Jazz Time Aycliffe Radio - Sundays 6.30-8.00pm (repeated Tuesdays 8.00-9.30pm).

https://www.ayclifferadio.co.uk/listen

Playlist 11/05/25 (repeated Tuesday 13/05/25)

 

VE Day: Glenn Miller & His Orchestra, the Andrews Sisters, Ella Fitzgerald and the Ink Spots.

Requests from the Hot Fingers gig at Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club: Hot Fingers, Clarence Williams, Fletcher Henderson, Sauter - Finegan Orchestra, Jack Teagarden, Ottilie Patterson, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald.

Other Requests: Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, the Savoy Havana Band, Duke Pearson Big Band.

New Release: Louis Stewart.

Memories: King Oliver & His Orchestra, Mary Lou Williams.

What’s happening in the NE: Jo Harrop, Emma Fisk's Hot Club du Nord.

Scarborough Festival: Fergus McCreadie Trio.

 Aycliffe Radio is now available on DAB in County Durham & the Darlington Area.

Curtis Stigers @ the Glasshouse, Gateshead - May 8

© Liza

Curtis Stigers (vocals, tenor sax, guitar); Matt Fries (piano); Cliff Schmitt (bass); Paul Wells (drums)

I've seen Curtis Stigers several times - usually in Sage One.  However, last night he was relegated, if that's the right word, to Sage Two which was three tiers full. That they enjoyed themselves was shown by the well-deserved standing ovation at the end of the concert.

By no means was this a jazz concert although the accompanying trio could hold down a spot at Birdland or any of the NYC joints whilst Stigers himself knows his way around the saxophone. Rather it was an across the genres programme drawing heavily from his current album as well as delving in his back catalogue.

VE Day 80th Anniversary concert @ Sunderland's Fire Station - May 8

As the Fire Station's full house made its way into the auditorium it was somewhat alarming to be 'piped-in' by...a bagpiper! A lone piper standing centre stage 'entertained' the party-goers, many of them sporting Union Jack bowler hats, t-shirts, knitted jumpers and the like, some waving flags. They were determined to have a good time - whether your correspondent liked it or not. 

The advertised multi-bill meant we waited the best part of an hour and a half before the Wearside Swing Band took to the stage. An all-star band, assembled by Jason Holcomb, the brief was to play 'Glenn  Miller'. Trombonists Holcomb and Conor Emery did 'the business' alongside the many familiar 'suited and booted' faces in the band. String of Pearls, Tuxedo Junction - the audience loved it, your correspondent made notes...

18,000 posts and counting since March 2008

Over the past 17 years BSH has posted over 18.000 posts of varying length. Some a mere few sentences - others of Tolstoyan length or half as long as a tenor sax solo.

So please keep them coming - size doesn't matter just let your innermost jazz thoughts come out. Lance

Press release: Jazz Musician's Daughter Chronicles Colorful Childhood in New Memoir

NEW YORK, May 8, 2025 — By age 22, Lorraine Gibson Cohen had finished college, had her heart broken by her first true love, and had failed in her first attempt to leave home. With seemingly no other options, she returned to the family home — a funky, red-shingled cottage next to a landfill in Southern California — and tried her hand at writing. The public, she pondered, would expect to hear stories about her famous father, jazz musician and entertainer Harry the Hipster Gibson. But what about the family he left behind? That story should be told too.

A gifted artist, Cohen used words to paint pictures in a gray, loose-leaf notebook. And the result, some 60 years later, is her captivating memoir, The Hipster’s Legacy: A Memoir of Dreams, Jazz and Family in 1960s California.

“I wrote down things as they happened,” Cohen recalled. “All the funny things and the not-so-funny. There were short stories, character studies of people and things, even a song or two. Sixty years later, I found the notebook and started writing again. Before I knew it, I was writing a book.”

MEDLEY OF FOUR - Royal Navy Blue Mariners/George Crow - London W.7196

Today (May 8) seems the appropriate time to celebrate those musicians who 'did their bit' during the Second World War such as...

Stockport Jazz at the Moor Club: Julian Gregory and Matthew Compton - May 11th

This week’s Stockport Jazz gig at the Moor Club features the much requested return of Julian Gregory (violin) and Matthew Compton (accordion) from the BBC Philharmonic with Paul Hartley (guitar) and Ken Marley (bass) playing a colourful blend of French, Eastern European and South American inspired jazz. 

Sunday May 11, 8:00-10:00pm, doors open at 7:30pm, £5 admission, all welcome

The Moor Club, 35 Heaton Moor Rd, Stockport SK4 4PB – next door to the Elizabethan PH

Blue Note to open new club in London

© Lance 2006

Despite objections by the Metropolitan Police, Westminster Council have issued a licence for the owners of New York's legendary Blue Note Jazz Club to open a Blue Note Jazz Club in London.

The club will be situated in the 350-capacity basement of the St. Martin's Hotel in Covent Garden and is set to open in early 2026.

This is their first venue in London although they operate successful clubs in several other cities throughout the world.

Jam session @ the Black Swan - May 6

Alan Law (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass); John  Hirst (drums) + Paul Ruddick (alto sax); Shivan Ruddick (trumpet); Leah Kirk (vocals); Robert Johnson (alto sax); Shayo Oshodi (vocals); Liam Oliver (guitar); Rich Millington (drums); Carl Peacock (piano); Ian Drever (vocals); Edgar Bell (trumpet, Monk shuffle); Jan Spencelayh (vocals); Esther Coombes (alto sax, clarinet); Owen Jones (double bass); ? (guitar); Diane (vocals); Oscar Nolan (vocals); Theo Nolan (vocals, drums); Jen Foster (vocals)

As Black Swan jam sessions go, this evening's session was strangely quiet. It's exam season - both school and university - and the absence of many younger faces was all too apparent.* The house trio warmed up with a choice selection: Four, Ponciana and Close Your Eyes. Messrs Law, Grainger and Hirst are the ideal candidates for an open  jam session. They're always on top of the material and any newbies are made welcome, quickly realising they're in a supportive environment.   

Cumbrian Capers

Yesterday I took a trip on a train heading west - north west that is. The sun shone as the 10:23a.m. made its way from Newcastle Central through the rolling Northumbrian countryside into Cumbria and finally Carlisle.

It had been some years since I'd last visited the 'Gateway to the Lakes' and it seemed to have lost none of its charm. There were still pubs on every corner (and in between) although not all were open. 

Restaurants too abounded covering many cuisines - I even spotted an English one in England! However, I opted for a Hoisen Duck Wrap at an Asian/Thai establishment mainly because I hadn't a clue what the other items on the menu were. It was delicious.