It is very much to Knats' credit that in the June issue of DownBeat their latest album, A Great Day in Newcastle is allocated to Yanow.
There are few places quite like Soho on a warm summer evening. As the working day fades and the weekend edges into view, the streets take on a life of their own. Office workers spill from pubs onto crowded pavements, restaurant terraces fill with conversation and laughter, and every corner seems alive with possibility.
Emerging from Leicester Square
Underground station and heading towards Chinatown, Soho was enjoying one of
those glorious summer evenings that seem uniquely London. The late sunshine
lingered between the buildings, casting a warm glow across the streets as
people gathered for a drink before making their way home for the weekend.
Passing beneath the red lanterns of Chinatown and cutting through the heart of
Soho towards Frith Street, the unmistakable buzz of the neighbourhood
surrounded us. Outside Café Boheme on Old Compton Street, diners spilled onto
the pavement, glasses clinked and conversation drifted effortlessly into the
warm evening air. It felt as though the whole of Soho had decided to stay out
just a little longer before surrendering to the night.
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Playlist 21/06/26 (repeated Tuesday 23/06/26)
Requests from gigs: Thelonious Monk, Phineas Newborn Jr., Adrien Moignard Quartet, Pat Metheny, Tchavolo Schmitt, Artie Shaw, Jelly Roll Morton/Sidney Bechet, Jabbo Smith and His Orchestra, Sonny Rollins, Fats Waller, Preservation Hall, Edmundo Ros.
Seasonal: Charlie Parker.
Requests: Clare Teal, Peter Long, Benny Goodman, Ray Charles.
Father's Day: Horace Silver.
Memories: Charles Mingus Sextet/Eric Dolphy.
Aycliffe Radio is available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington area or via your smart speaker.
Zoë Gilby
(vocals); Mark Williams (guitar); Andy Champion (bass); John Bradford (drums)
Newcastle based
vocalist, Zoë Gilby and her trio presented an eclectic blend of song and
improvisation at the Gregson Centre in Lancaster on Sunday June 14.
Gilby’s remarkable versatility as an
interpreter of classic song, improviser and lyricist along with provider of
detailed verbal forays to the audience was as impressive as it was informative.
What was of particular interest to this listener was Gilby’s inclusion of four songs co-written by herself (lyrics) and American trumpeter, Tom Harrell (composer). Titles like Shadowed in Solitude, Forget the Past, Ebb and Flow and Leap to the Limelight might give the listener a sense of the depth and introspection of the lyric. This, coupled with the similar and supportive melodic and harmonic shapes of Harrell’s tunes resulted in deeply heartfelt and uniquely memorable collaborations between Gilby and Harrell.
This FASCINATING VIDEO, courtesy of Andy Hudson and Californian Sting researcher Jay Matsueda, has some amazing shots of Andy, the Newcastle Big Band, San Sebastian and Newcastle Jazz Festivals back in the 1970s. Many familiar faces both past and present can be seen and it's fun tring to put a name to some of the faces 50 years on!
Andy talks with inside knowledge on the early days of the Newcastle Jazz Festivals and many other aspects of jazz in general. Lots of it never seen before. Lance
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| © Pam |
The Lit and Phil's Loftus Room was, as per usual on jazz afternoons, well attended. Whether this was to escape the blazing sun or to listen to some cool, laid back guitar jazz, I know not. However, I'd like to think it was the latter and deservedly so.
Steels has an impeccable technique that he uses to great effect without resorting to any extraneous effects. He also composed all six originals that made up the programme including A Blue Patch, the title track of his most recent album.
Today that was me! A new Animal Rescue shop had opened on our local high street so, out of curiosity, I popped in.
I wasn't a man on a mission, just curious.
The lighting was low, maybe non-existent so the books were out of question but, a cardboard box on the floor was crammed with vinyl, crammed to the extent they must have been shoehorned in.
July 15, 2026 - Locust Valley,
NY – Vangie Gunn-Goodwin in conjunction with GoodGunn Creative, Inc. has
announced the impending release of “25 Years of Phatness.” This exciting new album
features the Grammy® and Emmy®-winner, Gordon Goodwin and his Big Phat Band,
along with vocalist Vangie Gunn-Goodwin performing 11 spectacular Gordon
Goodwin compositions and arrangements.
“This recording, the last recorded before Gordon’s tragic passing, is without doubt the most impactful of Gordon’s and the Phat Band’s celebrated and award-winning career. With 11 tracks, including 8 previously unreleased and a trio updated by Gordon for 2026 is a stone killer,” stated Vangie Gunn-Goodwin. She added: “Gordon works were always not only brilliant and a platform for all of the great Phat Band members, but also a labor of love for him. This album continues to place Gordon in the pantheon as one of our greatest jazz composer/arrangers.”
