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Highlights for 2019 - Pete Woodman
Source: Northern Jazz Live Published on 2 hours ago
Middlesbrough Jazz & Blues Orchestra @ Dormans Jazz Club Middlesbrough - Dec.5
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 6 hours ago
Angelina Smyschlajew: Interim Recital @ Band Studios, Newcastle University - Dec 11
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 6 hours ago
Angelina Smyschlajew: Interim Recital @ Band Studios, Newcastle University - Dec 11
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 6 hours ago
Year End Jam Session @ The Black Swan - Dec 10
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 10 hours ago
Northern Jazz Live New Year Honours 2019.1
Source: Northern Jazz Live Published on 1 day ago
Royal Variety Performance
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 1 day ago
Claire Martin's A Very Merry Christmas
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 1 day ago
NYE: Roaring Twenties' Special
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 1 day ago
CD Review: Paul Edis & Friends - On Christmas Day
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 2 days ago
New York Comes to The Globe
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 2 days ago
Jason Isaacs @ Hoochie Coochie - Dec. 8
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 2 days ago
Ben Gilbert Trio @ The Globe - Dec 7
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 3 days ago
Station to Station - Dec 7
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 3 days ago
Kyriaki (Kyra) Pantelidou & Bradley Johnston Duo - Viatores (travellers) @ Gala Theatre, Durham – Dec. 6
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 4 days ago
Steve Hackett Encore @ Newcastle City Hall 12/11/20
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 4 days ago
Steve Hackett Encore @ Newcastle City Hall 12/11/20
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 4 days ago
CD Review: Kit Downes - Dreamlife of Debris
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 4 days ago
CD Review: Strictly Smokin' Big Band - Christmas Live Gosforth Civic Theatre
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 5 days ago
CD Review: Strictly Smokin' Big Band - Christmas Live Gosforth Civic Theatre
Source: Bebop Spoken Here Published on 5 days ago

NorthernJazzLive

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Highlights for 2019 by Pete Woodman

Dennis Rollins

Wolter Wierbos

Alexander Hawkins and Laura Cole

Highlights for 2019 - Pete Woodman from Marsden Jazz Festival's "New Stream"(and avid photographer of the Northern scene)

My ‘Jazz year’ started a bit late. In May Manchester Jazz Festival hosted their usual varied and adventurous programme, the highlight being Matthew Bourne and Keith Tippett’s gig at the RNCM.

I am a regular visitor to Ben Crosland's 'Jazz at The Keys' gigs in Huddersfield; in July Dennis Rollins provided a stunning evening of standards, his own compositions and some lesser known songs, all delivered in Dennis's inimitable style. This was followed in October when Tony Kofi visited for a blistering evening of tunes from Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis and others.

In August Ilkley Jazz Festival’s Saturday at the Winter Gardens opened with an improvisation workshop led by bassist Adrian Knowles and sax player Ben Lowman followed by gigs by Zoë Gilby’s Pannonica and Hexagonal. My highlight of the day though was Adrian Knowles's 'Sound of 59' which told the story of arguably the most pivotal year in jazz history with great style and not a little humour.

October brought Marsden Jazz Festival where I am heavily involved in scheduling the 'New Stream'; this year we featured Newcastle trio Taupe, French singer Francine Luce presenting her new collaboration with bassist Andy Champion, and Chris Bussey and Chris Sharkey with their mew 'Altimeter' project. I was especially pleased to have persuaded Dutch trombone maestro Wolter Wierbos to open the show with his UK solo debut.

October also saw my first ever visit to Wakefield Jazz for the piano 'double header' of Laura Cole and Alexander Hawkins with Laura's set focussing more on composed pieces and Alex providing a primarily improvised set. The gig also featured a brief collaboration at the end of Laura's set which delighted the audience.

I also visited Jazz Leeds events at both Seven Arts and The Inkwell for gigs by Helen Pillinger's Ysbryd and an excellent evening with Karen Sharp's Quartet.

I was privileged to attend this year's Parliamentary Jazz Awards at Pizza Express Live in London where Marsden Jazz Festival were nominated for 'Venue of the year'. Sadly, we didn't win, but there was a cause for celebration as Zoë Gilby won the Jazz Vocalist award. Here’s to more success for Northern artists in 2020.

For me the three outstanding highlights would be Tony Kofi's blistering adaptations of Cannonball Adderley's tunes at The Keys, Wolter Wierbos's amazing solo improvised gig at Marsden Jazz Festival's New Stream for the breadth of his control and variation, not to mention his ability to play the trombone for 45 minutes non-stop! Finally the performance by Laura Cole and Alexander Hawkins at their double header in Wakefield was a truly wonderful blend of composed and improvised solo piano.

Author: Steve Crocker

Posted: December 11, 2019, 8:30 pm

Northern Jazz Live New Year Honours 2019.1

Adrian Cox

Baptiste Herbin

Francine Luce with Andy Champion

Marius Neset

It's that time of year again! Like we do every year we've asked jazz organisers and regular Northern Jazz Live contributors what they remember as their three jazz highlights of 2019 - our light hearted New Years honours list. Here are the views of Sue Bradley, Steve Mead, Russell Corbett and Mike Gordon -watch out for others to follow...

