The April Showers' Jam session @ The Dun Cow - April 3

Paul Edis (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); Rob Walker (drums) + Kay Usher (violin); John Rowland (tenor sax); Faye Thompson (alto sax); Roly Veitch (guitar) 

(Review by Russell)

Following hard on the heels of Tuesday's packed house with numerous sitters-in at the Black Swan events conspired to make Wednesday's monthly jam session at the Dun Cow a more cosy affair if not quite a damp squib. The house trio - Paul Edis, Paul Grainger and Black Swan jam session house drummer Rob Walker - set about rearranging the furniture...

One end of the Dun Cow was undergoing some sort of refit necessitating the temporary siting of the pub's pool table smack dab in the middle of the jam session's usual spot. What to do? The house trio moved tables and chairs from the conservatory space in order to set-up in time for an eight o'clock start. Would the sound be less than perfect? Would the pub's staff sort out the heating or would it be a winter overcoat night for audience and musicians alike? And the weather would have its say...

CD Review: Sokratis Sinopoulos -Metamodal

Sokratis Sinopoulos (Lyra); Yann Keerim (Piano); Dimitris Tsekouras (Double Bass); Dimitris Emmanouil (Drums). 

(Review by Chris)

The second of three ECM releases in March from the southern shores of Europe. You have to hand it to him, not only has ECM’s Manfred Eicher scoured Europe from North to South in his quest for the new well/spring of world music, but he is also not scared of unfamiliar jazz instrumentation! The bandoneon of Dominic Miller’s latest release (reviewed here on BSH) is outdone (not least in age) by the Cretan lyra played by contemporary master Sinopoulos, recorded in Athens last July. Too hot to have been Eicher’s summer holiday I imagine.

CD Review: Five Play - Live from the Firehouse Stage

Sherrie Maricle (MD/drums); Tomoko Ohno (piano); Noriko Uedo (bass); Jami Dauber (trumpet/flugelhorn); Janelle Reichman (tenor sax/clarinet).

(Review by Lance).

This one came out of left field and put me down for a nine-count! Maricle's T-Bone Special had me reeling. I mean, I've heard a few all-girl bands over the past year - at times I thought they were going to take over the jazz world and, with this disc, maybe they have!

A breakaway group from the world-renowned DIVA Jazz Orchestra the quintet comprises DIVA's rhythm section and two of its foremost soloists. In less enlightened times smart-arses would claim they could tell, on a blindfold test, whether the players were black or white/American or European. I wonder how they'd fayre on this one? Male or female? or would they just shrug and say that this is fantastic and who cares?

If You Can't Use It - Don't Waste It!

Just a short reminder of this Friday's Lunchtime Jazz concert by Emma Fisk's Hot Club Du Nord at the Gala Theatre in Durham - if you have tickets.

The concert sold out two months ago so you will need to contact the box office about any returns. If you do have tickets which you are unable to use, please inform the box office or bring/send someone with the tickets on the day. 

All concerts this year have sold out at the box office, but there are always seats untaken, which is frustrating for Gala staff (who can't admit people without tickets) and for those of us running the concerts, as well as to those people who arrive on the off-chance that there may be returns and then see empty seats.

Brian Ebbatson.

Hot Club du Nord - Gala Theatre & Cinema, Millennium Place, Durham DH1 1WA. Tel: 03000 266 600. 1:00pm. £5.00.

Gig Cancellation.

I've received the sad news that the planned gig on Friday, April 5, by the Paul Edis Trio at St. Cuthbert's Centre has had to be postponed due to the ill health of one of the main organisers involved. 

It's a very close-knit community, and with one of the central figures involved in the centre, and with the jazz concerts at Crook, being so ill, the decision has been made that it would be inappropriate to go ahead with the gig at this time. It will be rescheduled later in the year.

Lance.

Jam session @ The Black Swan - April 2

(Review/Photos by Russell).

Two days into April mark this one down as gig of the month. A jam session shouldn't, by rights, win such an accolade, after all, they're blowing sessions, but when the stars fell on Newcastle Arts Centre's Black Swan basement venue this second day of April the bookies weren't taking any more bets.

