Bebop Spoken There

Donovan Haffner ('Best Newcomer' 2025 Parliamentary Jazz Awards): ''I got into jazz the first time I picked up a saxophone!" - Jazzwise Dec 25/Jan 26

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

18146 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 24 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Jan. 7), 24

From This Moment On ...

JANUARY 2026

Sat 10: Mark Toomey Quintet @ St Peter’s Church, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:30pm. £12.00. (inc. pie & peas). Tickets from: 07749 255038.

Sun 11: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 11: Eva Fox & the Sound Hounds @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 12: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn House Hotel. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.

Tue 13: Milne Glendinning Band @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £11.00. Coquetdale Jazz.
Tue 13: Jazz Jam Sandwich @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: Jam Session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 15: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. Quartet + guest Paul Donnelly (guitar).

Fri 16: Giles Strong Quartet @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 16: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 16: Darlington Big Band @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 16: Leeds City Stompers @ Billy Bootleggers, Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

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

Friday, July 18, 2025

NONUNONU @ Elder Beer, Newcastle - July 17

Tim Williams (guitar); Andy Patterson (bass guitar); Ruben Sheridan (drums)

Elder Beer on Chillingham Road was doing good business, inside and out. The micro pub's backyard functions as an open air (part covered) performance space and on this balmy July evening NONUNONU were back in town. Since the trio's formation in 2019 the Manchester based musicians have clocked up no fewer than four appearances here in Heaton, Newcastle. This evening's gig, the trio's fifth, would play to a full house (backyard). 

In a throw back to the days when jazz clubs were (mythically or not) to be found in dingy, smoke-filled basements, here in Elder Beer's backyard it seemed it was all but compulsory to drink, smoke and/or vape. NONUNONU - that's Tim Williams, guitar, Andy Patterson, bass, Ruben Sheridan, drums - opened with a jazz-funk take on Paul Dupont's La Rosita

Summer Rain
Popemobile Blues, a Latin-infused Baby TreeClones (perhaps the tune of the first set),  the trio's compositions embraced intricate rhythms, groove-to-swing-to-groove sections, scintillating guitar solos, funk-heavy bass lines, fractured beats, all of it hugely impressive. 

The interval: drinking, smoking, vaping, gorging on the biggest pizzas on the planet, healthy living.

Second set: seemingly drawing on influences from every conceivable source, NONUNONU hit on a Sketches of Spain-like groove. As the punters drank, smoked, vaped and gorged, our trio immersed themselves in the music, some of it from their latest recording nunununu. From one composition to the next, Williams would lead, then pass the baton to Patterson or Sheridan. Sheridan would pass it on to Patterson or Williams, all of it done with admirable nonchalance. If Clones was the tune of the first set, Waiting certainly took the honours in the second set. Russell

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