Press release: Orchestras celebrate Duke royally across Scotland

© Shawn Pearce

Comprising thirty-four musicians, Remembering Duke will feature an opening set by the seventeen-strong Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra. The SNJO will then play its internationally acclaimed Ellington interpretations with their special guest, singer Lucy-Anne Daniels adding gospel music-inspired selections of the great composer’s songs.

“Duke Ellington has been an inspiration to musicians and composers across the musical spectrum for almost 100 years,” says SNJO founder and musical director, saxophonist Tommy Smith. “The breadth of his writing encompasses songs that were the pop music of the day and hugely descriptive suites that compare with works in the classical canon in terms of ambition. It’s wonderful to witness young players from the TikTok era finding their way into playing jazz through Ellington as generations before have done.”

Yellowjackets @ Stoller Hall, Manchester - Nov. 2

Bob Mintzer (tenor sax, EWI); Russell Ferrante (keyboards); Dane Alderson (bass); Will Kennedy (drums)

After an incredible week away in Cologne and Amsterdam, with an added opportunity to see the incredible Bjørn Solli and Johan Hörlén at Salon de Jazz, you would think that coming home back to the UK would feel somewhat deflating, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Staying an additional night in Manchester, we got to see the famous Yellowjackets at Stoller Hall, comprised of Russell Ferrante on keys, Bob Mintzer on tenor sax and EWI, Dane Alderson on bass and Will Kennedy on drums. Shockingly, the audience seemed rather thin on the ground, and despite a rush of people grabbing their seats only seconds before the gig began, there were plenty of empty seats. It seemed a real shame to us, but it certainly didn’t seem to have any kind of negative impact on the exceptional performance to come.

Soul Bossa Nova

I just had to post this recording of the Quincy Jones Orchestra playing Quincy Jones' composition Soul Bossa Nova. It was a staple feature of the Newcastle Big Band's repertoire on their Sunday lunchtime gigs in what was then, back in the early '70s, the University Theatre. It's good to hear it played again - properly!

Incidentally the bass player with the NBB was Sting who, in those days, probably never imagined that one day he, Sting, would be introduced on stage in glowing terms by the late great man himself! Check out the occasion HERE Lance

Greg Abate @ the Victory Club, Cheltenham - Nov. 1

Greg Abate (alto sax/flute); Dave Newton (piano); Alec Dankworth (bass); Sebastian de Krom (drums)

After a month of little or no live jazz activity that interested me, I realised that Greg Abate was due to arrive in the UK on October 30 to begin his second tour of England and Wales this year starting at Swansea and ending at Newcastle on November 24. 

I counted 19 gigs in his tour itinerary and I decided to attend the Cheltenham one,  remembering that my only other visit to Cheltenham was to see Johnny Griffin and Jackie Mclean at a large theatre. That was way back in the day. I had a car then and the journey was so much easier. These days I use trains a lot and I was very lucky that, on this occasion by way of a change, I had minimal problems although, for many, the delays and cancellations continue.

R.I.P. Quincy Jones (1933 - 2024)

'Q' as Quincy Jones was known was, arguably, jazz's greatest all-rounder. Trumpet player, composer, arranger, producer and recipient of many awards in many genres. To list his achievements would require a volume twice the size of his excellent 2001 autobiography Q.

I never came across him live but his recording legacy is without parallel. With Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie and his own bands - Birth of a Band is surely one of the best big band recordings ever. 

Dean Stockdale Trio @ the Central Bar Jazz Club, Gateshead - Nov. 3

Dean Stockdale (piano); Mick Shoulder (bass); John Bradford (drums)

There's something about the Central Bar Jazz Club that's hard to describe. The darkened room creates an atmosphere that gives you the feeling of being anywhere. New York, London, Paris, anywhere but Gateshead. Although it's in an upstairs room, the ambience is that of a cellar club back in the day when you saw the band through a magenta mist or, to be more accurate, cigarette smoke.

Fortunately, the cigarette era is gone and the air is cleaner and the music is as good as ever - at least it was this afternoon.

Album review: Jim Self/John John Chlodini - Feels So Good (Basset Hound Records)

Jim Self (tuba, fluba); John Chlodini (guitar) + Kris Bergh (trumpet); Bill Booth (trombone); Phil Feather (alto sax); Steve March (tenor sax).

Reviewing an album by Self and Chlodini is becoming an annual thing. Feels So Good is the third one in as many years: Touch and Go in 2023 and My America 2: My Destinations in 2022. On both occasions I expressed my reservations in advance. Happily, those reservations proved to be pleasantly unfounded.

Such is the case with this latest offering. Self plays with a mellifluous tone on both F tuba and his own invention the fluba -  the offspring of crossing a tuba with a flugelhorn. 

The Classic Jazz Party: Friday afternoon @ the Village Hotel, North Tyneside - Nov. 1

Musicians and audience turned up from far and wide at the Village Hotel for the annual, and appropriately named, International Classic Jazz Party. Yes, they came from NYC and other locations in the US, from various European towns and cities, maybe even further afield as well as from all over the UK.

They came to play, dance and listen to the jazz and swing from the 1920s & '30s. Each set was themed and today's opened with a tribute to the late Mike Durham who originally inaugurated the three day event as the Whitley Bay Jazz Festival back in (circa) 1990. The opening set also centered around the annual Young Talent Award which this year went to multi-instrumentalist Gavin Rice from Cape Cod MA.

Shellac (O): Sy Oliver - For Dancers Only/Four or Five Times

In 1937 Jimmy Lunceford and his Orchestra recorded For Dancers Only, a tune composed and arranged by Sy Oliver.

In 1950 that same Sy Oliver recorded what was virtually the same arrangement  with his own orchestra. The big difference was the screaming out chorus by the trumpets with, I guess, Bernie Priven taking what was Freddie Webster's solo on the original version. Both versions are are excellent.

Again another, or rather two, of those long forgotten record shops - J. Stanley Penney had a shop in South Shields and one in Hexham. I seem to remember that the one in South Shields was at the top of Fowler St. but I could be wrong. The Hexham one I know nothing about. Lance

YouTube.

The Classic Jazz Party: Welcome Concert @ the Village Hotel, North Tyneside - Oct. 31

Rico Tomasso (cornet, vocals); Andy Schumm (clarinet) ; Natalie Sharf (tenor sax); Charlie Halloran (trombone); Ulf Johansson Werre (piano, vocals); Félix Hunot (guitar, banjo); Henry Lemaire (double bass); Richard Pite (drums); Nicolle Rochelle (vocals)

The 2024 Classic Jazz Party - formally Mike Durham's International Classic Jazz Party - sold out several months ago. This evening at the Village Hotel, North Tyneside, the annual Welcome Concert got things underway at ten o'clock. The Village Pub and Grill was standing room only as Rico Tomasso led the charge.

Ring Dem Bells rang out across the room, solos cheered to the rafters. Tomasso (cornet and vocals), representing the home contingent along with drummer Richard Pite, three newbies would feature throughout the set.