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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ on ALL ABOUT JAZZ
"Buoyant up-tempo grooves, strong ensemble work and engaging arrangements make this an exemplary big band recording."
Michael Lamb
Oct 27, 20243 min read
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JAZZWISE: "Reinventing the big band with visuals, interactivity and crowdfunding"
Attracting new - and especially younger - audiences to jazz is a problem the music has wrestled with for years; and getting your stuff...
Michael Lamb
Apr 22, 20243 min read
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Harlem '58 - The Witham
FRIDAY 28th APRIL 2023 THE WITHAM, BARNARD CASTLE The Witham on Horse Market isn't a noted jazz venue but thanks to the popularity of the...
Bebop Spoken Here
May 14, 20231 min read
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MATT FORD with Strictly Smokin' Big Band
FRIDAY 23rd FEBRUARY 2023 HALL 2, SAGE GATESGEAD It doesn't get much better than this. Top singer (actually two top singers) and a big...
Bebop Spoken Here
Feb 27, 20232 min read
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Hoochie Coochie Christmas
Friday 23rd December 2022 HOOCHIE COOCHIE The band moved, the dancers moved and one of the non-dancers was moved to remark that he...
Bebop Spoken Here
Dec 23, 20222 min read
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Christmas at GCT 2022
Friday 16th & Saturday 17th December 2022 GOSFORTH CIVIC THEATRE If it's the week before Christmas there's is only one place to be and...
Bebop Spoken Here
Dec 16, 20222 min read
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DAVE O'HIGGINS celebrating 20 YEARS of Strictly Smokin' Big Band
SUNDAY 23RD OCTOBER 2022 HOOCHIE COOCHIE This was, to quote from Larry Hart's lyric in Thou Swell, "a sweet lollapalooza" or as Cole...
Bebop Spoken Here
Oct 23, 20222 min read
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Newcastle Jazz Festival 2022
I said it began with a BANG and I wasn't just referring to the power of the brass on Buddy's Big Swing Face! I was bemused as I tried to...
Bebop Spoken Here
Aug 18, 20221 min read
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PETE LONG with Strictly Smokin' Big Band
SATURDAY 26TH FEBRUARY 2022 HALL 2, SAGE GATESGEAD I'd heard Pete Long's Ellington/Strayhorn inspired suite based around Gustav Holst's...
Bebop Spoken Here
Feb 26, 20222 min read
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SSBB at Newcastle Jazz Festival 2021
Friday 13th August Newcastle Jazz Festival at Newcastle Civic Centre This promised much and delivered even more! Alice Grace singing Ella...
Bebop Spoken Here
Aug 13, 20212 min read
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Premiere: Great Day In Harlem (Harlem '58)
Saturday 20th April 2020 Gosforth Civic Theatre This was quite an occasion, indeed a unique one, not to mention a historic one! A Great...
Bebop Spoken Here
Apr 19, 20202 min read
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Alice Grace, Jen Davies & Carly McKee with SSBB at Hoochie Coochie
Sunday 23rd June 2019 Hoochie Coochie Never has the phrase 'hit the deck running' been more apt than at Hoochiee last night! SSBB did...
Bebop Spoken Here
Jun 23, 20193 min read
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