I
want to share a personal secret with you. For a very long time and having
performed with them, I have always had a special affection for exotic dancers,
especially belly dancers. While obviously enticing and visually riveting, what always
adds to the pleasure is the accompanying music: rhythmically intense,
melodically pungent, and perfectly underscoring the undulations.
When I learned by way of her publicist, Holly Cooper, that vocalist/educator/actress/lecturer and dancer, Kay Kostopoulos had toured for 18 years both nationally and internationally as a belly dancer, that made me enjoy her tasteful and engaging most recent album, All This Is Possible all the more. On it, Kostopoulos and her premier team of New York Killer Cats deliver eight impeccably performed, marvelously produced and arranged entries from the GAS, Charlie Parker, and Broadway. It is a recording of depth, subtlety, and artistic uniqueness in which Kostopoulos dazzles.
https://www.ayclifferadio.co.
Playlist 05/07/26 (repeated Tuesday 07/07/26)
Seasonal: Louis Armstrong/Ella Fitzgerald, Albert Ayler, Sonny Stitt.
Memories: Ahmad Jamal.
Requests: Karrin Allyson, Al Wood with the Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra, Dario Ronchi.
New Releases: Vivienne Aerts, Zoe Rahman.
Requests/Memories: Norrie Cox & his New Orleans Stompers, Hank Mobley, Louie Bellson, Wardell Gray.
Seasonal: Tubby Hayes.
What’s on in the NE: River City Jazzmen.
Sonny Rollins & Ornette Coleman.
Aycliffe Radio is available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington area or via your smart speaker.
+Terence Blanchard, Chief Xian aTunde
Adjuah (trumpets); Chris Potter (tenor sax); Jeff “Tain”
Watts (drums); Hiromi (piano); Bilal, Tiaranna “Tank”
Ball (vocals); Kassa Overall (drums, producer)
After a subdued opening,
during which she reads one of her poems, much of this album comes tearing out
of the speakers with Benjamin’s, now customary, fire and fury. Despite the
addition of several high profile guest stars this still feels like a stripped
down collection of Coltrane inspired blowing that burns with the message that
Lakecia Benjamin is still loud, still defiant and still righteously pissed off
at the state of the world.
It’s always a worry when hitherto uncompromising jazz artists invite guest stars onto an album for one or two tracks but the invitees on this album are fine additions to the main band. They include trumpeters Terence Blanchard, and Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, Chris Potter on tenor sax, Jeff “Tain” Watts on drums and drummer and producer Kassa Overall, all of whom add to, rather than detract from, the quality on show.
There is something rather special
about Frith Street on a summer's evening. The conversations spill out onto the
pavement, taxis edge their way through Soho, the scent of restaurants drifts
through the warm air, and beneath the famous red neon sign of Ronnie Scott’s,
people gather with that unmistakable sense of anticipation that only this
remarkable club seems able to create. Long before the house lights dim, the
performance has already begun.
Inside, little has changed in the qualities that have made Ronnie Scott’s one of the world’s great jazz rooms. The lighting is warm rather than theatrical, wrapping the musicians in soft amber tones while allowing the audience to retreat into gentle shadow. The intimacy remains extraordinary. Every table feels connected to the stage, and the sound is, quite simply, among the finest you will hear anywhere. Every lyric, every brush stroke across the snare drum, every harmonic nuance from the guitar arrives with remarkable clarity. For an artist whose songs depend so heavily on language and storytelling, there could hardly be a better setting.
Ostensibly a tribute to Duke Ellington - indeed ten of the eleven tunes do have Duke's name among the credits - the Ellington mood is ever present, even on the the only non Ducal number: So Far, So Good.
So Far, So Good is in fact the opening track setting the scene for the delights to follow, one of which is I Ain't Got Nothin' But the Blues. Both have gutsy tenor solos and Gill is in fine voice as we've come to expect from her previous three albums on the Turtle Bay label.
Love You Madly always reminds me of the first time I heard Duke address the audience at Newcastle Odeon in 1958. The song came later. Hannah does it justice and, along with tenor and guitar, returns the sentiments of the title.
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| © Colin Muirhead |
My relationship with the Montreux Jazz Festival started back in 1995. At that time I was still getting into jazz, having started listening to it on the radio whilst working in the US in the early 1990s. After returning to the UK, I wanted to discover more about jazz and decided to kill two birds with one stone: by having a relaxing holiday overseas and attending a jazz festival at the same time. And where better to do so than in Montreux?
Northern jazz promoters are invited to apply for bursaries up to £1,000 to programme emerging northern talent and support acts
For this round only, Jazz North will allocate a limited number of higher bursaries of up to £3,000 for Northern jazz festivals
New Northern is Jazz North’s promoter bursary to support live emerging talent. It supports promoters to programme emerging northern artists by underwriting risk and helping pay essential costs.
