Dom Pipkin: Wednesday Piano Joys - June 3

Dom Pipkin (piano/vocals).

Dom's regular Wednesday night spot never fails to please and tonight was no exception.

I turned up slightly late for the recital (all the best people do - I'm the exception) but the 45 minutes that I did hear made me wish I'd been on time.

The beauty of Dom's playing is in the variety that he offers. I could say, not a lot of jazz and I would be totally wrong. There is often more jazz played in blues and rock & roll than there is in some of the things that pass for jazz these days! 

BBC Young Jazz Musician 2020

Entries are invited for the BBC Young Jazz Musician 2020 event.

Details of how to enter can be found by following this link.

Don't hesitate, get your entry in before July 17 but, before then start practising!

Lance

Preview: Ballads Before Bed - June 3

Tonight at ten o'clock Paul Edis will present another in his series of late night live stream ballad performances. Rescheduled from last night as an act of solidarity with the world-wide music community seeking to highlight ongoing injustices in America and elsewhere, in previous weeks pianist Edis has played ideal late-night material and there is every reason to expect this evening's YouTube session will maintain the standard. 

Russell

Tuesday Jam Lockdown Video

Tuesday 2 June was the 6th Jam date we have missed since lockdown, and it looks like being some significant time before we can reconvene. 

Sadly, we can’t reproduce the jam online (wi-fi latency preventing us from playing together in the moment).  I managed, however, to get contributions from 22 fantastic musicians and made a video to try and capture some of the spirit of the regular last tune of the evening where all the musicians still in the house join in for a couple of choruses.  

Album Review: Article XI - Live in Newcastle

I have been present at several live album recordings, perhaps the most notable was 40 years ago to the month that I was  at Ronnie Scott's for Mole Jazz’s inaugural release, Blues for the Fisherman featuring the Art Pepper Quartet. A truly memorable evening that I still look back on with fondness to this day with the added bonus of being able to listen to the album knowing that somewhere I am featured within.

It was a great pleasure to receive the latest CD from Anton Hunter’s Article XI band  Live in Newcastle.  This album was recorded at The Bridge Hotel in December 2017 as part of a double bill with Cath Roberts’s Favourite Animals  band. I remember giving the evening a very positive review on BSH.

Black Out Tuesday

As a show of respect and solidarity BSH will remain silent for the remainder of today

Lance

Lennie Niehaus - I Remember You (1929 - 2020)

The news that Lennie Niehaus had died on May 28 came as a shock to me even though I hadn’t realised he was still alive! I never met him or even heard him playing live* and yet he became part of me at a relatively early age. 

I'd just bought an alto sax and crossed the river on the ferry from Hebburn to Wallsend - the same ferry that featured in Get Carter, although I got aboard some years before Michael Caine. The reason for my journey was my first sax lesson from the late Jackie Laing.

At the end of the lesson he loaned me a 10" LP by Niehaus saying "Listen to I Remember You, that's the standard you have to aim for".

R.I.P. Don Weller (1940 - 2020)

The news has just come in that tenor saxist Don Weller died on Saturday (May 30).

I have many memories of hearing him blow - play seems too weak a word when talking about Don - he was a veritable powerhouse. I remember him coming into the music shop in Newcastle where I worked after he'd done a storming gig at The Corner House the previous night. He wanted to buy some reeds, Rico Royal strength 5, the hardest reeds possible at the time. They were almost as thick as a tree trunk (slight exaggeration!). 

Lockdown Lindsay's Locked Up This Week! - June 1

Lindsay Hannon (vocals/ukulele)

Parchman Penitentiary, also known as Parchman Farm on recordings by  Mose Allison, John Mayall and others, is operational to this day and it was Lindsay's theme for tonight.

The Mississippi prison not only served as an incarceration (and execution) centre but its inmates were also employed to pick cotton thus saving on labour costs. Slavery may have been abolished, but not in this part of Mississippi. One assumes things are different today although, judging by the current climate in America I'm not so sure...

TheShowMustBePaused

The Musicians Union have issued a call for solidarity in the face of racism triggered off by events in America.
Link.

Read more here.

Aussie response.
Lance