Preview: Indigo Jazz voices @ The Globe - April 19

All the members of Indigo Jazz Voices will be singing at the next performance this coming Thursday, April 19. The gig starts at 7.30pm, and is good value at £5 admission. You’ll hear Barry Keatings, Carrie McCullock, David Edgar, Jenny Lingham, Miriam McCormick and Jen Errington. There’ll be an interesting selection of songs, including Love me or Leave me, The Very Thought Of You, Embraceable You, I Only Have Eyes For You and the very appropriate April In Paris.

The songs will be accompanied by the trio of Alan Law (piano); Katy Trigger (bass guitar); and Nic Alevroyiannis on drums.  So get yourself along to the Globe – What’s not to like?
Ann Alex

The Postmodernaires @ Hoochie Coochie - April 15.

Ross Laing (trumpet/MD); David Gray (trombone); Johnny 'Blue Hat' Davis (tenor); Andrew Richardson (keys); Rev Parker (bass); Tom Shorten (drums); Gina Lou (vocals).

(Review by Lance).

This band don't take no prisoners - this band. They go for the jugular right from the off. and the Hoochie regulars weren't complaining - Palm Court orchestras not welcome here!

Sing, Sing, Sing somehow merged into Take Five and ended up as George Michael's Never Gonna Dance Again, This is what The Postmodernaires are all about, taking pop classics and transforming them into earlier settings which usually seem to end up as 1950s' rock and roll.

King Bees @ Newcastle Beer & Cider Festival - April 13

Michael Littlefield (guitar, vocals); Scott Taylor (harmonica, vocals); Dominic Hornsby (piano, guitar, vocals); Simon Hedley (double bass); Giles Holt (drums) + lots of beer!

(Review by Russell)

The blues band of the moment, a Friday night out at the 42nd Newcastle Beer and Cider Festival, you can’t go wrong, can you? A raised corner stage, a modest PA system, the crowd drinking like there was no tomorrow and with WWIII likely to break out at any time what better way to go?! The King Bees took to the stage with commemorative festival beer glasses in hand (a drinking band – hurrah!) ready to play the best South Side Chicago blues east of, well, Chicago!

Mick Shoulder Quintet @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall - April 13

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

(Review by Russell)

Auckland Castle is closed for major renovation works, the Zurbaráns are out on loan, Kynren is due to return, but all roads led to BATH (Bishop Auckland Town Hall) for a lunchtime gig. Mick Shoulder assembled a starry quintet to play the music of one of the great bands…the Jazz Messengers. The truth is, and Mick would readily acknowledge the fact, we were there to hear Lewis Watson. Where he’s been is anyone’s guess and one question remained to be answered…could he still cut it?

Preview: Sunday in Newcastle (and surrounding districts)

Another 'spoilt for choice' Sunday. Giles Strong/Roly Veitch at Blaydon; Steve Glendinning at the Globe and The Postmodernaires at Hoochie.

This latter gig is the most intriguing. Fuelled by the global success of the American Postmodern Jukebox, the Postmodernaires (remember the original Modernaires singing Jukebox Saturday Night?) follow a similar route to that taken by PMJ i.e. modern pop songs played 1920 style and going by their YouTube promo they do it well. I guess the swing dancers who were out for the House of the Black Gardenia at GIJF last weekend will be up for this one too. It's a 7 piece band so I'm not sure who the horns will be other than trumpet/MD Ross Laing; suffice to say they will do the job brilliantly!

It's a 6pm stomp off (doors 4pm) so making a mad dash to the Black Bull or the Globe may require an early departure or none at all.

This is a shame as the three guitarists at the other two venues (plus Bradley over at the Old Fire Station in Sunderland) are all masters of the six strings.

Perhaps the answer lies in Sleepy Jake Segrave who will be playing the blues from 9pm at Billy Bootleggers.

Lance

CD Review: Gene Jackson Trio NuYorx- The Power of Love

Gene Jackson (drums); Gabriel Guerrero (piano); Carlo De Rosa (bass).

(Review by Lance).

