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| © Jeff Pritchard |
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| © Sheila Herrick |
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| © Russell |
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| © Ken Drew |
The game is on ITV, Sky or a pub near you. Naturally we are rooting for 'the Toon' to deliver the goods but who can tell?
Still, win or lose - celebrate or drown your sorrows - a visit to the Globe - the Wembley of northeast jazz - afterwards to hear the Alison Rayner Quintet is a win-win situation.
Not to be missed even if the match goes to extra time and penalties you'll still have time to get to the Globe for the 8:00pm kick off.
Howay the Lasses - Alison Rayner (bass); Diane McLoughlin (sax) & Deirdre Cartwright (guitar). Howay the Lads - Steve Lodder (keys) & Buster Birch (drums). Lance
An interesting debut album (as a leader) by award winning drummer and composer Jay Davis. Comprising of nine of Davis' originals compositions that cover a wide spectrum of relatively contemporary jazz, varying from the pastoral to the frantic, jazz sans frontières, approach.
As such, we are faced with moments of absolute beauty contrasting with sounds so ugly I'm reluctant to tag them as music. Still, as Monk discovered, ugly can be beautiful.
https://www.ayclifferadio.co.
Playlist 16/03/25 (repeated Tuesday 18/03/25)
Requests: Mark Knopfler.
St. Patrick’s Day: Ben Webster.
Charity Request: Abraham’s Children in Crisis: Nina Simone.
St. Patrick's Day cont.: Louis Stewart/Jim Hall, Paul Joseph & Edgar Mills, Noel Kelehan Quintet, Bill Evans, Willie 'The Lion' Smith.
Requests: Brownie McGhee & Sonny Terry.
Memories: Buck Clayton meets Ruby Braff.
News from Scotland: SNJO/Trilok Gurtu.
Requests. Thelonious Monk Quartet, Courtney Pine, John Coltrane.
Aycliffe Radio is available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington Area.
I cannot pass a charity shop. I'm drawn inside like a moth to
a flame, willing to take a chance on getting burned. Once I've passed through
the portals they invariably unearth much sort after gems even if, before going
in, I hadn't realised I was seeking the particular gem clutched in my sweaty
palms as I leave.
Such was the case today, the main reason I went into the YMCA
shop in Gateshead was to shelter from the rain and count the LPs by Jim
Reeves and Perry Como until the storm subsided.
The score stood at Jim 6 and Perry 5 before she appeared in all her splendour - Dee Dee Bridgewater Live in Paris. At £1.50 I couldn't pass this one up!
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| © Ken Drew |
This year, ARQ celebrates 10 years of contributing to the cultural jazz landscape with their fourth album of collaborative, newly composed and original music SEMA4*, recorded live in summer 2024.
On piano will be special guest Martin Litton, an internationally renowned musician, arranger and bandleader, specialising in all the classic styles of jazz from ragtime to swing.
Once again Nick Ward will be on vintage percussion, and of course the vivacious chanteuse Caroline will be singing in her inimitable style.
This will be the second time that NCRO have performed at this excellent venue, which is on Gosforth High Street very near Regent Centre metro station, with ample parking nearby at the station (free after 5:00pm) or the Asda supermarket. The nearest postcode is NE3 3PF. Everything is on the ground floor, and there is a cafe/bar open throughout the concert.
You can listen to the show anytime HERE.
Plus, you can request music for future programmes, or pass
on news or feedback by emailing Colin at jazz.tyne.hive@gmail.com
or by heading to www.jazzonthetyne.org.
In the mid-1960s, whilst working as a schoolteacher in London, Bill established the London Schools' Jazz Orchestra, which soon developed into the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, which he continued to run until his retirement in 2009. At the time of its inception, the idea of a youth jazz orchestra was a major innovation. Nowadays many such bands exist all over the country, but back in the 1960s, ensembles for young people were nearly always limited to playing western classical music. So Bill played a hugely influential role in widening the range of musical experiences available to young people, enriching their lives and, very often, preparing them for careers in music.
