Preview: Quilliam Bros in La La Land

If you're yet to see Damien Chazelle's Oscar-winning film La La Land and just happen to be at a loose end in Newcastle on Tuesday (Jan 15) there is an opportunity to attend a free-admission screening at Quilliam Bros.' Teahouse. 

The ever-popular, all-things-tea emporium at Barras Bridge regularly screens films that you wish you'd seen first time round or simply would like to see again. Earlier this month Chazelle's Whiplash was on the menu, now, at eight o'clock, Tuesday in Quilliam's basement cinema it's La La Land. Starring Ryan Gosling as a wannabe jazz pianist and Emma Stone as Mia, this romantic, feel-good movie is worth catching for the soundtrack alone. Justin Hurwitz' Academy Award-winning score is a real 'ear-worm' - it'll be in your head 'til summer. 

Admission is free so the least you could do is sit with a cuppa. Quilliam Bros.' Teahouse is the building at the bottom of Claremont Road opposite Great North Museum: Hancock. La La Land is a 12A certificate film.  

Russell

Birthday Party @ Cullercoats Crescent Club with the Vieux Carré Jazzmen - Jan 11

Jim McBriarty (soprano sax, clarinet, vocals); Lawrence McBriarty (trombone); Brian Bennett (banjo); Bill Colledge (bass); Feed Thompson (drums, vocals) + John Brumwell (vocals) + Harmonica Kings: Dan Burrows & Mike Jamieson (harmonica, vocals) 

(Review by Russell)

An invitation to Dan's birthday party was readily accepted. The likelihood of a buffet was an attraction as was the prospect of a band being booked for the occasion. On learning that the band would be none other than the Vieux Carré Jazzmen it fell to your correspondent to pen a review.

Cullercoats Crescent Club's ground floor, sea view lounge filled up nicely - family, friends, liggers - as bar staff laid out a sumptuous buffet. Yes, a good decision to get along to wish Dan well then tuck in. But wait...first a beer. The Old Potting Shed's Legally Blonde from High Spen the pick, a glance at the buffet - YUM! - then to the jazz. 

CD Review: Theon Cross - FYAH

Theon Cross (tuba); Nubya Garcia (tenor sax); Moses Boyd (drums) + Wayne Francis (tenor sax - 2 tks); Artie Zaitz (guitar  -2 tks); Tim Doyle (perc. - 1 tk); Nathaniel Cross (trombone - 1 tk).

(Review by Lance).

If there's anything worse than having to listen to a banjo record, bagpipes excluded, it's a tuba record! As such, I viewed this, albeit highly acclaimed album, with suspicion. Still, it is creating waves in the jazz media and the tubaist, Theon Cross, won the 2016 APPJAG gong for the Best Jazz Newcomer and those folks know a good one when they see one - believe me!

So I played it and, whilst it wasn't 10 on the Richter Scale, it did make enough ripples to, say, demolish a small village such as Snods Edge in Co. Durham. Not that we would wish such a fate on that lovely community.

It works well, tuba, sax and sticks come at it trilaterally with each member throwing ingredients into the pot resulting in a meal that is both hotter than a Vindaloo and cooler than vanilla ice cream.

Matt MacKellar Band @ the Black Swan - Jan. 10

Ben Lawrence (keyboards); Andy Champion (double bass); Matt MacKellar (drums); Niffi Osiyemi (vocals) 

(Review and individual pics are by Russell/group photo on the left is courtesy of Mike Tilley).

A new band, a first gig, would anyone turn up? You bet! The Black Swan did good business long before the advertised start and when the Matt MacKellar Band took to the stage it was standing room only.

Drummer Matt, home on leave from Berklee, handled the announcements with no little confidence. Enlisting pianist Ben Lawrence, himself taking a break from undergraduate studies at Durham University, was a good move and securing the on-loan services of bass supremo Andy Champion proved to be a shrewd piece of business in the January jazz transfer window. Student medic Niffi Osiyemi traded stethoscope for retro-chic microphone to add a touch of neo-soul vocal pzazz. 

