Carmichael, trombonist Anoushka Nanguy, bassist Ewan Hastie and grooving powerhouse KARMA, will combine thrilling new jazz sounds with science fiction to highlight the transformative power of live orchestral jazz.

Press release: JazzLeeds Spring Jazz Programme 2025

We can’t wait to show you our new year jazz programme. We’ve some major international evenings with concerts based at Seven Arts and the Howard Assembly Room, our popular Sunday jazz afternoons held in the Seven Arts and our informal rush hour jazz events in Seven Arts bar on Wednesdays. 

There’ll also be lots of opportunities for you to join in. We have a jazz workshop and the Instant World Orchestra running at Northlight Arts, a monthly jazz jam session at Seven Arts bar and a new jazz choir series led by Tessa Smith that will meet on Tuesday evenings at Chapel Allerton Methodist Church. 

Press release: Subterranean explorations 1 @ the Globe - Feb. 2

“Subterranean explorations 1” brings together 3 bass players from the NE of England who are all exploring the possibilities of solo bass in their own unique style. They will each perform a short 30 minute set, showcasing their original material.  

John Pope

John Pope is a bass player and composer based in the North East of England. His main focus as a creative musician explores the boundaries and combinations of jazz, free improvisation, rock and experimental music. His primary projects include a chord-less quintet of Northern musicians (John Pope Quintet, Northern Line 2019 ambassador artists), an ongoing composition project blending structured pieces and free improvisation with a flexible ‘chamber group’ ensemble (developed during Sage Gatesheads ‘Summer Studios’ 2019).

Michel Legrand all week on Radio 3

This week's Composer of the Week is conductor, composer, arranger and pianist Michel Legrand. 

Across five programmes (Monday to Friday) there is quite a bit of jazz - by way of composers and performers on disc - to be heard. 

Tune in to BBC Radio 3 at four o'clock. Russell

Richard Iles Trio @ the Moor Club, Heaton Moor, Stockport - Jan. 5

© Jeff Pritchard

Richard Iles (flugelhorn); Richard Wetherall (keys); Uli Elbracht (guitar)

A change in the line-up due to hazardous road conditions across the Pennines meant that bassist Ben Crossland and guitarist Jamie Taylor couldn't make it so two local musicians, Richard Wetherall and Uli Elbracht, were called in at short notice.

In spite of the heavy rain there was a good turnout for this, the first gig of 2025, and the audience seemed to like  what they heard which was a selection of well known standards plus one original tune, Secret Bossa, and a twelve bar blues making a total of nine tunes. 

Peter Gunn (1989 movie/DVD)

Peter Gunn was one of the early American hardboiled private eye TV shows. It ran from 1958-1961. The theme and incidental jazz was by Henry Mancini and supplied by Hollywood A-listers such as Shelly Manne, Victor Feldman, Larry Bunker, Ted Nash and many others.

The series also spawned a couple of movies in 1967 and 1989. It's the latter one that I've got on DVD.

Although now in colour it remains firmly entrenched in the 1950s and '60s with Cadillacs 'big enough to have a bowling alley in the back' and guys all smoking and wearing fedora hats.

Album review: John Stein - Next Gen, Jazz for my Grandchildren (Tiger Turn)

John Stein (guitar); Ed Lucie (bass guitar); Mike Connors (drums)

Reading the sub title - Jazz for my Grandchildren - my initial response was a measured "Aaah..." before moving on to more verdant pastures. However, a twinge of guilt halted my departure. Let's face it, if Stein has taken the trouble to write music for his grandkids then the least I could do was to listen, and I'm pleased that I did!

Five family related tunes and six jazz standards made for a pleasing mix.

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

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

Playlist 05/01/25 (repeated Tuesday 07/01/25)

Seasonal Requests: Sackville All Stars, Eartha Kitt, Trygve Seim and Andreas Ultnem, Emma Fisk, Barbara Dennerlein, Count Basie.

Memories: MJQ, Trombone Shorty, Louis Stewart, Alex Welsh/Wild Bill Davison, Red Allen.

Requests: Paul Edis, Ramsey Lewis Trio, Hank Jones, Robert Glasper, Tim Boniface.

What’s coming up in the NE: Mark Toomey, Alan Barnes.

Aycliffe Radio is available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington Area.

Yamaha strikes a chord in North Shields (Jan. 5)

This time last year Steven Moore took the bold step of opening a Yamaha Music School in Blyth. Twelve months on, it's courses galore (name your instrument), many oversubscribed, plus a weekly Monday lunchtime concert series (classical, folk, jazz etc), it's fair to say the Seaforth Street music hub has been, and is, a resounding success. 

Album review: Towner Galaher Organ Group - Brothers (Rhythm Royale Records)

Towner Galaher (drums, conga); Jimmy Sanders (B3, Rhodes, clavinet); Randy Monroe (bass); Marvin Horne (guitar); Craig Handy (tenor sax)

The fifth album by Portland, Oregan, drummer/ percussionist Galaher slots easily into a funky soul mode ideally suited to any Hammond orientated band although the Towner Galaher Organ Group is more than 'just any' such group.