© Douglas Robertson
Saxophonist Phil Bancroft takes his new trio, The Beautiful Storm on
tour during March to promote the group’s first album, Finding Hope (When All
Seems Lost).
Featuring Bancroft with Delhi-based percussionist Gyan Singh and leading Scottish guitarist Graeme Stephen, The Beautiful Storm released Finding Hope (When All Seems Lost) on Bancroft's Myriad Streams platform towards the end of 2024 and has received enthusiastic responses from critics and radio presenters internationally.
Deep Latin-funk percussion, wailing tenor, and a peppering B-3 launch the single Dig What I Say before Tony Adamo enters with what he calls is “the new jazz vibe.” Adamo, a true rhapsode (no pun intended), spews his classic hipster sing-speak over the driving bed and propels us into a spectacular envisioned jazz space. Dropping names and brilliantly characterizing jazz greats now and past – Miles, “the boxer,” for example, Adamo knows and values all these greats. One can hear that in the timbre of his voice and in his uniquely inventive speak-stylings.
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| © Jeff Pritchard |
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| © Ken Drew |
One of my better birthdays maybe the best as, having had quite a few of them, I know what I'm talking about. Cards, a cake with a candle, convivial company and a mindblowing quartet, all contributed to make last night a memorable one - particularly the four musicians on stage .
Having seen Strigalev at the Globe back in July, 2016 I had an idea what to expect and I got it and more - much more.
The opener, Fishing in Plymouth (I think) had a quirky theme that meandered and exploded then meandered off again. The effect was that of four musicians looking for a band and meeting each other along the way. piano and drums, sax and bass, bass and drums with all eventually getting together in a glorious technicolour of sound driven to the brink by Nakundi who's got the technique of Buddy Rich, Art Blakey, Philly Joe, Elvin and a military drum corps combined. Things must be quiet in Miami when he's out of town.
In the lee of Durham Cathedral, Divinity House (Durham University's music department) attracted a capacity audience. The plan was three established names - Jamie Taylor, Graham Harvey and Andy Champion - would play a trio concert, to be joined later in the evening by Durham University final year music student, drummer Freddie Krone. Indeed the publicity poster for the evening proclaimed: An Evening of Jazz: Jamie Taylor, Graham Harvey and Andy Champion.
The roll call of British jazz musicians whose careers were launched by an apprenticeship in NYJO - the National Youth Jazz Orchestra - is endless and still growing.
However, without the vision of its founder Bill Ashton who, in 1965, led the band from the front until his retirement in 2009 it would have been a totally different story and many a young jazz musician wouldn't have gained the knowledge and the experience to make them what they are today.
Bill Ashton's achievements were recognised in 2010 when he was awarded with a well-deserved OBE. Truly a legend. He was 88 year-old may he REST IN PEACE.
Lance
Ps: There's a beautiful tribute by Simon Spillett on his F/book page.
https://www.ayclifferadio.co.uk/listen
Playlist 09/03/25 (repeated Tuesday 11/03/25)
Requests: Jelly Roll Morton.
Requests from T J Johnson band & Luis Verde Quartet.
T J Johnson.
(RIP Rick - Peggy Lee/Quincy Jones).
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| Don at left of pic. |
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| © Ken Drew |
Barry Forgie (MD);
Tom Dennis, Andy Greenwood, Damian Bell, Steve Fishwick (trumpets); Alistair
White, Rob Harvey, Gordon Campbell, John Higginbotham (trombones); Sammy
Mayne, Rob Buckland (alto sax, flute, clarinet); Konrad Wiszniewski (tenor sax,
flute, clarinet); Nadim Teimoori (tenor sax, flute, clarinet); Andy Hunter
(baritone sax, flute, clarinet); Robin Aspland (piano); Malcolm MacFarlane
(guitar); Jeremy Brown (double bass); Tom Gordon (drums); Emer McPartland
(vocals)
The Sound of Cinema. The BBC Big Band's conductor, Barry Forgie, arranged and curated a concert progamme drawing on some of the many great movie soundtracks from the last eighty years. Perm eighteen from a pool of top class musicians (a pool probably into three figures) and you've got yourself a fabulous big band. This evening's line-up differed markedly from the orchestra's most recent visit to the region (Gateshead's Glasshouse, December) with something like eight changes in personnel.