CD Review: Ernie Watts Quartet - Home Light

Ernie Watts (tenor sax); Christof Saenger (piano); Rudi Engel (bass); Heinrich Koebberling (drums).

(Review by Lance).

I first heard Ernie Watts playing alto on Buddy Rich's famed big band album, Big Swing Face. Impressed was I.

In 2012 I was even more impressed when I heard him live, with the above musicians, at Ronnie's. Without a shadow of a doubt, Ernie Watts is the real deal as is this, his latest recording.

Jeremy McMurray with the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Dormans Jazz Club, Middlesbrough - Jan.3

Jeremy McMurray (piano); Mark Toomey (alto sax); Paul Donnelly (guitar); Peter Ayton (bass); Richard Brown (drums).

(Review by Ron H).

Jazz at Dormans got off to a fine start with our first guest band of 2019 - the Pocket Jazz Orchestra, led by pianist Jeremy McMurray. 

The night began in great style with the Miles Davis composition Four followed by a swinging version of Jimmy Van Heusen’s It Could Happen to You.

A melodic East of the Sun (and West of The Moon) showed how tight the ‘orchestra’ was as a unit and how strong the individuals’ soloing abilities are.

CD Review: Beverley Church Hogan - Can't Get Out of This Mood

Beverley Church Hogan (vocals); John Proulx (piano); Ron Stout (trumpet/flugel); Graham Dechter (guitar); Doug Webb (flute/tenor sax); Lyman Medeiros (bass); Clayton Cameron (drums); Kevin Winard (perc.)

(Review by Lance).

Singers seem to go on forever. Some, like vintage wine, improve with age. Others work on well past their sell-by date. Few, however, begin their recording career aged 83!

Bev Hogan did just that! After spending her early/mid-teens gigging around Montreal she relocated to Los Angelos where a recording contract with Capitol Records was up for grabs. Unfortunately, this would have also involved an intensive touring schedule and she was now married with a one-year-old child...

So, motherhood and family building took over and music was relegated to, if not a back seat, a non-performing one for the next 40 years.

Jam Session @ the Black Swan - January 8.

(Review by Lance/PHOTOS.) 

Sixteen swingers at the first jam of 2019 and it set the bar high for the rest of the year not least when the house trio opened up with You'd be so Nice to Come Home to and You Don't Know What Love is. A couple of numbers that told the awaiting jammers that, if they fell on their ass it wouldn't be because of any shortcomings in the backing.

Nobody fell!

Ray Johnson was first up with Tangerine and Softly as in a Morning Sunrise. Alan Law introduced the former tune as "A Xmas song"!

Nick Gould, all the way from Edinburgh, made the trip worthwhile with There is no Greater Love and Body and Soul.

CD Review: Alan Pasqua - Soliloquy

Alan Pasqua (piano).
(Review by Lance)

Alan Pasqua comes to the Hamburg Steinway in his Santa Monica studio with a c.v. so impressive that to describe him as a legend is surely no more than he deserves.

A former member of Tony Williams' New Lifetime appearing on the albums Believe it and Million Dollar Legs, Pasqua has also worked with Jack DeJohnette, Paul Motian, Dave Holland, the Brecker Brothers, Joe Henderson, Stanley Clarke, Gary Burton, James Moody, Jones/Lewis Jazz Orchestra and many others. Away from Jazz (but not too far away), he has also recorded with Bob Dylan and Carlos Santana.

CD: Wandering Monster

Latest Ubuntu Music CD to hit the passage doormat is this one by the strangely named Wandering Monster. It's ok and you can judge for yourself by listening here. It ticks all the boxes required by the young contemporary collegiate jazz person of today.

However, what confuses me is not the music - which is fine - but the gig listings. Most of the better known out of town venues are on the tour: Zeffirelli's (Jan. 12); Jazz Bar, Edinburgh (Jan. 17); Sela  Bar, Leeds - album launch - Jan. 20); Spotted Dog, Birmingham (Jan. 22) and many more. And, for once, Newcastle is included, mark Jan.15 in your diary. However, here's the rub, where does the gig take place? Sofar Sounds, it seems, is the place to be but, pardon my French, wtf is Sofar sounds?