TVBB Wins another award at the Great North Big Band Festival!

We had a splendid afternoon at our annual pilgrimage to the great North Big Band Festival on Saturday.

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We played a challenging and entertaining programme which went down well with the audience and adjudicators alike.  It was great to see all our hard work rewarded with an adjudicators award for the best Section going to our lovely trombone section.  We will of course not hear the last of this for some time.

Special mention must be made of the fact that two of our pieces were arranged for the band by band members.

The multitalented and previous award winner on Bass, Caroline Guirr did a fantastically tricky arrangement of ‘All That Jazz’  from Chicago to feature our very own Jazzy vocalist Miss Barbara Hignett, (no relation)

Great intro from Mike ‘Keys’ Cunningham in his reinvigorated return to the band. Tom and Caroline assisting

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Father and Son due Niall and Sam Armstrong arranged Earth Wind and Fires ‘Fantasy’ for a show stopping finale number featuring Sam on some impossibly high trumpet notes.

Great review as always from ‘Bepop Spoken Here

The Tyne Valley Big Band (MD, Dave Hignett) similarly never misses an edition of the GNBBJF. Invariably bringing along a truly ‘big’ big band, MD Hignett makes room for expanded brass and reeds and you can bet your bottom dollar it’ll be an entertaining programme. Pianist Mike Cunningham, making a welcome debut with the band, played his part in an exhilarating start as drummer David Johnson subjected himself to WhiplashBarbara Hignett sang All That Jazz with all that pizzazz. Excellent. To conclude a fine set, Niall Armstrong and Sam Armstrong arranged Earth, Wind and Fire’s Fantasy for the band, Becky White, alto sax and Ben Haslam, trombone, the featured soloists. Dave Hignett signed off saying: Hopefully see you in the bar.
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Looking forward to next year already!

TVBB at Hexham Jazz Festival

‘You can’t be having anything but a good time if you are listening to the Tyne Valley Big Band!’ Russell Bepop Spoken Here

What a lovely sunny afternoon to be playing in the Cloisters next to Hexhams historic Abbey.  A swirly wind caused havoc with music and stands but hey ho, thats Jazz!

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Mac the Knife featuring our lovely vocalist extraordinaire, Miss Barbara Hignett, no relation.

Thanks to Core Music for setting up the gear and a great warm up set by the Core Music Jazz Quartet, and surprise guest!

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Read a great review of the afternoon on Bepop Spoken Here. Thanks as always for supporting us.

 

TVBB Xmas/10 year anniversary Curry Night

We had a great night out to celebrate 10 years as a band, and the end of Xmas term at ‘The Valley’ in Corbridge.

Sadly our MD Dave Hignett had to dash off to get the train before the obligatory photo opportunity with the surprise token of our appreciation for all of his efforts could be taken.  We usually rely on him missing the train and coming back but on this occasion he was guided by our lovely vocalist Barbara Hignett, no relation, so had no excuse to miss it.

Instead here we see the band as it was the last time we visited ‘The Valley’ in 2012

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New Baton, bemused saxophonist

Here we see a few stragglers from our current lineup full of curry and Cobra at the end of a lovely night.IMG_6010See you in 2022!

 

TVBB at Royal Quays Marina.

We had a great gig at this fabulous venue playing to the Marina crowds with the stunning backdrop of Mr Disneys ship full of Micky Mouses moored next to us on the Tyne.

Here we see our youngest band member Ben blasting out a fantastic trombone solo watched on by his very proud dad Nat. Thanks to Immy for working the video and cameras.

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Thanks to Matt Simms and all the staff at Boatfolk for making us so welcome and plying us with drink (and food).

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As always we appreciate the enthusiastic reviews by Russell at Bebop Spoken Here

The Tyne Valley Big Band @ Royal Quays Marina – September 11

A beautiful autumn day. A trip to the coast, a look in at Cullercoats Crescent Club (quiet), a wander round Tynemouth Metro station market (busy), a visit to Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade (this was Heritage Open Days’ weekend, but it’s open year round) overlooking the Tyne estuary and out to the North Sea, and on to Coble Dene to catch one of the region’s most popular big bands.

Royal Quays Marina reeks of money, squillions of small pleasure craft moored adjacent to the Port of Tyne ferry terminal, a world away from the less well off housing estates just up the road. Mark di Suvero’s Tyne Anew sculpture stood in the shadow of two towering cruise ships – Disney Magic and DFDS – preparing to set sail. Also in their shadow, Dave Hignett’s Tyne Valley Big Band was busy entertaining residents, resting cyclists, walkers, cafe diners and a few jazz fans.

Today’s edition of the TVBB boasted no fewer than seven trumpets, a full compliment of reeds – Sophie Speed and Andrea DeVere blowing some great tenor sax – Caroline Guirr on bass and David Johnson, drums, yes, many familiar faces were on parade. Quincy Jones’ Soul Bossa Nova, Henry Mancini’s ever-popular The Pink Panther Theme, Barbara Hignett belting out Paolo Nutini’s Ten Out of Ten and Aretha Franklin’s big hit, Respect, a typically energetic set from the Tyne Valley boys and girls.

Closing out a fine set, Dave Hignett’s crew went out on Erik Morales’ Feelin’ the Funk. It was time to head up to Black Storm Brewery’s tap room then on to Newcastle for some last minute shopping. Russell

We’re Back! 10 year anniversary year

It’s been a long time coming but the end of the Covid pandemic is hopefully in sight and we are up and running in a socially distanced and hygienic fashion.

We had our first post pandemic gig  at the Tynedale Beer Festival Corbridge, a fitting location marking 10 years since we started up!  Thanks to Chris and all the sound crew who made us so welcome. We had a hoot and look forward to next year.

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We have other planned gigs at Royal Quays and Greenside as per calendar See you there!

Covid19 (20,21) Update

Keen eyed viewers will note that we were planning a couple of post Covid lockdown gigs on June and July  Sadly these events have been cancelled or rescheduled so as it stands we won’t be up and running again until September at the earliest when we are hoping that things will be approaching normality.  (The calendar will be updated to reflect this if and when I can get it to work)!

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The worldwide Corona virus pandemic has forced us into exile along with many other bands.

We have however used our time wisely to create our very own lockdown Video.

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Thanks must go to our MD Dave Hignett for coordinating the project with our great friend  and “resting” keyboard player Kevin Wright who did the spadework creating the video from a multitude of parts and lockdown videos.

Thanks also to Caroline Guirr and Tom Cantwell who laid down the backing track to keep us in harness.

We are looking forward at some point in the future to resuming activities but this seems unlikely to happen until at least after the summer break. Hope everyone is keeping safe and well.