Designed both to support emerging artists in the north and give an injection of cash to promoters who need it, this easy-access scheme offers a quick intervention to northern grassroots promoters facing difficult financial circumstances.
Phil Nicholas (trumpet); Simon Lodge (trombone); Helena Summerfield (alto saxophone/ clarinet/ flute); Mike Hall (tenor saxophone/ clarinet); Debbie Hall (baritone saxophone); Andy Hulme (guitar); Tim Williams (double bass); Eryl Roberts (drums)
Sunday 5th July 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)
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| © Russell |
Tim Kliphuis (violin); Nigel Clark (guitar); Roy Percy (bass)
A trip into deepest Northumberland to see one of
masters of gypsy jazz violin, and his highly accomplished band. In recent years
Tim has fused gypsy jazz with other genres to produce some highly original
music, featuring plenty of improvisation. This tour was to promote his
rearranging of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, based on his two
frustrations. Firstly that the original contains some great melodies that are
only played briefly, and secondly that it tends to be played by orchestras that
don't give it that essential swing.
This band can certainly swing, although not always in a traditional gypsy jazz style. All three are accomplished soloists, with Tim sometimes supplying the rhythm by strumming his violin, and Nigel getting a different sound from a nylon strung guitar. Roy got his fair share of solos, featuring plenty of great slap bass.
Mid-Northumberland Chorus, Robin Forbes
(Musical Director); Emily Masser (vocals); Edgar Ho and Emma Straughan (piano);
Oscar Ho (double bass); David McKeague drums); Kirsty MacDowell (cello)
There are about 60 people
in the Mid-Northumberland Chorus so I won’t list them all but will say “Hi” to
Sally, Kathleen and Viv, to keep in their good books. (Don’t ask). So here we
are on a balmy Sunday evening in a church in Morpeth whilst all the serious
groovers are getting their Bibs Ledded down at the Globe. (More elsewhere on
BSH, I’m sure).
We are promised ‘An Evening of Jazz’. I’ve seen and heard the Chorus before a few times and they tend to go for songs from the shows (My Fair Lady a firm favourite, Les Miserables so dreadful, not even the Chorus’ enthusiasm can save it), and Christmas favourites so this is a departure for them.
Our man in America, Nick Mondello, interviews saxophonist, composer, arranger and author Rick Keller out there in Nevada. As with all of Nick's "catch-ups" it's fascinating.
Listen/watch HERE. Lance
A warm welcome
as usual was given by staff at Davenham Theatre on a very warm evening with
free bottles of water offered on arrival free and ice creams at the interval at
modest cost. One of my favourite venues for jazz in Cheshire, it's an intimate
theatre, perfect for an evening of jazz and meeting friends old and new.
The band were all very well known by me having seen them on multiple occasions with various groups some very recently. The last time I saw Jamie was in Trio JDM at Buxton Festival with Dave Walsh and Martin Longhawn. He travelled from Sheffield. Dean from Darlington is one of the UK’s very best jazz pianists and I see him together with James from Birmingham and Gaz from Macclesfield multiple times each year as well as with other musicians.
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| © Patti |
Alexia Gardner (vocals); Alan Law (piano); Harry Keeble (tenor sax); Jude Murphy (bass, backing vocals); Abbie Finn (drums).
© Patti
Alexia never fails to delight. Unique interpretations of tried and tested standards delivered in her own individual style.
I'd heard her singing them all before yet they seem to come out differently each time - the hallmark of a true jazz singer.
https://www.ayclifferadio.co.
Playlist 28/06/26 (repeated Tuesday 30/06/26)
Seasonal: Red Allen's All Stars, Billie Holiday.
Requests from Dr. Jazz: Louis Armstrong, Stefon Harris, Dave Brubeck, Mammal Hands, Lou Reed.
Tony Eales Best of Britain: Alan Barnes.
Request: Emmet Cohen.
New Release: Prime.
Requests: Jaco Pastorius, Quincy Jones, Lena Horne.
What’s on in the NE: De'Sean Jones & Blaque Dynamite, Spats Langham.
Request: Robert Cray.
Aycliffe Radio is available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington area or via your smart speaker.
