Preview: A Great Day in Gosforth with the SSBB - Easter Saturday (April 20)

(Preview by Russell)

The Strictly Smokin' Big Band will present something just a little bit different on Saturday evening (April 20) at Gosforth Civic Theatre. Michael Lamb's magnificent big band will take you on a sepia-tinted journey back in time when New York was - it still is! - the jazz capital of the world. 

One morning in August 1958 dozens of jazz musicians - many of them household names - assembled on the steps of a Harlem brownstone to be immortalised in a photograph taken by budding freelancer Art Kane. Some prominent names would have been out of town touring, unable to make the shoot, perhaps some were still sleeping after a NYC gig the night before. Red Allen, Buck Clayton, Art Farmer, Johnny Griffin, Gigi Gryce, Hank Jones, Marian McPartland, legendary names all, they made it, as did Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus and many others.   

Marie Curie Fundraiser

Jazz North East is planning a Fundraiser for Marie Curie on Saturday 20th July at The Lit and Phil, we've already got a great set of musicians lined up but I reckon we could squeeze a couple more in if anyone would be keen to support the charity. Local Jazz / Crossover artists mail us at info@jazznortheast.com with the subject 'Marie Curie' if you're interested and we'll send further details. Many thanks!

Wes

Preview: Triptych CD recording sessions

This is your invitation to attend a CD recording session at Blank Studios in Shieldfield, Newcastle. Over two nights - tomorrow and Wednesday - Triptych will be recording material with a view to releasing an album and you can be there as a member of the studio audience!

Triptych - Paul Edis (piano, keyboards), Paul Susans (bass) and Rob Walker (drums, percussion) - is an occasional performance vehicle for three of the north east's most respected musicians and now you have the opportunity to observe the music making and recording process. Blank Studios are just along from the recently relocated Star and Shadow Cinema on Warwick Street in Shieldfield (if you're a 'creative' bearded hipster, that's the Ouseburn).

Preview: Three of Birmingham's finest young jazz musicians @ the Globe Jazz Bar - the future of jazz.

Unfortunately, due to illness, the Francis Tulip Quintet's gig on Thursday, April 18, has been postponed. However, Francis has arranged for some of his Birmingham colleagues to deliver a special treat to the jazz community in Newcastle - the first visit by the JR Trio.

The JR Trio consists of Birmingham based alto saxophonist James Romaine, double bassist Asaph Tal and drummer Kai Chareunsy. The three met whilst studying at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and have been playing together regularly since. The trio is influenced by a plethora of artists but most significantly the expressive music of Kenny Garrett, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and other contemporaries. This is the trio’s first time outside of Birmingham and they very much look forward to sharing their music on Tyneside.

The Globe,
11 Railway St.,
Newcastle NE4 7AD.
7:300pm.
£6.00{£3.00 students)

The Richie Emmerson Quintet @ Dormans Jazz Festival, Middlesbrough - April 11

Richie Emmerson (tenor, alto, soprano sax); Alan Thompson (tenor, soprano sax); Rick Laughlin (keys, synth); Keith Peberdy (bass); Richard Miles (drums).

(Review by Ron H)

The second week of the Jazz Festival continued with a tribute to Grover Washington. Soulful and funky and played with great passion and expertise.

Richie and Alan blew a fine intro on tenors to Do Dat, along with Rick on synthesiser, this was followed by River Drive and a switch to soprano saxes with some lovely interplay and powerful dynamics from the band.

Richie stayed on the straight sax and Alan returned to tenor for a beautiful version of the jazz standard Stolen Moments. ‘Moments’ also had an excellent bass solo from Keith. 

Back to the funk with Let It Flow, using two tenors, a blistering solo from Richie and an amazing blast by Rick on synth. The classic Reed Seed, from the Mr Magic album featured Alan on soprano and a wonderful piano solo from Rick. The first set closed with, again from the Mr Magic album, Black Frost.

CD Review: Anthony Strong - Me and my Radio

(Review by Lance).

Those who were at Hoochie Coochie back in 2015 to hear Strong with the Strictly Smokin' Big Band will surely remember his knockout performance. Or you may have heard him on discs such as Stepping Out or Delovely both of which seem to have been stepping stones towards this latest offering.

A mix of originals, standards and more, relatively, recent pop songs, Strong is in good voice booted along by the most swinging of big bands and, of course, his own piano playing. Think Georgie Fame and you're in the ballpark although not necessarily on the same team - Strong is very much his own man.

My Record Store Day

Well, I woke up this mornin' Blue Notes were all around my bed. Yup, it was [Independent] Record Store Day. I felt I should buy some vinyl. In Jarrow or Hebburn? No chance!

When I was young, there was a record shop in both towns. Gordon Eades, on Grange Rd., Jarrow, was my first. The manager was a doddery old gentleman who, if you asked for anything other than a Mozart sonata or an aria by Kathleen Ferrier, would haughtily refer you to his assistant. It was here that I bought my first ever jazz record - Artie Shaw's Traffic Jam.

The Tinkler Music Store in Hebburn was a totally different proposition - I doubt if the girl behind the counter had ever heard of Kathleen Ferrier! It didn't matter - she became my first girlfriend. Her father also had a pub. Shangri-la! A girl who worked in a record store with a dad who had a pub!

CD Review: Steve Garrett - Discover and Endure

Steve Garrett (guitar)

(Review by Hugh C)

Steve Garrett was born in London and after a working lifetime as an Earth Scientist travelling across the UK, Antarctica and North America, now calls Scotland home.  His new album of solo electric guitar music, Discover and Endure is “inspired by stories and experience of landscape, exploration and human endurance”.

The first and title track, Discover and Endure, is inspired by the RRS Discovery expedition of 1901-04.  A slow steady beat mirrors the footsteps of the participants trudging on, hauling their sledges; different characters from the expedition feature over the footsteps.  As Charles Turley (1914) wrote of the voyages of Captain Scott “for ninety-three days they had plodded over a vast snow-field and ...striven and endured to the limit of their powers”.  

Film review: The Commemoration of Jazz Musician and Friend Richard Turner: A Life in Music

Richard Turner: A Life in Music, crowd-funded by the London jazz community and directed by Rob Cope. 

(Review by Thomas Harvey/Images © Robe Cope )

Richard Turner was shifting the community of the London jazz scene; showcasing international names in intimate spaces and bringing musicians of the capital together to drive the genre. When he died suddenly at age 27, it was a shock, not only to those around him but also to the scene of which he had become such a key member. ‘Richard Turner: A Life In Music’ comes at the hands of Rob Cope and crowd-funded by the London jazz community who premiered the film at Leeds College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music on the 11th April to a packed out room of family, friends, media and members of the music industry.

“I realised there was an opportunity to create a film about Richard’s life. It’s a remarkable and largely untold story” commented, filmmaker and saxophonist Rob Cope. 

Noel Dennis Quartet @ The Lit & Phil - April 12

Noel Dennis (trumpet, flugelhorn); Paul Edis (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Russ Morgan (drums).

(Review by Russell/photos courtesy of Brian Ebbatson)

The year is 1958: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for coming down to the village this afternoon for a very special performance by the Noel Dennis Quartet. And before the guys make a start can I remind you that next week Noel and the guys will be at 17 East 126th Street in Harlem to take part in some sort of photographic project by a kinda crazy young cat called Art Kane. I don't know if it'll come to anything but a whole bunch of other cats...I've heard that Dizzy will be there, Basie, oh, yeah Sonny Rollins, maybe Monk...so, if you can, get down to see what it's all about. Okay, I think the guys are going to kick things off with Beautiful Love. Over to you Noel...