The Knats bandwagon seems to be gathering pace. Interviewed in the March issue of Jazzwise they're now featured in the April edition of DownBeat - the world's leading publication when it comes to jazz, blues and beyond.
Anybody who's anybody in the music world are featured, at some point in their career, in what is universally regarded as the 'Jazz Bible' the big difference is that Knats have got their foot in the door quicker than most. I foresee a tariff-free American tour looming on the horizon.
The actual interview, like the Jazzwise one, stresses their continuing loyalty to their north east roots. Watch this space ... Lance
Just as the advent of the long-playing vinyl record cast the 78rpm single to dust the arrival of the compact disc did likewise to the LP - or so we were told. I've never entered the CD v LP argument - both have/had their plus points.
Soundwise, I have no preference as the quality seems to vary in both formats. What sounds good in one usually sounds good in the other and vice versa.
Obviously the CD takes up less space and usually has more tracks than the LP. It also has more extensive sleeve notes that are invariably printed in such a small font size that I've never managed to reach the end of the text.
If you’ve been searching for the missing link between rap, sprechsang, muscular European free jazz and Nancy Sinatra singing You Only Live Twice congratulations, you’ve found it in Thomas Backman’s new album. To say that it demands attention is the understatement of 2025; there’s a lot packed into a short space of time. An internet search reveals terms such as ”crime jazz” and ”slow burn yearning widescreen chamber pop”, artpop and hip-hop, shoegaze and free jazz all applied to Thomas Backman’s work. With a menu like that, the question has to be whether it is possible to present beauty, elegance and brutality within a single coherent album?
Knats marked their
debut album launch with an epic homecoming at a packed Lubber Fiend and it was
only right that they chose Newcastle where it all started back in 2021 at
Nunsmoor Park, the Globe and Hoochie Coochie. The Lubber Fiend is
somewhat smaller and - how shall I put it? - rough and ready, compared to their
most recent gigs at Sage Two and Mandela Hall (Belfast) but the sound was
excellent and it all added to the atmosphere of a rather special night.
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| © David Hall |
The settled Knats line-up of locals Stan, King and Ferg now boasts London colleagues Sandro on keys and 2024 BBC Young Jazz Musician finalist George on tenor (does a Georgian count as an honorary Geordie?). The album featured a number of guests including the remarkable guitarist and producer Tom Ford who was tempted up north for a weekend in the Toon to play alongside the regular quintet here.
The son of vocalist Shobha Gurtu, a legendary figure in Indian classical music known as the Thumri Queen, Trilok Gurtu has won an international reputation for his work with guitarists John McLaughlin and Pat Metheny, saxophonists Jan Garbarek and Pharoah Sanders and keyboardist Joe Zawinul. He has also appeared with world music stars Salif Keita, Oumou Sangare, Angelique Kidjo, Omara Portuondo, and Tuvan throat singers, Huun Huur Tu and has recorded and toured with Italian virtuosi, the Arke String Quartet.
In its 22nd year, the Great North Big Band Jazz Festival returned
once again to Park View Community Centre in Chester-le-Street. As is tradition,
the opening Friday evening concert featured Teesside's Musicians
Unlimited. Many of the region's big band fans were in attendance - this is
the event they don't ever miss!
GNBBJF director Bill Watson introduced the band (Bill also plays in the band's trumpet section!) and the action got underway with a sparkling take on I'm Beginning to See the Light (Dan Johnson taking the first of several impressive alto sax solos). Neal Hefti's arrangement of Satin Doll went down well (any Hefti arrangement does!) and later in the evening we heard the band playing the late Dave Connolly's arrangement of Georgia, featuring the terrific vocals of Paul Skerritt.
