For the past eighteen years we've been updating the world about jazz in the north east of England and updating the north east of England about jazz in the world. WINNER of the Jazz Media Category in the 2018 All Party Parliamentary Jazz Awards. Contact lanceliddle@gmail.com
October.
Mon 12: Jack Pearce Quintet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm.
Mon 12: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Tue 13: Alan Law @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 2:00pm. Free. Alan Law (piano) w. Julija Jacenaite (vocals).
Wed 14: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: A Night of Stevie Wonder @ Holy GrAle, Durham. 4:45pm. £3.00.; £2.50. A Durham University Jazz Society event.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: Jam session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 14: A Night of Stevie Wonder @ Holy GrAle, Durham. 7:30pm. £3.00.; £2.50. A Durham University Jazz Society event.
Wed 14: NW FRQNC @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £15.00. Selina Albright, Gianni Vancini.
Wed 14: Jacob Egglestone Trio @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00. JNE.
Thu 15: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, Mill Rise, South Gosforth, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 15: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00.
Thu 15: Leah Kirk: A Strange Affair @ Newcastle Arts Centre. 7:30pm. Free (donations). Leah Kirk (vocals); Alan Law (keyboards); Paul Grainger (double bass).
Thu 15: Jeremy McMurray’s Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. PJO w. guest Graham Hardy (trumpet).
Fri 16: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 16: Ancient Infinity Orchestra @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Fri 16: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. £13.01. adv.; £15.00. on the door. Old Black Cat Jazz Club.
Fri 16: Milne Glendinning Band @ Repas 7 by Night, West St., Berwick. 8:00pm. Free.
Sat 17: SunOrbitUs @ Culture House, Sunderland. 11:00am - 5:00pm. Closing event in a year-long piece of music. 11:00am-1:00pm Improvisation workshop w. Faye MacCalman; 2:00-5:00pm Collective Improvised Performance by Sunderland residents. SOLD OUT!
Sat 17: Tees Bay Swing Band @ Blacksmith’s Arms, Hartlepool. 1:30pm. Free. Open rehearsal.
Sat 17: Martin Taylor @ Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle. 7:30pm. £48.72; £43.37. Solo guitar. SOLD OUT!
Sun 18: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 18: Creakin’ Bones & the Sunday Dinners @ Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Jump jive.
Sun 18: Guisborough Big Band @ Redcar Rugby Club. 5:00-8:00pm. ‘Charity Big Band Birthday Bash’ in aid of Parkinson’s UK & Young Sounds UK. Free (donations on the door).
Sun 18: Martin Taylor @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £23.30. Solo guitar.
Sun 18: Ben Crosland Quartet with Steve Waterman @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
On the opening
night of the EFG London Jazz Festival the Joe Webb Trio played two sold out houses. I
was lucky enough to get tickets for both houses. The set list below comprised
tunes played in the first house. I put my reviewer's pen down for the second
house.
Joe and Will had only recently returned from a whirlwind tour of Taiwan, China and Hong Kong where Kai MacRae had been the drummer but normal service resumed for these concerts with Sam Jesson returning as the trio’s regular drummer.
 |
| © John Lyons |
Lorne Lofsky
(guitar); Nigel Price (guitar); Jeremy Brown (double bass); Joel Barford
(drums)
As Russell, BSH's "have suitcase will travel" roving reporter, had already covered gigs by the quartet in Aberdeen and Hexham which followed the same set list, it left me little to add other than to tick all of the boxes in the previous reviews and to sum up Sunday night's session at the Globe in one word - PERFECTION!
 |
| © John Lyons |
That concert too was perfection and surely it is no coincidence that Kessel and Ellis, like Lorne Lofsky, both cut their teeth with Oscar Peterson. Had Nigel Price been born sooner or Peterson later I'm sure that his name too would have been inscribed on that Roll of Honour.
The Scottish leg of the tour done and dusted, the Lorne Lofsky-Nigel Price Quartet motored south, stopping off in Hexham for an afternoon concert. Later on, Lofsky, Price, Brown and Barford would conclude a long day on Railway Street in Newcastle.
From the opening number of Stephensong, you know you’re in safe hands. Ian Shaw steps into Sondheim’s world not as a mimic or archivist, but as an interpreter—one who understands that these songs are living, breathing pieces of emotional theatre. Barry Green’s intimate piano arrangements strip away the orchestral “Broadway” varnish, leaving space for Shaw’s voice to explore, question, and communicate. The result is a collection that is less a tribute album and more a deeply personal celebration of Stephen Sondheim’s craft.
Everybody Says Don’t– A Mission Statement. The album sets its tone immediately:
Requests: Bunk Johnson, Mel
Tormé.
Paul Skerritt talks jazz and makes his picks: Jamie Cullum, Seth MacFarlane, Jumaane Smith ft. Michael Bublé,
Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Mel Tormé, Buddy Greco.
New Release: Louis Stewart/Brian Dunning, Dotsero.