Interview Contact: Vangie Gunn-Goodwin vangiegunnvocal@gmail.com or Vangievocal@gmail.com
This concert was billed as a tribute to the life and music of the great American jazz saxophonist and composer Walter Theodore “Sonny” Rollins who died on 25 May 2026 aged 90 years. No better man in the UK than Dean Masser to take Sonny’s role as saxophonist and band leader for this evening. Neil Yates curates jazz here each Monday and all of the musicians are regulars at Llandudno Jazz Club.
This concert celebrated
the music and life of the late American trumpeter, bandleader and composer
Miles Davis who was born on the 26 May
1926.
All musicians were well known to me save for Mark Hanslip who I was seeing play live for the first time. A terrific tenor saxophone player who, this evening, was playing a King tenor saxophone. A very knowledgeable audience were treated to some of the best Miles Davis tunes played by five very accomplished musicians. The repertoire of Miles Davis is very much enjoyed by those at Llandudno Jazz Club who have the privilege of hearing top UK trumpet player Neil Yates playing every Monday evening and he curates these weekly jazz sessions.
Time flies. Was it really four, perhaps five years ago, when we first heard Sam Toulson and the Ho brothers, that's Edgar Ho & Oscar Ho? The Black Swan jam session in the basement of Newcastle Arts Centre is home to a twice monthly jam session and that's where, one night, these guys walked in.
Sunday 21st June 2026
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
multi Grammy Award winning Yellowjackets
are at Zeffirellis in Ambleside on Tuesday June 30 & Wednesday July 1
(8.00pm start both nights).
Tickets £35.00 or side
seats £28.00 (to book visit the online calendar in the Live
Music tab and select either June 30 or July 1 or call 015394
33845).
These Are the only UK appearances of their European tour.
Russell Ferrante (keys, piano); Bob Mintzer (sax); Dane Alderson (bass); William Kennedy (drums)
“Jazz buffs know about the Yellowjackets. This is a
Grammy-winning band that writes and performs intricate compositions that cross
countless boundaries.”
- The Arts Fuse
Sometimes the simplest evenings turn out to be the most memorable.
As I made my way to Union Chapel there was every chance this was going to be a wet one. The skies over North London were heavy with grey cloud and umbrellas were very much at the ready. Yet somehow, whether through luck, timing or a little divine intervention, the rain never came. Instead, the clouds gradually parted and shafts of evening sunlight began to stream through the chapel’s magnificent stained-glass windows, filling the vast space with a constantly shifting palette of colour and light.
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| © Roly |
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| © Jeff Pritchard |
This quartet, I was surprised to learn, was formed back in 2013. All four musicians are much in demand and it must be difficult to get them all together in one place to play the sort of hard-driving music they like.
Grant Russell ls the leader of this remarkable quartet, his formidable technique commanding the attention of the Moor Club audience. It is the ideal venue to demonstrate his talent. Kyran Matthews is well known to jazz followers in the UK and I have seen him many times in large and small ensembles and he is always amazing.
These qualities were evident on several occasions in the north east. Particularly at the now long gone Gateshead International Jazz Festival which was a much loved event held at the then Sage (now Glasshouse).
Some albums tell you exactly where they come from within a few bars.
Falcón In Blue is one of those records.
Close your eyes and you can almost feel
Havana around you. The heat rising from the streets. The sound of conversation
drifting from open windows. Music spilling from doorways and courtyards. A city
where rhythm is woven into everyday life and where the line between tradition
and modernity feels wonderfully blurred.
That spirit runs through every note of
Alejandro Falcón’s latest album.
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| © Sheila |
It was with an air of joyful anticipation that I sallied forth to the corner of Railway and Plummer where that edifice to jazz in Newcastle, the Globe, plays host to top notch bands from both near and afar.
I was particularly looking forward to last night's offering, the Eddie Gripper Trio, having found their most recent album, Americana, very pleasing albeit not what it said on the tin. The Americana that Gripper found his inspiration from was a six weeks long jaunt hitch-hiking from the northern tip of Alaska to the sweltering heat of California.
All the tracks from the album were played, preceded by introductory remarks by Gripper which helped paint a fuller picture of the background to each one.
In 2006, in an All Music Review of the Brecker Brothers’ album, Some Skunk Funk (Telarc, 2005), the well-respected jazz critic, Scott Yanow wrote: “The individual songs may not be overly memorable, although Some Skunk Funk has been getting covered by other musicians.” That jazz-funk-fusion classic was originally released in 1975 and has become influential and a modern era jazz staple. What the Breckers and Yanow could not envision back then was the effect that that 1970s track and other Brecker Brothers work – especially that of the late saxophonist Michael Brecker - would have on outstanding Las Vegas-based saxman, Rick Keller.
