Sunday 21st December 2025
8-10pm, doors open at 7.30pm
£5 entry on the door, all welcome
The Moor Club, 35 Heaton Moor Road, Stockport SK4 4PB (next to the Elizabethan PH).
(Chris Hodgkins' response.)
The independent review of Arts Council England by Baroness Margaret Hodge can be seen here
When Lance asked me to write a few words to mark the passing of American born Danish percussionist Marilyn Mazur on Dec. 12 aged 70, I had to confess I knew nothing whatsoever about her. When he admitted the same I felt in good company, and jazz is all about exploration.
Last week, our beloved Jazz insurrectionists Knats shared a genre-busting new track, a razor-sharp collaboration with indie band lots of hands..
Paul Edis & Friends, Ezra Collective, Harry Connick
Jr, James Taylor, Laufey, Louise Dodds, Silje Nergaard, Bugge Wesseltoft, Diana
Krall, the Keith Brown Quintet, the Cincinnati Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, and
the Strictly Smokin’ Big Band.
You can listen to the show anytime HERE.
Plus, you can request tunes for future programmes by
emailing Colin at jazz.tyne.hive@gmail.com
or heading to www.jazzonthetyne.org.
Emma Fisk (violin); Dr. James Birkett, David Harris (guitars); Bruce Rollo (bass)
John Hulme (trumpet); Jim Collins (sax); Paul Hartley (guitar); Ken Marley (bass); Andy Bold (drums)
© Jeff Pritchard
A good night of modern jazz played by a quintet of local (north west) musicians three of whom Andrew Bold, Jim Collins and John Hulme play in Andy Bold's big band. The band played mostly modern jazz standards plus two lesser known tunes Bernstein's Some Other Time and Vince Guaraldi's Christmas Time is Here. My personal favourites were Lee Morgan's Ceora a feature for John and Benny Golson's Along Came Betty. The frontline was ably supported by Paul Hartley on guitar and Ken Marley on bass with Andrew Bold powering things along on drums.
Aaah! A city in mourning;
the first Tyne/Wear league derby since Adam was a lad and it’s the red stripes
with the bragging rights and the kids on the streets are saying that Nick
Woltemade is a Mackem sleeper agent. There’s a fairground on over the way from
the Globe which is a roundabout way of getting to the subject of tonight’s gig.
Firstly, big hats off to Jazz NE for bringing this act up here. Noonan is unique. His drumming is anywhere between furious pile driving and delicate skittish and he adds, as probably the major string to his bow, a vocal turn, which occasionally lapses into singing but is usually more declamatory. I am reminded of Alex Harvey who also mixed melodramatic camp theatricality with this level of physicality. Harvey as a singer, of course, had the benefits of mobility denied to the drummer Noonan.
Playlist 14/12/25 (repeated Tuesday 16/12/25).
This is the
300th edition of the programme so I have exercised the privilege of
choosing five tracks!
In Memoriam: George
Lewis.
Requests from Darlington New Orleans Club: King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Midnite Follies Orchestra.
Following on from a review of the same band playing
the same tunes, even at a different venue, is a two-edged sword. So said BSH
Editor-in-Chief, LL. Well, here's a third review in twenty four hours of the
same show.
Familiar as most with Hall Two, in taking a seat your correspondent did the usual: Excuse me, thanks. Excuse me, fellow concert-goers rising from their seats. Squeezing past, glancing at the seat numbers, something wasn't right. The penny dropped. Wrong seat! Wrong row! Cue the Excuse me routine in reverse. Slaloming through the cabaret table layout - the lights were about to go down - the seat was over there, wasn't it? Excuse me, thanks. Excuse me. Nope! Wrong seat! Wrong row! The house lights down, it was too late to go in search of the elusive seat. Let's sit down and bluff it...
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| © Sylvia |
Following on from a review of the same band playing the same tunes, even at a different venue, is a two-edged sword. Do you agree or contradict? It's difficult but someone has to do it and when it's a show of this quality then who's contradicting?
Unlike Crook, the Glasshouse didn't have a raffle and nor were there any Cadbury's Roses going free. However, the music more than made up for it - this was Quality Street.