Recorded, like so many classic jazz recordings, in New Jersey - This time in The Tedesco Studios in Paramus, NJ - we could be witnessing the unveiling of another classic. Only time will tell. What is certain is that it's as good as most piano trios that are currently doing the rounds.

A mix of originals by all three plus a couple by Monk (Played Twice and Ugly Beauty) and one by Cole Porter (I Love You) - where would we be without Cole to fall back on!

Jackson comes to this, his first album as a leader, with an impressive CV that includes Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland and Kevin Eubanks to mention but a few.

I Bought Some Blue Notes...

Another GIJF has been and gone and, as always, there were some wonderful moments and, as is the case at any festival of this magnitude, some not so wonderful moments. I won't go into the latter, suffice to say the good far outweighed the bad.

And, quite often, for those of impoverished means, the free concerts on the concourse often compared favorably with some of the top dollar ones. For many, I know that the concourse set by the House of the Black Gardenia was the highlight of the weekend and deservedly so.

I too found much delight on the concourse even away from the stage. No, I'm not referring to the engaging sales patter of the hucksters on the Jazz Co-op and Jazz North East stands or even the Cajun and Creole Pizza stall. I mean the CD stand.

Suddenly, I was a kid in the candy store again!

All those Blue Note CDs at 3 for a tenner!

A Dun Cow Coda (jam session April 11)

(Review/photo by Russell)

As BSH’s Editor-in-Chief wandered off into the night, John Pope wandered into the Dun Cow. The house trio’s fixer and hard-working bassist Paul Grainger eyed JP’s arrival, and, in next to no time Grainger was at the bar as Pope gave him a spell. JP was joined on the stand by Newcastle Uni’s final year music students (the Dun Cow could be their local) Ben Richardson, piano, and drummer Harry Still.* These lads have impressed sitting in at the Jazz Café’s jam session and they seemed up for it here in Brandling Village. And whatever lies ahead for them, in years to come they’ll look back to the time they worked with vocalist Alice Grace! 

The Filip Verneert and Enrique Simon Quartet @ the Eyemouth Hippodrome - April 10.

(Review by Kay C/Photos ©gillesmoulinphotography.com)

What a stroke of luck for the Eyemouth Hippodrome audience that Belgian Filip Verneert (guitar/composer), Spaniard Enrique Simon (piano/composer), French Gil Lachenal (bass) and Belgian Frederik Van den Berghe (drums) chose to begin their first Scottish tour just north of the border.

Filip and Enrique have been performing as a duo for four years and more recently as a quartet with Gil and Frederik. Their sometimes light-hearted, sometimes deeply moving explanations of the inspirations behind their compositions enriched an engaging, melodic and often surprising journey of jazz through Spain, Belgium, France, Italy, America, Japan and the Eden of Garden with each piece clearly evoking the sentiment and varied atmospheres that inspired them.

GIJF Day 2: The Electrio and Kokoroko - Sage Gateshead, April 7

(Review by Steve T/Photos courtesy of Ken Drew)

As we were herded out of Sage One, the whole of the building seemed immersed in this large sound coming from the band on the concourse. Roz had forewarned us of a Jazz-Funk band from Leeds by the name of The Electrio, which seemed entirely appropriate to follow funk maestro Maceo Parker at a Jazz Festival, but this was most definitely distinctly, specifically Azymuthesque.

It wasn't just the volume that was large - though it was - but the sound, like a big band or a big rock band, and I knew they'd find an audience on Tyneside. Like George Benson selling out Sage One in record time, after years of being Uncle George at Julies Night Club, the Boys from Brazil are in the water around the North East. Billy Walker was a major promoter in Stanley and Newcastle in the eighties, with a dance-floor free remit at the Hilltop and downstairs in Walkers, and never missed a chance to slip in some Azymuth. Paul Cook was one of the big club DJs across the region in the seventies and eighties, but liked nothing better than some smooth, funky Azymuth. Well maybe Marvin Gaye. They were the cause of my first trip to Hoochie and I believe they've been back since.