Cooper Robson (vocals); Stanley Elvis Woodward/King David
Ike-Elechi/Ferg Kilsby (vocals) (track 9); Stanley Elvis Woodward (bass
guitar/synths); King David Ike-Elechi (drums/percussion); Ferg Kilsby (Trumpet,
flugelhorn); Sandro Shargarodsky (piano, keyboards, synthesiser); George
Johnson (tenor saxophone); Otto Kampa (alto saxophone); Tom Ford (guitar);
Geordie Greep (guitar) (tracks 4 and 7); Josh Mitchell-Rayner (piano) (track
1); Viviane Ghiglino (flute) (track 1); Lucy Rowan (alto flute) (track 1);
Frank Barr (clarinet) (track 1); Sebastian Barley (French horn) (track 1);
Tobias Amadio (trumpet) (track 1); Bertie Beaman (trombone) (track 1); Dillon
Pinder (trombone) (track 9); Enya Barber (violin); Congling Wu (violin);
Natalia Solis Paredes (viola); Morgan Key (cello)
There’s a wonderful Northern defiance that runs through much of this
album like a steel rod. It’s two fingers up to the South and advice to tell
them that they can stick their ingrained entitlement and belief in their
superiority where the sun don’t shine. (Ironic suggestion, I know, in the
middle of a heatwave).
It ranges from big boots on the ground, declaimed poetry, through rapid-fire punk rock to jazz-rock, some blues-soul and an occasional sweeping elegance that all holds together because these are all constituent parts of their portrait of the North. Heresy, I know, but it reminds me of Ezra Collective in the way that Knats have incorporated their roots into the music, meanwhile, the imagery in Cooper Robson’s poems add enormous strength to anchoring the group into the local soil.
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| © Russell |
From the moment that BSH announced to its readers the advance notice of this gig there was a buzz in the air, an eager anticipation that this was going to be out of this world. And it was.
Call me a romantic if you will but methinks that the almighty claps of thunder that shook the residential foundations of Tyneside this morning were in fact the Gods themselves saying thank you for last night's concert.
From the off everything gelled. Jackie McClean's Bird Lives saw the trio slotting a whole load of Parker phrases into the solos. It was hard to comprehend how a drummer-less trio could have such power.
Some albums, once heard, stay with you for the rest of your life, others are played once and then promptly forgotten. The Long Way Home belongs very much in the former category to the extent that I feel I'll still be listening to it in ten years time, and of course tomorrow and the day after that.
At 98 years old bass player Bill Crow, like Jack Honeyborne at the Spice of Life on Monday, proves that age is no obstacle - if you've got it - and he's got it as both soloist and ensemble rock - it stays with you. Likewise Steve Little, at 91, by comparison, is barely out of short pants.
For many years, Vanessa Haynes has been one of those voices woven into the fabric of British soul and jazz. Whether fronting Incognito, appearing regularly at Ronnie Scott's, performing at the BBC Proms or bringing her extraordinary energy to Natalie Williams' Soul Family, she has built a reputation as one of the finest vocalists working in the UK today. Audiences know the power of her voice. They know the way she can command a stage, lift a chorus and draw listeners into a performance. What they may not know is that behind that celebrated voice sits a songwriter of considerable depth and maturity.
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.
Bill had a great sense of humour and I have a booklet of his limericks and his often humorous, sometimes hilarious, observations on jazz and its players.
You can listen to the
show anytime HERE.
Plus, you can request music
for future programmes, pass on news or leave feedback by emailing Colin at jazz.tyne.hive@gmail.com
or by heading to www.jazzonthetyne.org.
Sunday 28th 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)
I was fortunate enough to see Olivia Murphy’s Orchestra at Cheltenham Festival last year performing Siren Cycle (review here) and most of the musicians on stage then have made it to this recording from a few months later. The ability she showed at Cheltenham for the imaginative use of the orchestra as a multi-headed, yet single voiced beast flows through the music on display here. There may be asides and winding threads whilst one musician holds the centre spot but there is a driving coherence to much of this as Murphy develops layers of themes and melodies. I don’t think I’ve been so excited by an orchestral jazz album since I first heard Colin Towns and, like Towns on his Mask Symphonic album Dreaming Man With Blue Suede Shoes with Maria Pia De Vito and Norma Winstone, the voices are folded into the sound of the orchestra, or stand in defiant contrast to it; integral, a part, yet not apart.
Shradhanjali honours the enduring legacy of the legendary tabla maestro Zakir Hussain - the pioneering force who, since the 1990s, brought together the world’s finest percussionists in a spirit of collaboration, virtuosity, and innovation, under the title Masters of Percussion.
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| © Jeff Pritchard |
An extraordinarily talented quintet of heavyweights of the UK jazz scene performed a set list of Nick Ramm composed tunes at Dalston’s premier Jazz Club on 19 June to provide a rich evening of entertainment on a sultry Friday evening. It was the first time I had seen Nick Ramm play live. Nick has been playing with Pete and Byron since the 1990’s and with Tom and Corrie more recently. I saw Corrie leading his own band at the Vortex last year and I have also seen him play with others such as Laura Jurd in the band Dinosaur. I have recently been enjoying the 2023 double album London Brew which celebrates the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’ record Bitches Brew which features amongst others Nick Ramm and Tom Herbert so I was expecting a very special show and I was not disappointed.
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| © Sylvia |
