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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)
The blurb refers to Rager as a distinguished Canadian jazz pianist which may bring to your mind another musician who also fits that description. Like the late Oscar, Rager is indeed a distinguished Canadium pianist and composer.
Eight tracks - six originals and a couple of standards - are sublimely played with outstanding solos by both Rager and Bernstein. The latter's cool, laid back solo flights are the epitome of taste and gentle swing. The way piano and guitar intuitively pick up from where the other left off without loss of continuity is the mark of genius.
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| © Jeff Pritchard |
The band, which featured a frontline of Sam Lightwing on alto and tenor sax and Will Bird on trumpet and flugelhorn, played a mix of older material by Rollins and Clifford Brown alongside more recent tunes from Roy Hargrove's 2008 album Earfood which gave both horns a chance to show off their blossoming talent. Will Bird on trumpet was very impressive on what was his debut performance at The Moor Club.
They met as students studying in Basel. After a while each of them would go their own sweet way, since then, as and when schedules permit, the four members of Happenstance have continued to work together. A recent alignment of the stars enabled them to undertake a UK tour, this Hexham date one stop on their travels.
Bassist Tommy Fuller was the familiar face, the others were unknown quantities. The others being, from the Czech Republic, saxophonist Zdeněk Tománek, from France, pianist Noé Sécula, and from Spain, drummer Luís Pérez-Villegas. English being his first language, Fuller would do most of the talking.
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| © Glenn Wright |
Pushing the boat out for our 15th year of Christmas shows...
SSBB featuring Matt Ford, Bradley Creswick, Alice Grace and Northern Orchestra, plus world premieres from the pen of Stuart Mclean-Fowler...
Aycliffe Radio is now
available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington Area or via your smart
speaker.
Does the front cover look familiar? You're damn right it does! Does the title, Swingin' Session !!! sound familiar? Check, you've got it - a playful take on Sinatra's 1961 Reprise album of the same name and, like the original, it's a ring-a-ding-dinger!
Tatum has the ability to sell a song like few of her contemporaries can. Perfect pitching, jazzy phrasing, an amazing range and the ability to do what it is says on the tin - swing! It comes as no surprise to find out that she has done tours of duty with PMJ.
The concert is being promoted with support from Jazz North’s New Northern scheme to assist the development of new emerging jazz talent across the region.
Sunday 30th November 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)
(NYC based trumpet player Nick Mondello is a regular contributor to BSH and this free project is worth following up by anyone involved with jazz education in schools. Lance)
Friends of Big Band Jazz, the Kenton Legacy Orchestra and Stan Kenton Band lead trumpet, Mike Vax, in conjunction with Big Toots Enterprises (that's me!) are offering free live zoom session clinics for middle and high school jazz ensembles this coming school year.
Our highly-experienced jazz clinicians include former members of the Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, Woody Herman, "Tower of Power" ensembles and other LA and NY studio A-Listers.
Clinics are delivered via zoom and are done live.
It's that most wonderful time of the year again or so we are told and sometimes its true - particularly when Paul Edis' Jazzy Christmas play their annual concert(s) at the Glasshouse and other north east venues.*
It's always a fun occasion. The woes of the world can be put on hold and, for a couple of hours, be transported to a Christmas time just like the ones we used to know. The music will be the same but better. How could it not be with the all-star cast listed above?
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.
There are few rooms in London that carry quite the same hush of
anticipation as the private upstairs space at The Ivy. For the inaugural—and
now, one suspects, annual—EFG Jazz Festival at The Ivy Club, that hushed
expectation gave way to the warm glow of a packed members’ room as
long-standing house pianist and musical director Joe Thompson assembled a finely tuned quartet featuring Artie Zaitz, Neville Malcolm, and the ever-compelling Jo Harrop.
Thompson set the tone straight out of the gate with a beautifully measured arrangement of Cole Porter’s Easy To Love, his playing revealing both a deep reverence for the material and an instinctive understanding of the room’s intimacy. Harrop’s entrance confirmed what many in the audience already knew: this was a space tailor-made for her voice—capable of whisper-soft delicacy one moment and resonant, room-filling power the next. Thompson, Zaitz, and Malcolm supported her with the kind of restraint that speaks of years spent listening as much as playing, giving Harrop the latitude to unearth the emotional grain of every lyric.
They are out there, in the distant corners of the jazz universe and they’re making albums like this. Lena Bloch is an (eventually) New York resident (via Russia and Israel) and the chances of coming across her work are quite slim so it’s always a joy to hear an album this good from someone you’ve never heard of before, (and in all likelihood, will never hear from again). It’s adventurous, immersive, rich and dense and deeply felt. A piece of work that tears at the heart. I suspect that it started as an intellectual exercise before the emotion and passion took over. The music is Bloch’s settings for poems by exiled Russian Marina Tsvetaeva who lived in Eastern Europe, and later Paris in those febrile decades between the wars and the societies she lived in and the surrounding political upheaval inform her work. Bloch has attempted to capture some of the flavour of those times in her music from the very start. She is not the first person to set Tsvetaeva’s poems to music, several classical composers, including Shostakovich, have also taken her on.
Yes we've hit the 18,000 mark which is over a 1000 posts per year. Thank you to everyone who has contributed. Lance
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| © John Lyons |
A taxi dash from Pilgrim St. to Railway St. got me to the Globe in time to catch the great American alto saxophonist Greg Abate. A JNE/Jazz Co-op c0-promotion, this gig too was well-attended and deservedly so.
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| © John Lyons |
Since then there have been few jazz venues he hasn't played at in the area, often with varying personnel and always with a positive response. This line-up is probably as good as any and they responded intuitively to the twists and turns he often indulged in.
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| © Anon |
Pilgrim
(Hoochie Coochies as was) on Pilgrim St., welcomed the many that had made the
pilgrimage to the iconic music venue in Newcastle city centre. I doubt if as
many pilgrims had made it to Lourdes. Why should they? Groovetrain weren't there, they were
here in Newcastle and, as usual, pulling in their own following. Needless to
say the Sold Out signs were flashed up.
The fans had travelled far and wide to hear/see the band. A group near me were from Liverpool or maybe they were staying at the big, posh Hotel Gotham opposite on the site of the old fire station.
It's become an
annual thing. Hire a local venue, promote a concert featuring many of the
region's familiar A-listers, an audience materialises and the man has got
himself a big band gig. The Westovian Theatre is local to 'the man', that's
vocalist Mr Paul Skerritt. At a little after half past seven, the Paul Skerritt
Big Band hit the stage.
It's not quite the season to be jolly, however, this evening on Pier Parade signalled the start of the festivities. A bundle of energy is Mr Skerritt, How do you do? enquired Mr S, I've got you under my skin - you knew it was coming, Kieran Parnaby giving it the Milt Bernhart treatment It works every time!
Playlist 23/11/25 (repeated Tuesday 25/11/25)
Requests: Sarah Vaughan & Count Basie Orchestra, Buddy Rich Big Band.
RIP: Jack DeJohnette.
Requests from Bishop Auckland gig: Jesús Molina, Bob Berg, Dave
Brubeck Quartet.
New Releases: Ben Wilcock/John Rae, Sara Colman and Rebecca
Nash.
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| © Ken Drew |