This had nothing to do with the World Cup where one of the World's super powers, as is their wont, was taking on a banana republic. No, this was Stingray djazz, a Dutch channel that broadcasts jazz 24/7.
When I tuned in they were screening Jaco playing The Chicken - wow! Since then a Kenny Barron quintet live in the then peaceful Ukraine, the Art Farmer/Jim Hall Quartet and several concerts from the North Sea Jazz Festival.
As I type I'm listening to the Woody Herman Herd of 1964 live in the UK.
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Playlist 14/06/26 (repeated Tuesday 16/06/26)
Requests: Bunny Berigan.
Miles Davis remembered: Charlie Parker/Miles Davis (A Night in Tunisia).
Köln 75 (film): Keith Jarrett.
Memories: Anita O'Day/Gene Krupa, Shelly Manne, Chick Corea/Stan Getz, Erroll Garner.
New Release: Duchess.
London Jazz Festival: Matt Carmichael.
What’s on in the NE: Dean Stockdale, Emma Fisk's Hot Club du Nord, New Century Ragtime Orchestra.
RIP Sonny Rollins. Sonny Rollins (The Bridge).
Requests: Slim Gaillard + Dizzy + Charlie Parker.
Seasonal: Stacey Kent.
Miles Davis/J.J Johnson/Lucky Thompson/Horace Silver/Percy Heath/Kenny Clarke/Laura Jurd.
Aycliffe Radio is available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington area or via your smart speaker.
In the afternoon there will be local community groups performing, including the Albemarle Jazz Camp, the Hull Jazz Jammers, the Lewis Kilvington Guitar Jammers, the Marlborough Avenue Ukulele Group (MUGs) and Greg Jones on piano.
Photos courtesy/© John Lyons Photography. Lance
It was back in 2011 when I first heard Starace live. Since then many of his albums have graced these pages and not a lemon amongst them!
Live at the Beaver Inn captures the best of both worlds - the excitement and the spontaneity of a live gig coupled with the expert mixing and mastering (by Anthony Galatis at Uptown Studios) of an in-house recording.
After an introduction by Peter Hames, organiser of the North Devon Jazz Club's sessions at the Beaver Inn, picturesquely set on the Torridge estuary, the trio take flight on Monk's We See. Starace is on fire and the flame is fanned by Jenkins and Harbon.
Sunday 14th June 2026
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)
It's a regular occurrence for a queue to form outside Cluny 2 long before the doors open. This evening it was unusually quiet on Lime Street. On entering the subterranean venue it was somewhat surprising to see the floor space devoid of seating - cabaret style-layout or otherwise. As the punters began to arrive most of them made a beeline for the tiered seating at the back of the room.
We were there to listen to the Dave Bristow Quintet. It's one thing to check out musicians online, it's another thing altogether to hear them live, in concert. As Bristow's Paris-based quintet walked out onto the stage, would the gulf of some ten metres between musician and listener skew the experience?
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| © Jeff Pritchard |
This turned out to be a very interesting gig with lots of great tunes, ten in total, five per set. Although Rod had brought along three horns to play, he featured only his tenor sax during the first half of the two hour show. His high energy playing was well in evidence tonight and he seemed to inspire his bandmates to greater heights.
Paul Hartley was in multi-tasking mode announcing tunes and playing some fine guitar solos as well as making sure the lighting was up to scratch. I think it was Paul who suggested the Sam Jones composition Bittersweet and Rod really nailed this 32 bar theme. The powerhouse drummer Dave Walsh was the ideal person for this group and his time-keeping is excellent especially when bossa novas are called for.
There’s a lot unfolding in this unerringly cheerful album, (a follow up, after a manner, to 2008’s Stramash), as Steele and friends cover several strands of Scottish folk and run them through a bit of New Orleans and some Harlem Swing. Much of the credit for the success of the album must go to arranger Dave Milligan whose charts cause the music to flow beautifully across the tracks, using simple lead and rhythm section, at times, and swinging the whole dectet at others. At times the folk and jazz elements are set up in contrast with each other and at others each is used to add background colour as the other dominates. Sometimes it’s just a grand stramash as the two elements barge into and through the other, inviting the listener to try and separate and follow individual threads if he can. Most of all, this is a celebration of Scotland and Scottishness and of the current high profile of Scottish jazz, as, at the moment there are considerably more successful Scottish musicians than could fit into a large motor home.
The family has written a beautiful obituary, which I encourage you to read in full below. Lydia Liebman
