Preview: Blaydon Jazz Club Fundraiser @ The Black Bull - March 17

(Preview by Russell.)

Blaydon Jazz Club is fast approaching its thirty-fifth anniversary year. Jazz clubs come and go, Blaydon Jazz Club just keeps on going. Fads, fashions, they come and go, what doesn't change is quality jazz and that is what has always been on offer in Blaydon on Tyne. Tomorrow - Sunday 17 - at the Black Bull pub on Bridge Street there is a fundraising triple bill concert to help ease Roly Veitch's dream-come-true into its next thirty-five years.

1984, jazz at the Black Bull, Blaydon...2019, jazz at the Black Bull, Blaydon. Between times the club migrated, setting up home at one or two other nearby venues, they were good times but recently Blaydon Jazz Club returned to its spiritual home. Tomorrow there is a major fundraising drive designed to raise sufficient funds to help secure the club's short to medium term future. 

Radio 3 Jazz News

Hugh C has brought to my attention some changes that are afoot at the BBC including the loss, or rather 'resting' to use the jargon, of two established jazz programmes - Jazz Now and Geoffrey Smith's Jazz.

Details of these changes can be found here.

Lance.

PS: Classical music coverage appears to be going to be increased - surprise, surprise.

Mick Shoulder Quintet @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall - March 15

Lewis Watson (tenor saxophone); Graham Hardy (trumpet); Dean Stockdale (piano); Mick Shoulder (double bass); Russ Morgan (drums)

(Review by Russell/Photos courtesy of Jerry E).

In April last year, Bishop Auckland Town Hall's monthly lunchtime concert drew a healthy crowd. Today the same first-floor cafe/bar accommodated a larger audience there to hear the same line-up. And little surprise given that word-of-mouth recommendation clearly persuaded more people to turn out to hear Mick Shoulder's A-list bop quintet. 

CD Review: Gabriel Latchin Trio - The Moon and I

Gabriel Latchin (piano); Dario Di Lecce (bass); John Morrison (drums).

(Review by Lance).

Call me irresponsible - ok, me and Frank - call me impatient that's your call but, I just couldn't wait until April 5 to tell the world about this one.

Latchin's second CD more than lives up to its predecessor - Introducing Gabriel Latchin which I raved about in 2017.

Straight down the middle piano jazz. No pregnant pauses, no using the piano as a harp substitute. Just honest, what you see is what you get, music! And what you get is a pianist who swings in the grand tradition of, to quote Jazzwise, Hank Jones or Tommy Flanagan.

A choice mix of standards and originals by Latchin, whose C.V. stretches from the Guildhall School of Music to mega masters such as Aaron Goldberg, Peter Martin and Peter Bernstein, demonstrating just how well he has assimilated their teaching whilst, at the same time, absorbing this knowledge to form part of his own individual approach. The result is a complete musician very much to be reckoned with.

Four on Friday

(Preview by Russell)

Lunchtime today offers an embarrassment of riches. The Lit & Phil in Newcastle is sure to pull its usual large crowd with a first visit by Miriam Ast and Victor Gutierrez. The vocals-piano duo's album - Secret Songs - was favourably reviewed by BSH's Ann Alex. 

Four stops on the Metro from Central Station to West Jesmond and you can hear (at the same time, one o'clock) Classic Swing at the Royal British Legion Club. One minute from the station, reasonably priced beers, good jazz, it's an option.

A few more stops on the Metro to Monkseaton and you can catch Maureen Hall's Rendezvous Jazz at the Monkseaton Arms. The Front Street pub is a popular watering hole with a high demand for its lunchtime grub to accompany Hall's happy band of Dixielanders. 

CD Review: Seamus Blake - Guardians of the Heart Machine

Seamus Blake (tenor saxophone, vocals); Tony Tixier (piano); Florent Nisse (double bass); Gautier Garrigue (drums)

(Review by Russell)

In a career spanning the best part of a quarter of a century British born Seamus Blake has recorded several albums as leader or co-leader and contributed to dozens of other recordings. The tenor saxophonist's new release - Guardians of the Heart Machine - is set to take its place in the upper echelons of his body of work to date. 

Blake spent his childhood in Canada, studied at Berklee and relocated to New York to forge a career as a new voice in contemporary jazz. This new CD on Michael Janisch's London-based Whirlwind Recordings label finds the recently relocated tenor saxophonist working with three fine French musicians in his adopted home city of Paris. 

Manchester loses a stalwart - RIP Mart Rodger

I've just received the sad news via Patti Durham and Louis Lince of the passing of Mart Rodger, leader of Mart Rodger Manchester Jazz.

Sadly, I never heard the band live although I did have - probably still do - a VHS tape of the band from some years back. I've tried to find it but, alas, I either loaned it out to a 'friend' or it is buried beneath a host of other videotapes in a cellar, or an attic, or a garage. I'd hoped to find it to remind myself how well my more traditionally inclined associates rated the band.

Vocalist Mandy Kemp To Release Debut EP, Produced By Jazz Icon Jane Monheit Singer Igniting A Second Career With “Firecracker” Release

(Press release)

Los Angeles, California, March 13, 2019 – Emerging L.A. vocalist Mandy Kemp will make her recording debut later this month, with an album produced by Grammy-nominated jazz singer, Jane Monheit. Kemp’s 6-song EP will be available for streaming and download beginning March 29, 2019 on all major music sites, including iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon, Google Play, Spotify, and Bandcamp, as well as on her website, www.mandykemp.com. Pre-orders of the album can be placed through iTunes or Bandcamp beginning March 18, 2019.  

After generating funding for the album through a successful crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, Kemp recorded her album earlier this year at Big City Studios in Granada Hills, CA, with a band comprised of some of the best players in the L.A. jazz scene: pianist Andy Langham, bassist Jonathan Flaugher, guitarist Will Brahm, vibraphonist Nick Mancini, and drummer Rick Montalbano.

Nice pickings - Bukka White's guitar sold for £93,000

Bukka White's 1933 National Duolian Resonator guitar, as we reported back in January was scheduled to go up for auction yesterday. The guitar, which had been gifted to Newcastle photographer Keith Perry by Bukka White in 1976 was sold for £93,000 at an auction house in Corsham, Wiltshire to an unnamed buyer.

Lance.
Original post.
Auction.

Julija Jacenaite & Steve Glendinning @ Jazz Cafe Mezzanine - March 13

Julija Jacenaite (vocals) & Steve Glendinning (guitar)

(Review/photo by Russell)

Natural light flooded through the first-floor windows at Jazz Cafe Mezzanine as Newcastle Arts Centre's recently opened performance space presented the first in a new - fortnightly Wednesdays - afternoon gig series at Jazz Cafe Mezzanine. An all-seats-taken crowd materialised to listen to two sets by Julija Jacenaite and Steve Glendinning.

Wave found Julija Jacenaite in good spirits as our adopted Lithuanian Geordie sat alongside guitarist Steve Glendinning. Now, this was an interesting departure from JJ's usual 'stand and shoot from the lip' jam session approach. Full-on, dynamic delivery is what we've come to expect from Julija yet this casual, let's-remain-seated, gig revealed a more considered, reflective side to our vocalist. 

Guitarist Steve Glendinning's proven abilities as accompanist were in evidence throughout the afternoon's performance. Love Me or Leave Me, Mood Indigo, a JJ original, Glendinning supplied the chords and rhythmic support taking an occasional solo along the way, winning applause for his tasteful work on The Girl from Ipanema.