Winter Wonderland: Dressed in a white gown Jo looked every bit the Angel of the North that MD Edis described her as - move over Anthony Gormley. The voice too was angelic but not without the suggestion of a devil lurking inside. Soloists abounded during the course of the afternoon Graham Hardy's being the first.
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| © Chris Whittle |
Paul Edis (MD, piano); Jo Harrop (vocals); Vasilis
Xenopoulos (tenor sax, soprano sax); Matthew Forster (alto sax, clarinet); Sue
Ferris (flutes, piccolo); Graham Hardy (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jason Holcomb
(trombone); Emma Fisk (violin); Andy Champion (double bass); Matt MacKellar
(drums).
A long heading: a short(ish) review. As always,
I rely on Russell and/or Lance for more insightful comments when they’ve seen
the show. I’d like to start with the venue as my headline suggests.
Since I started my mid-life jazz education I have been to scores of venues and Crook truly is unique. The tables are never bare – there’s always nibbles (or last night chocolates - Cadbury’s Roses, no less) with big wedges of pizza in the interval (turkey and stuffing buns last night complete with cranberry sauce to add, if required!). The tables are always decorated too, and last night the hall was aglow with candelabra, cribs and Christmas glitter with fairy-lights on the mic stands (where musical stars also shone!).
There are concerts, and then there are evenings where the room feels like a living archive – a space where stories, memory and music become inseparable. The Bill Evans celebration with James Pearson and Nikki Iles at the Yamaha Piano Rooms on Wardour Street was entirely in that spirit: intimate, intelligent and full of affection for the pianist who transformed the emotional vocabulary of modern jazz.
From the outset, Pearson set a relaxed, humorous tone, welcoming what he called an “exclusive Ronnie Scott’s audience, here to celebrate 50 years since Evans first played Ronnie’s”. Within minutes he was telling stories of Evans’ first visit to Ronnie’s in 1965, gently weaving history into the atmosphere of the night. Instead of a formal tribute, this felt like a salon: musicians, listeners and anecdotes sharing the same breath.
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The format was similar to recent years with all the venues in walking distance of each other, two or three gigs at each venue per day, and staggered intervals so that festival goers could move around without encountering breaks. Most of venues were the same as in recent years and included the Falcon Hotel, the Ivor Potter Hall in the Parkhouse Centre, the Methodist Church, the Carriers Inn, and ‘Upstairs Social’. The bar and catering at the Parkhouse centre, by ‘Outside Inn’, were again very well received.
The space has been completely transformed as part of a major revamp of the entire building. Rebuilt as a purpose-designed, intimate auditorium, it honours the club’s six-decade legacy while looking firmly to the future. More info HERE.
Full details of upcoming concerts at Upstairs at Ronnie’s can be found HERE.
Thank you Nick a fitting graphic tribute. Lance
Wrap up warm and enjoy an evening of Christmas magic. See the Hall’s north front beautifully lit, a giant suspended bauble in the entrance hall and Christmas decorations in the Saloon, Stables and West Wing. The VCJ will play popular 1920s' jazz and festive music; family crafts in the stables workshop; warm up with seasonal treats in the Brewhouse. No booking required. Brian B
The
Bold Big Band down in the Ouseburn at this time of year can mean only one thing
- Christmas at the Cluny! It's become an annual thing. Brian Wicks' roaring
big band in Cluny 2, Christmas crackers, terrible jokes (courtesy of Mr B.
Wicks), a beer or three and some cracking charts.
A Latin number for openers, Sammy Nestico's arrangement of Good Swing Wenceslas, It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year featuring bandleader Wicks' baritone sax, the Hip-Bone Big Band's Trombone Institute of Technology, a touch of Disney, Les Brown's Nutcracker Suite, the Bold Big Band knocked 'em out of the park.
There’s been a lot of new Pharoah Sanders product in the last few years with only his being dead as the greatest obstacle to his being able to commercially exploit his continued release schedule. Since his demise we have had re-issues of a set called simply Pharoah, and of Izipho Zam(My Gifts) and two live albums, one, a 1980 live album from Fabrik in Hamburg and this double album recorded at the ORTF Studios in Paris on 17th November 1975, (six tracks of which were released as a single LP in 2020). At least all those new fans who came on board with the Floating Pointscollaboration in 2022 have lots to go at. It’s hard to say which has been the best but this newest release has to be up there.
