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.

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Cheltenham Musings 2025 – Day 1 (May 2)

A theme established itself quite early at this year’s festival and it was summed up by a comment one of Steve’s ex-bosses was fond of making, namely “In business, always take the money off the customer, mate.” This seemed to be a reasonable rule of thumb for any retail business, and yet, time and again we found ourselves unable to spend our money in Cheltenham. Points go to the ice-cream vendor in the main area who was eager to take our cash and plenty of it for a couple of outsize salted caramel cones. “Never eat anything bigger than yer ‘ed,” was another one of Steve’s, however on this occasion we let it slide. The surprise was that we were eating ice-cream at Cheltenham instead of standing under the trees out of the rain, as in previous years. Indeed there were stand pipes for the dehydrated to fill their water bottles from. If we wanted some more water at Cheltenham 2024 we just wrang out everything we were wearing.

Armed with our ice-creams we sauntered over to the main free stage and caught about ten minutes of mellow summery soul from Vanessa Carr. More heavyweight fare came from Superorganic fusion. As we’d arrived we had been surprised by a blues wailing teenager whose name we didn’t get. A bold Joplinesque delivery, verily she was the Bessie Smith of Cheltenham Ladies College.

With cash to spend we headed for the Record Lounge, provided this time round by Rough Trade On Tour. Last year there was no on-site record and CD shop and we had to bring our money home with us. Surely, this year would be different. In the ‘Lounge’ the Ishoo Bishoo Band was playing on the speakers. They weren’t on at Cheltenham and, if you liked what you were hearing you couldn’t buy any of their albums. You could buy albums by Led Zeppelin, Iggy & The Stooges and Sam Fender. Demand for their albums was low because they weren’t on at the Festival. I bought a Duke Ellington At Newport double CD. He wasn’t on either. Across the weekend a few more enterprising acts were selling their own albums straight after their gigs but vast amounts of money were not being spent.

In keeping with the theme of this year’s festival (see above) when we got to the Parabola Arts Centre for our first gig the card machine at the bar wasn’t working and they wouldn’t take cash.

It was still sunny when we came out. Dave Sayer

at

No comments :

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )

Blog Archive