The house trio set the ball rolling with Four followed by a typically bluesy, sensitive version of But Beautiful courtesy of the ever-amiable pianist Alan Law. Little did we know that there would be a battalion of sitters-in as the first of them - County Durham's Abbie Finn - threw her metaphorical hat into the ring joining Law and bassist John Pope on a sparkling Bud's Bubble. At this juncture little did Rob Walker know he would further vacate the drum stool for another couple of sticksmen keen to show what they could do.

CD Review: Graeme Wilson Quartet - Abscondit

Graeme Wilson (tenor sax/flute/balafon); Paul Edis (piano/keys/flute); Andy Champion (bass/bass guitar/flute); Adam Sinclair (drums/perc)

(Review by Lance).

Back in the early sixties, jazz critics had a shock awakening when they first heard the Newcastle based hardbop quintet the Emcee Five. Back then, if a band wasn't doing the rounds of the London scene they were nowhere men. However, just as the Beatles from Liverpool and the Animals from Newcastle took the London pop world by storm, so did the Emcee Five strike a blow for the provinces in the less publicised world of jazz.

Since then, the standard of jazz has risen to such heights that on most nights in most major cities you can hear jazz of world-class quality. Which leads me to pose the question - are there four better players than these guys anywhere in the country or, maybe, outside of New York?

Red Hot Rhythm Makers @ the Prohibition Bar - April 1

Ali Affleck (washboard, vocals); Alex Stewart (trombone, vocals); Sarah Findlay (trumpet, flugel, vocals); Kassandra E'Silva (clarinet, tenor sax, vocals); Danielle Price (tuba, vocals); Ali Tod (guitar, banjo, vocals) 

(Review by Lance).

Another stompingly good Monday night at the Pro Bar. A couple of weeks back the Tenement Jazz Band came down from Edinburgh and laid waste to the English trad scene. Last night, their female counterparts crossed Hadrian's Wall and also kicked some Sassanach asses.

Mind you, unlike the Tenement clan, the Red Hot Rhythm Makers didn't grab me straight from the off. Bourbon St. Parade had some intonation problems and didn't really do the business. However, from then on things just got better and better and better! Onward and upwards most definitely the case as the vocals took over. All the girls chipped in at various times with washboarder Ali Affleck handling the majority including Lovin' Sam From Alabam; Everybody Loves my Baby; Root, Hog, and Die; Careless Love and a blues the title of which escaped me but it began with I woke up this morning...

CD Review: Dominic Miller - Absinthe

Dominic Miller (Guitar); Santiago Arias (Bandoneon); Mike Lindup; (Keyboard); Nicolas Fiszman (Bass); Manu Katché (Drums). 

(Review by Chris)

This is the second ECM recording by Miller, the versatile and much travelled guitarist originating from Buenos Aires, but now resident in the south of France where this was translucently recorded in the usual ECM style. His French home infuses the music with a light, airy folk feel, but although tempting to think of the bandoneon sounding like a French accordion, the instrument and harmonies here are definitively Argentinian, home of young folk/jazz star Santiago Arias, who takes the majority of melodic lead role. I’d say Miller achieves his sleeve-note aim of an Impressionist musical statement, in the tradition of the painter masters of Provence of old.  Miller has links to the North East musical history, as he has toured and recorded with Sting since 1991, but this album marks a rather different direction to his day job.

Remembering Keith @ the Prohibition Bar - March 31.

(Review by Lance)

I'd just watched Sunderland lose the Chekatrade Cup final to Portsmouth so that entering the Pro Bar and hearing Gypsy Dave Smith, accompanied by Ray Burns,  singing the blues captured my mood. I'd despaired at the cheers from Newcastle's 'anti-Sunderland' fans when Pompey emerged victorious after a penalty shoot-out. Nice one guys support a team that's 400 miles away as opposed to one that's about 12 miles and a few stops on the Metro! But that's the tribalism of the so-called beautiful game on Mother's Day*.

I remembered Crombie's views on football fans - they didn't get into the old Jazz Caff if they were wearing 'shirts' - 'A bunch of wankers!' his favourite remark. 

And, of course, we jazzers have also been guilty of tribalism if you think back to the days when traddies and boppers decreed that ne'er the like should meet.