Sunday 14th December 2025
8-10pm, doors open at 7.30pm
£5 entry on the door, all welcome
The Moor Club, 35 Heaton Moor Road, Stockport SK4 4PB (next to the Elizabethan PH)
Gordon Goodwin, leader of the Gordon Goodwin Big Phat Band passed away yesterday (Dec. 8) at the age of 70. Regarded by many as the arranger of the age, his charts provided core material for bands of all ages and abilities. I doubt if there is a big band anywhere in the world that doesn't have at least one of his arrangements in the pad.
Although I personally never heard Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band live my fellow scribe Russell, back in 2017, made the trip to Manchester to catch them live.
His glowing review of the concert can be read HERE.
Gordon Goodwin will be sadly missed by anyone who has ever sat in the section of a big band, as well as those who love the sound of a swinging big band playing well-arranged charts.
REST IN PEACE
Lance
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| © Roly Veitch |
Max
Ionata (sax); Martin Sjöstedt (piano); Jesper Bodilsen (double bass); Martin
Andersen (drums)
To quote the blurb - Italian lyricism meeting the clarity and eloquence of Scandinavian jazz - it more or less sums up this delightful album. Certainly Ionata has lyricism aplenty and the technique to exploit it to the full. I'm not sure if he's blowing alto or tenor, the beautiful tone and the lightness with which it is deployed brought Stan Getz to mind so I guess it's tenor.
The Scandinavian rhythm section brings back memories of those halcyon days when Swedish musicians were the go-getters of 1950s European modern jazz - This trio too know how to swing.
There was a change in the advertised line up with Ed Kainyek stepping in for Kyran Matthews on tenor and soprano sax. The rest of the band featured leader Grant Russell on bass, Manchester stalwart Luke Flowers on drums and classically trained pianist Richard Harrold who with the HLK Trio has recorded and toured with master percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie.
https://www.ayclifferadio.co.
Playlist 07/12/25 (repeated Tuesday 09/12/25).
Requests: Stan Kenton/Lionel Hampton, Sidney Bechet,
Memories: Dave Brubeck, Frank Sinatra/Count Basie.
Human Rights Day: Martin Luther King, Nina Simone, Louis
Armstrong.
Requests: Memphis Slim, Thilo Wolf Big Band, Ruud Breuls
& WDR Big Band, Benny Golson.
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| © Ken Drew |
I could sum up this gig in one word - Awesome! or in four words - Gig of the Year, it was that good. However, for those pernickety readers who want more then I'll give you three good reasons for the superlatives.
1. Joel Barford. He could make a lead balloon swing. Amazing technique. A young dog with new tricks.
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| © Ken Drew |
3. Gilad Atzmon. Gilad ensured there was plenty going on in front. Apart from his incredible technique the thing that grabbed me was his sound. he blows the air down one end and it comes out the other which is what all brass and woodwind players do. In Gilad's case however, the column of air resonates off the body of the instrument resulting in that big fat sound. Bird had it, Konitz dIdn't, Gilad has.
The sad news has been announced of the passing of guitar legend Steve Cropper.
Best known for his work with Booker T and the MGs, Cropper also recorde and co-wrote Otis Reddings' Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour.
He appeared with Booker T at Newcastle City Hall in an all-star guitar extravaganza probably in the 1980s/'90s.
Rest In Peace.
Lance
With the dynamic Gilad Atzmon blowing alto sax like Bird, Cannonball and Ornette all rolled into one, Ross Stanley pushing the B3 to its limits and new kid on the block Joel Barford showing the drum legends a thing or two you have the ingredients for an unforgetable evening of jazz, funk, soul and who knows what else?
This promises to be an 'I was there' moment don't miss out - your grandkids will never forgive you!
Anthropology, Ornithology, Organology - you can't go wrong when you've got an 'ology'. Lance
P.S.: Check out Organology on F/b for a taste of what's in store.
There is a magic that happens when the music, the mood and the moment are just right. So, sit back - with your dreams and someone special - and let these songs unlock a special connection. Join in for some LateNights.
Sunday 7th December 2025
8-10pm, doors open at 7.30pm
£5 entry on the door, all welcome
The Moor Club, 35 Heaton Moor Road, Stockport SK4 4PB (next to the Elizabethan PH)
