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

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

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

Playlist 2/03/25. (Repeated Tuesday 04 /03/25)

Requests: Charlie Barnet, Harry James.

Seasonal:  Clifford Brown & Max Roach.

Mardi Gras: Wynton Marsalis Quintet, Harry Connick Jr..

Requests: Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington/Mahalia Jackson.

Memories: Glenn Miller, Barrett Deems (Bing Crosby & Louis Armstrong), Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Barney Bigard.

What’s On in the NE: The Jake Leg Jug Band, Zhenya Strigalev's.

Back to New Orleans for Mardi Gras: Duke Ellington & Johnny Hodges, Chris Barber.

And All That Shakespeare.

Over the years, albeit not so often lately, the Immortal Bard has provided inspiration for jazz musicians and composers of popular music. Classical theatre meets classical jazz (and of course classical music but that's for another day in another place).

In 1938 a Rodgers and Hart musical, The Boys From Syracuse, made its debut on Broadway. Based on The Comedy of Errors, it included such future jazz standards as Falling in Love With Love, This Can't be Love, You Took Advantage of me and Sing For Your Supper. A couple of years later (1940 it reached Hollywood starring Allan Jones (Jack Jones' father) and Martha Raye (an early inspiration for Ella Fitzgerald).

Luis Verde Quartet @ Gala Theatre, Durham - Feb. 28

© Malcolm Sinclair

Luis Verde (alto sax); Joe Steels (guitar); John Pope (double bass); John Hirst (drums)

On a spring-like day the Gala's studio space attracted another capacity audience. Relocating from Spain to the north east of England, Luis Verde made a big impression sitting in at Newcastle's Black Swan jam session. It didn't take long before our alto saxophonist picked up gigs across the region - Newcastle (including a cameo appearance at the Newcastle Jazz Festival), Gateshead, Hexham and Darlington. Most of the Jazz at the Gala regulars would be hearing Luis for the first time. 

Book review: Paul Alex Bacon - The Mississippi Dreamboats

If you're a fan of New Orleans jazz then you will find interesting reading in this account of the life and times of the Mississippi Dreamboats and the band's co-leaders the husband and wife team of Paul  and Liz Bacon.

Their dedication to the music they have devoted their lives to over the years is well documented depicting their undiminished enthusiasm in an ever-decreasing world of jazz clubs and musicians au fait with the music.

With Paul playing drums and Liz on clarinet they formed the Mississippi Dreamboats in 1975 gigging around the Newcastle jazz clubs and, as they became established, further afield. The eponymously titled book, Paul Bacon's fifth*, relates many anecdotes of life on the road and the frequent hazards of the seemingly simple task of getting from A to B. The author describes the book as being about his wanderlust, meandering journey, playing jazz and discovering that the journey is often as important as the destination.