Collective @ Hoochie Coochie, February 7 - Second Set.

So now I have to follow Lance the Poet!  I too enjoyed the first set, not least because I’ve finally defined what is meant by ‘funk’, that interesting combination of rock and jazz.  I’d been listening to it for years and just didn’t know it. 

The second set had plenty of funk, and soul, gospel and blues for good measure.  The line-up was the same except that Al Saxon on sax disappeared and Hannah Rickard came on stage to entertain us mightily with strong stylish vocals, on songs such as Take Me To The River and Let The Good Times Roll.  And the good times did roll as the large audience of mainly young people clapped and shouted their approval, with dancing in front of the stage – I counted 12 dancers towards the end of the set.  The instrumentalists showed no signs of flagging, the guitar howled, the drums went the full measure, underpinned by the keys and the cool Katie on bass guitar.  Naturally the fans hollored for more and they got it when Al Saxon returned for a rocking, belting, blues. Just one minor quibble.  I wanted to be able to make out more of the announcements, but I could only do this when Al Saxon spoke in the first half.  I noticed he didn't try to eat the mic and talk at the same time.

A really enjoyable gig.

Ann Alex.
Photo of Hannah Rickard by andy siddens LPRS

James Birkett and Bradley Johnston @ Queen's Halll, Hexham. February 7.

We paid our first visit to the Queens Hall to see James Birkett and Bradley Johnson give a concise history in Jazz guitar music, what we did not expect was to be entertained by two world class guitarists for £7.50. My brother, a Jazz fan of over 50 years, on seeing James Birkett and Bradley Johnston for the first time was “completely blown away.” The whole audience were completely lost in the music and the immaculate guitar playing. This was a great show, many thanks to you all at the Queens Hall, whoever is running the show don’t fix it, you are doing a cracking job.

Phil and Ray Dougan.

Collective @ Hoochie Coochie February 7 - First Set.

Al Saxon (alt/fl); Tim Bloomer (gtr) Katie Trigger (bs); Dominic Snaith (keys); Robbie Houston (dms)

Funky alto wails. 

Guitar rocks.

Organ grooves. 

Drummer drives. 

Al Saxon on sax

Knows his axe

It's Armageddon. 

Ice Cool Katie 

Doesn't flip

She's hip.

Fuck the glory

Without her ,

'twould be

Another

Story

Lance.
More photos courtesy of  Andy Siddons LRPS

Pink Lane Jazz Co-op Latest (on Facebook.)

It looks like 25 Pink Lane is going to remain closed for a while. In the meantime four different venues have offered to provide a temporary home for Jazz Café activities. We think it's a good idea to keep the jazz flowing until we can get back to Pink Lane. Would you come?

PLJC

Customs House Big Band Open Rehearsal @ New Crown Hotel, South Shields

A new year, a few new faces and a few new tunes, at least to me but the Customs House crew proved they can still do it. Ruth Lambert being indisposed, it was an evening of instrumentals,  they rehearsed Sweet Georgia Brown, Prelude To A Kiss, Sing Sang Sung, and But Beautiful. The two ballads were out of this world.

The Concert set had The Way You Look Tonight, Just Friends, Georgia On My Mind, with some lovely trombone solos, It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing, and then two numbers I hadn't heard before North Shore Morning and Switch In Time,  the set ended with a swinging Indiana.

 It was a good night with a sparse audience probably due to the cold weather, we came from as far apart as Durham and Dinnington, so where were the locals? It's a funny old world when name bands (and some of them dead names) can get people to pay to listen to the old warhorses whilst a good contemporary local band performs to a handful.

Miles    

Tasty Tailgate at The Millstone

It's one of the coldest weeks of the winter, but here's just a few of the dishes being served at The Millstone tomorrow afternoon that'll bring a warm glow to your cheeks:

Full Monty All-day Breakfast £4.95 They say this is the most important meal of the day and it doesn't get much better than this: 2 Pork Sausages, 2 rashers of Best Bacon, 2 Fried Eggs, Baked Beans, Grilled Tomato and the Chef's Hand-cut Home-fried Chips - better than the Chippy! or 

Millstone Minted Lamb Pie £6.95 Local Lamb cooked with Sweet Carrots in a Red Wine Gravy and traditionally flavoured with a zingy Mint Sauce - it's Sunday Dinner in a pie! Served with Chef's Hand-cut Chips and Garden Peas or 

Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni (v) £5.75  Ricotta Cannelloni in a Spinach & Goats Cheese Sauce topped with Melted Cheese and served with 2 Slices of Garlic Bread and Hand-cut Chips plus at 1.00pm 

The Vieux Carré Jazzmen £Free with our special guest (all the way from sunny California) ace trombonist, Brian Richardson. See you there, Brian Bennett. 

Paul Tanner dies aged 95.

Paul Tanner, the last surviving member of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, has died aged 95. As well as playing the trombone, Tanner also invented the Theremin.
Tanner died on February 5.
Rest in Peace.
Obituary.
Lance

February Informer now on the streets.

Hey have you seen the February Informer? Apart from the monthly Be-Bop Spoken Here column (sic) there is also a tribute to Crombie. He may be gone but he ain't going away!
Lance.

Jazz Services - is Online booking for you?

We need your feedback on whether you will use the online ticket service

The Jazz Services site already provides a comprehensive listing of gigs for the whole of the UK and a search facility.

The new booking service will provide a "book now" facility alongside the gig listing for those promoters that sign up to the service.

The Collective

The Collective is back at Hoochie Coochie this Thursday with a special evening of live music for you. The first 45 minute set will be with brilliant saxophonist Alex Saxon playing some funk classics and the second will be with wonderful vocalist Hannah Rickard singing some soul classics. We can't wait!

(From Facebook).