Old friends. New faces. Rising stars. Established names. Unexpected moments.
The Glasshouse International Centre for Music in Gateshead has announced a new run of jazz shows, from Mercury Prize-nominated pianists and experimental collaborations to a comedian reading John Cage stories and a trio putting a jazz spin on Black Sabbath.
Running from September through April, the programme brings established names, new voices and some unexpected collaborations to the North East, alongside a BBC Introducing showcase spotlighting talent from the region.
The programme follows a summer which saw artists including corto.alto and Knats bringing contemporary jazz to audiences as part of BBC Proms in the North East at The Glasshouse.
The Glasshouse has seen jazz audiences growing, with more new gig-goers discovering artists who blend genres and ideas. The venue has seen an increase in new bookers for jazz gigs, with artists like last year’s Mercury nominee Emma-Jean Thackray and UK jazz great Courtney Pine packing out the intimate, 10-sided Sage Two venue for powerhouse performances.
Upcoming highlights includeWelsh pianist Joe Webb who brings his new album Neath Beat to The Glasshouse on Thursday 4 March. He’s regarded as one of the most formidable new jazz pianists to emerge in recent years. His 2025 album Hamstrings & Hurricanes was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize and he’s been championed by Wynton Marsalis, Jamie Cullum and Jools Holland.
Comedian Stewart Lee joins musicians Steve Beresford, Tania Chen and Mariam Rezaei on Monday 26 October for a double bill twenty years in the making. The first half sees Lee reading John Cage’s Indeterminacy stories, picked at random from a deck of 90 cue cards, while Beresford and Chen improvise around him. The second half is a reading from Lee’s new book Pea Green Boat, a retelling of Edward Lear’s The Owl and the Pussycat, accompanied by multi award-winning improviser Mariam Rezaei. It’s the North East debut for the Cage piece.
The first show in the run comes from Emma Rawicz INKYRA on Thursday 10 September. A BBC New Generation Artist and the Cambridge Jazz Festival’s youngest-ever Artist in Residence, Rawicz has performed more than 70 shows in 16 countries over the past year. Her music moves from lyrical ballads to fiery odd-time grooves.
On Friday 25 September, Jazz Sabbath brings a very different take on the music of Black Sabbath. A jazz trio playing new arrangements of Black Sabbath songs, fronted by Grammy-winning pianist Adam Wakeman, who maintains that his band wrote the originals first. Their three albums have reached the Billboard Jazz Charts and the group has played sold-out shows around the world.
BBC Introducing From The Glasshouse, returns on Wednesday 30 September, curated by Jazz North East. It’s a pay-what-you-decide night featuring three very different projects from the region and beyond. Newcastle-based bassist John Pope, violinist and shakuhachi player John Garner and poet Nisha Ramayya come together as New Ways of Moving in the Counterworlds, blending jazz, poetry, improvisation and spoken word. Manon McCoy and Juliana Day bring harp, wind instruments, voice and electronics together, while award-winning composer, pianist and sound artist Helen Anahita Wilson draws on Western and South Asian classical music, improvisation and sound art.
On Wednesday 4 November, saxophonist and composer Jasmine Myra brings her third album Where Light Settles to The Glasshouse. The new album shows her evolution since her other critically acclaimed works Horizons and Rising. The nine-track album explores ideas around life, growth and progression, moving between intimate, bittersweet moments and more expansive sounds.
Mercury Prize-shortlisted pianist Fergus McCreadie brings his distinctive blend of jazz and Scottish folk to The Glasshouse on Thursday 5 November. His new work Flight Pass, co-commissioned by Chamber Music Scotland, brings his music into a classical piano trio setting while retaining the melodic and rhythmic qualities that have made his work so distinctive.
A Jazzy Christmas: Jo Harrop, Paul Edis and Friends returns on Saturday 19 December, marking ten years of the show. Pianist Paul Edis has created new arrangements of festive favourites for Jo Harrop’s ‘velvet’ voice and a nine-piece band, with Christmas classics reworked as swinging big band numbers, sambas and more.
And on Friday 26 February, Michael Lamb’s Strictly Smokin’ Big Band welcomes flautist, composer and bandleader Gareth Lockrane. Known for his work as an instrumentalist, arranger and educator, Lockrane brings a fresh approach to big band music, combining ambitious arrangements with the freedom of improvisation.
Lucy Scott, Senior Producer at The Glasshouse said: “There’s a real sense of curiosity around jazz at the moment. We’re seeing younger audiences and people who might not think of themselves as jazz fans discovering just how broad and exciting the music can be.
That’s what we want this programme to tap into. You can hear some of the most exciting artists working in jazz today, but you can also see a comedian performing John Cage, hear Black Sabbath completely reimagined or discover brilliant new artists from the North East. You don’t need to know anything about jazz to find something here for you.”
Tickets on sale now at https://theglasshouseicm.org/seasons/jazz/
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