Sue Bradley, Ribble Valley Jazz and Blues Club and Festival
Three special moments from 2019 for me - two Ribble Valley Jazz Festival 2019 highlights: The Marius Neset Quintet, all spectacular musicians, and stunning compositions and the Saturday Street Fest stars, the Elm Street Choir – a group of young people who have real challenges in life but blew the audience away with their vitality with their songs. And lastly ... just days ago, Gordon Vernick on his mini tour of the North, kindly arranged by Wigan Jazz, with and beautiful arrangement and breakdown of Joe Henderson’s Recordame.

Steve Mead - Artistic Director Manchester Jazz Festival
One of my personal highlights from mjf back in May was the premiere of Both Sides of Africa, commissioned from the wonderful Ladino singer-composer-pianist-trombonist Nani, and featuring the charismatic cellist Abel Selaocoe. It was such an uplifting international collaboration and a celebration of cultures and histories, and left us and our audiences in joyful spirit.

I was lucky enough to be present at the recent announcement by HMUK of the Peter Whittingham Award, which this year has gone to saxophonist Sam Healey and Skeltr, with Emma Johnson receiving a well-deserved second place. A great achievement and national recognition for two of our cherished northern jazz artists.

You may have made it to Yes! in Manchester last month to witness the 6 northern artists currently on the mjf hothouse programme bringing their new work to life. After three months of intensive mentoring, workshopping and personal development to overcome barriers, they shared the results in front of our peers. Our northern artists still need support from all of us as much as ever, and seeing how much difference it can make was one of the most rewarding and humbling experiences of the year. A huge well done to Lara Jones, Sarah Heneghan, Liam deTar, Thanda Gumede, Faye MacCalman and Francine Luce (did you catch Francine’s charismatic gig with Andy Champion at this year’s Marsden Jazz Festival?)

Russell Corbett - regular contributor to this blog with news from the North East
The three (of many) favourite gigs of 2019 for me: Adrian Cox - Watchtower Gallery, Berwick (January), Dan Garel Quartet - Holy GrAle, Durham, Claire Martin w Strictly Smokin' Big Band - Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle (October).

Mike Gordon, Festival Director, Scarborough Jazz Festival and Jazz at the Cask
The big one for me has to be our 35th Anniversary Jazz Party down at the Spa on the 21 July. We had seven hours of jazz which included the New York Brass Band (who marched and played from the harbour to the Spa Sun Court), AC3, Vibeology, Kate Peters and Ian Chalk with the Mike Gordon Trio, Social Oven (a great youth band) and Dennis Rollins. We had a huge audience and it was a fantastic day. We think 50 nights a year for all those years is something to be proud of and worth celebrating.

On 27 March we had Baptiste Herbin a gig organised by Leeds saxman Jim Corry. Jim - a great saxophonist himself - reckons Baptiste is the best alto player in the world. He was certainly exceptional.

And then in November we had another world class player, American trumpeter Gordon Vernick, who has an amazing technique. His comments between numbers about various aspects of jazz were really interesting and informative. He has great charisma!! Scarborough Jazz is grateful to Ian Darrington for organising this gig. I hope I’m allowed a fourth ‘moment’. Many people have said this year’s Scarborough Jazz Festival, our 17th, was the best yet. Almost 99% of our evaluation forms said the programme was excellent or very good!

Author: Steve Crocker

Posted: December 10, 2019, 8:02 pm

Parliament gets something right!

(pic Tatiana Gorilovsky <>)

From Steve Crocker
I was really pleased to present the award of jazz vocalist of the year to a real favourite in our area, Newcastle's Zoe Gilby, who is not only a fantastic singer but also does so much to support jazz promoters in the region.

The ceremony was held at the Pizza Express in London's and winners came from many parts of the UK jazz scene - not just the London which tends to get all the plaudits in the jazz press at the moment. There was a really interesting diverse and eclectic mix of winners this year- it gave a good snap-shot view of what is new and current in jazz while still giving due respect to people who've been involved for most of their lives. Lovely to see that so many of the nominees and winners have links to Northern Jazz promoter venues too - including Barney Stevenson from Marsden Jazz Fest and Jamil Sheriff from Leeds College of Music

The awards this year were:

Jazz Vocalist of the Year: Zoe Gilby
Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year: Josephine Davies
Jazz Album of the Year: Fergus McCreadie – Turas
Jazz Ensemble of the Year: Ezra Collective Jazz Newcomer of the Year: Xhosa Cole
Jazz Venue of the Year: Watermill Jazz, Dorking
Jazz Media Award: Ian Mann, The Jazz Mann
Jazz Education Award: Nikki Iles
Services to Jazz Award: Dame Cleo Laine
Special APPJAG Award: Henry Lowther

More details here https://londonjazznews.com/2019/12/04/2019-parliamentary-jazz-award-winners

Steve Crocker
Northern Jazz Promoters/JazzLeeds

Author: Steve Crocker

Posted: December 5, 2019, 11:48 am