NJ Advent Calendar - Venues in the North East (December 12th)

Jazz audiences and musicians alike are fortunate to have a huge number of venues that promote live jazz in the North. Some weekly, some monthly, festivals and jams - there is something for everyone. We're using broad strokes with the categorisation of these articles - we'll be giving a list for the North East, North West, Yorkshire & the Humber and Merseyside. We hope no-one is offended if we've mentioned your venue in the wrong region (!) but we wanted to include as many as possible. As ever, if we've missed anything out let us know by commenting and sharing a link.

The Globe, Newcastle- Run by the Jazz Coop there are gigs, workshops and jam session that run in this cooperatively owned venue. Programming is varied from mainstream to contemporary and recent artists include Euan Burton quartet and Maciek Pysz Trio

Jazz Cafe, Newcastle - Situated on Pink Lane in Newcastle, the jazz cafe promotes live jazz upstairs and a cafe bar downstairs. Gigs are usually on Fridays, Saturdays and Tuesdays and there also jam sessions held there. Recent artists include Manjula, Unfurl and Loz Speyer's Inner Space Music.

Lit & Phil, Newcastle - Pianist Paul Edis programmes live jazz at this historic building in Newcastle. Local and touring bands play there and recently, Paul's duo with Graham Hardy and Sue Ferris have featured in the programme.

Darlington Jazz Club - A club that focuses on New Orleans jazz, Darlington Jazz Club is found at St Augustines Parish Centre and they host gigs monthly on a Saturday. Frank Booker and Thomas 'Spats' Langham are amongst their latest gig offerings.

The Sage, Gateshead - Jazz is just one of the many strands that the Sage feature in their year round programme. Of course, there's the International Jazz Festival in April but events happen year round like Jambone & Paul Edis on December 20th and the Glenn Miller Orchestra on December 29th.

Saltburn Jazz, Saltburn - This arts centre hosts many things with Saltburn Jazz Club being just one. There are monthly gigs, often featuring musicians in the North East scene and coming up next is LEASH, a trio with Mark Williams, Andy Champion and Adrian Tilbrook on January 8th.

Jazz North East - Jazz North East just celebrated their 50th birthday and continue to programme jazz at various venues. Their programme is varied but they are real champions of contemporary and improvised music. Roller Trio and Entropi will be hosted in early 2016.

Line-Up Revealed for 2016 Gateshead International Jazz Festival

The first batch of artists in the line-up for next year's Gateshead International Jazz Festival has been released this week. The festival will run from 15th-17th April next year, now in its 12th year programmed by The Sage and Serious.

Tickets go on sale on Friday 27th November, either through the website or by calling the box office on 0191 443 4661 and there's a Multi-Buy offer that gives a discount to those buying tickets to more than one gig during the festival.

There's a strong international presence in the festival. Vocalist Gregory Porter is back after his sell-out appearance last year. Trumpeter Terence Blanchard brings his quintet E-Collective and speaking of trumpeters, Ibrahim Maalouf premieres music from his new album Red and Black Light AND France's Airelle Besson is in duo with Nelson Veras. There's also Charles Barkley, and two American piano exports - Kris Bowers and Michel Reis.

Closer to home, there's a wide selection of British jazz offerings. Fans of vocal jazz will be pleased to see Liane Carroll featured in the programme. Courtney Pine and Zoe Rahman bring their duo playing music from Song (A Ballad Book). There's a solo performance from Evan Parker and John Surman pairs up with the Alexander Hawkins Trio. Preceding a showing of the Tubby Hayes film, Tubby Hayes; A Man In A Hurry, Simon Spillett will perform his tribute to the late saxophonist. Finally, Arun Ghosh will appear and LCoM graduate Phil Meadows appears with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Jambone in a large-scale performance of Lifecycles.

Tim Garland celebrates the North East at The Sage

Grammy Award winning saxophonist Tim Garland is bringing his quartet to the Sage on May 4th, playing music inspired by the North East.

Garland's latest album, Songs to the North Sky, was recorded at the Sage and released in 2014. The album received widespread critical acclaim with 5 star reviews from the Observer, The Guardian and more.

His band features pianist Jason Rebello, drummer Asaf Sirkis and guitarist Ant Law - all of whom recognised as exciting, creative musicians and band-leaders in their own right.

Tickets cost £15 and more information can be found on the Sage website.

Pink Lane Jazz Coop Presents: Play Jazz! Workshop

Pink Lane Jazz Coop are hosting a series of jazz workshops at the Sage, taking place on the first Saturday of each month. The next workshop will take place on Saturday August 2nd.

Run by a panel of tutors including James Birkett, Stu Finden, Steve Glendinning, John Pope and Judith Thompson, the sessions are aimed at musicians aged 16 and over of all abilities and operate mainly through tutored small group settings.