Sanders and Galaher have a hand in all the compositions either individually or as a team. They are both definitely on the same wavelength as indeed are their fellow travellers Monroe, Horne and Handy. The album title is appropriate.  

Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club - Jan. 3

Jim McBriarty (alto/soprano sax, clarinet, vocals); Alan Marshall (tenor sax, clarinet); David Gray (trombone, vocals); Jeremy McMurray (piano); Alan Rudd (bass); Ian Stocks (drums); Olive Rudd (vocals)

Hell and high water, not to mention Metro disruptions and the threat of snow on the  horizon didn't stop Classic Swing's fanbase turning out for the first Friday session of 2025. The traumatic journey home was but a minor blip in a very enjoyable afternoon.*

Kicking off as per with their signature tune, Tommy Moran's eponymously titled Classic Swing, it soon became evident the band were 'up for it' with cutting solos all round.

Album review: Terry Waldo & the Gotham City Band - Treasury: Volume 1 (Turtle Bay Records)

Terry Waldo (piano); Mike Davis (trumpet/cornet); Ricky Alexander (clarinet, soprano sax); Jay Lepley (drums); Colin Hancock (cornet, tenor sax); Jim Fryer, Sam Chess (trombone); Jerron Paxton (banjo, vocals); Nick Russo, Arnt Arntzen (banjo); Evan Arntzen, Dennis Lichtman (clarinet); Jay Rattman (bass sax); Brian Nalepka (bass); Tatiana Eva-Marie, Veronica Swift (vocal). (Collective)

Slick, modern Dixieland reminiscent of the old Rampart Street Paraders, Bob Scobey's Frisco Jazz Band or, more recently, Vince Giordano's Nighthawks, featuring various combinations based around leader/pianist Waldo, Davis, reedman Alexander and drummer Lepley.

It's a fun album with spiky solos from the horns, some of whom are not unknown to those hardy souls who make their annual pilgrimage to Whitley Bay for the Classic Jazz Party, as well as  some feetwarming examples of Waldo's mastery of earlier jazz piano styles.

Album review: Edison Herbert - All I Need

Edison Herbert (guitar); Neville Malcolm (bass); Winston Clifford (drums); Sean Hargreaves (piano - tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) + guests Cherisse Scott (vocals - track 4); Kim Cypher (tenor sax - track 5); Kevin Robinson (flugelhorn - track 9); Ben Gilbert (piano - tracks 1, 2, 5, 8); Chris Wells (drums - tracks 4, 5); Graham Maynard (piano - track 7)

All I Need comprises nine tracks, six of them written by Edison Herbert. The title track typifies guitarist Herbert's approach - bright and breezy, his sound bubbling over with glass half full optimism. Bassist Neville Malcolm and drummer Winston Clifford are established names and Herbert's guest contributors include Kim Cypher (tenor sax) and, formerly of the BSH parish, pianist Ben Gilbert.

Rossano Sportiello: Live at the Flat in Greenwich Village (#122) - a NYE livestream

Rossano Sportiello's weekly lockdown livestream from his flat in Greenwich Village proved to be one of the few plus points of Covid times. As things began to return to something like normal (whatever 'normal' is), Sportiello, in common with musicians across the globe, took to the road to play to a real, live - as opposed to a livestream - audience. However, old habits die hard and Italian born, NYC resident pianist Sportiello has, whenever possible, continued to present livestreams. 

Album review: Greg Abate - Road to Forever (Whaling City Sound)

Greg Abate (soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax, flute); Tim Ray (piano, electric piano); John Lockwood (acoustic bass, electric bass); Mark Walker (drums, percussion)

One gets the impression Greg Abate is permanently on the road. 250+ dates a year takes the man from Woonsocket, Rhode Island, coast to coast USA, not to mention annual trips (July and November) to the UK. Perhaps the album title of this 2017 release - Road to Forever - is Abate's tacit acknowledgment of his globetrotting existence (in pursuit of music-making). Take the Crowell Train, a contrafact of Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise, is dedicated to California based, fellow musician Ken Crowell. And then there's Mr. Parker, without question referencing the pioneering bebop alto saxophonist, Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker, indeed it's a contrafact of Confirmation. 

Album review: Xhosa Cole - On a Modern Genius Vol. 1 (Stoney Lane Records)

Xhosa Cole (tenor sax); Liberty Styles (tap dancing); Steve Saunders (guitar); Josh Vadiveloo (bass); Nathan England-Jones (drums) + Heidi Vogel (vocal on Come Sunday)

Tap dancing on record isn't new. The first time I heard it was on a Doris Day recording of Crazy Rhythm. Doris did the singing and Gene Nelson did the dancing. Norman Granz also recorded Fred Astaire dancing to the JATP class of '52 and, of course, Ellington featured Bunny Briggs hoofing on David Danced Before the Lord on one of Duke's Sacred Concert recordings. That composition is actually an uptempo version of Come Sunday so with On a Modern Genius Vol. 1 we've come full circle.