BBC Proms: 'Round Midnight, The Fire Station, Sunderland
History made with Wearside Proms gig
The Fire Station hosted Sunderland’s very first BBC Proms gig, an exuberant affair which strengthened the region’s partnership with the famous summer music festival and demonstrated – if it needed demonstrating - that jazz is a broad church.
With ‘Promenaders’ standing in the well of this versatile auditorium, as is the Proms tradition, BBC presenter and sax maestro Soweto Kinch welcomed a large audience.
A Proms gig is not quite like others in that it’s also an insight into broadcasting’s inner workings.
Always there’s the sense of two audiences, the one nudging up against you, trying not to spill its drinks, and the great unseen audience that’s out there somewhere – or will be.
The Proms concert presenter has to consider both. But if you’re Soweto Kinch, at some point in the proceedings you’re also going to put down your microphone and become a performer too.
This concert was recorded for a future edition of ’Round Midnight, the show he fronts on BBC Radio 3.
First up was North East talent Rivkala who came here from Manchester to study and stuck around, becoming part of a jazz scene that’s small, she says, but lively and going places.
To cite all her musical influences would take a few paragraphs and even Kinch, in his post-set interview, looked taken aback. Ella Fitzgerald and Amy Winehouse were mentioned but Josephine Baker is another with whom she has been justifiably compared.
The look is clearly important. With her signature kiss curl, ‘tache and eyelashes capable of some heavy lifting, Rivkala is not one of those musicians who lose themselves in their own world.
She flew the flag for North East performance, putting on a show with numbers such as Zip Lock Teeth and Costume Party, backed by a smart quartet. Vocally distinctive, too, she would seem to be going places – though hopefully not permanently.
There were speeches before the concert, the speakers introduced by Paul Callaghan, chair of Sunderland’s Music, Arts and Culture (MAC) Trust which delivered The Fire Station, a venue well suited to an event like this and expertly run by manager Tamsin Austin.
Tim Davie, director general of the BBC, called it “a moment of history”, this first Proms gig in Sunderland to add to those staged regularly now at The Glasshouse in Gateshead.
He spoke of the “brilliant people” in the region and the importance of supporting talent (some of it evident in the youth jazz ensemble Jambone which warmed up the audience beforehand).
“We’re doing no one any favour by bringing things out of London,” he insisted.
“It’s not us saying thank you. It’s in our interests and we’re very grateful to be coming out of London to be hosted by you. This is the centre of things. We’ve got to get our heads round that.”
He remembered the Reith lectures of 2023, when Sunderland was a host city alongside London, Atlanta and Berlin, and cited the success of the BBC Introducing initiative, giving up-and-coming North East musicians a platform, and the burgeoning partnership with North East Screen.
“There’s real ambition to unlock what’s out there.”
This was music to the ears of Kim McGuinness, North East Mayor, who remembered how joining a choir had been key to her success in life, giving her confidence and opportunities.
Banging the drum for North East culture, she said it wasn’t “an add-on”. The sector was growing faster here than in other regions and currently employed 60,000 people.
She revealed her favourite concert to be that by Self Esteem and Royal Northern Sinfonia at the BBC Proms at The Glasshouse in 2023 – but that was before last night’s concert had begun.
Back on stage, Rivkala was followed smoothly by the Joe Webb Trio with a thrilling homage to Oscar Peterson, opening with the Canadian jazz legend’s Noreen’s Nocturne.
There was nothing at all tricksy about this set – just Webb’s immaculate piano playing delivered over the solid foundations of Sam Jesson’s drums and Will Sach’s double bass.
Reverence to the music was key.
Interviewed afterwards by Soweto Kinch, who had joined in briefly on sax, the pianist seemed cheerfully tongue-tied when suddenly facing his audience.
Kinch explained jazz musicians can sometimes get a little “fuzzy headed” after being in the zone.
But footy fan Webb, without revealing his team (as a Welshman based in London), gave some insight into his composition Goal Mouth Scramble, although really the music had said it all.
The Theo Croker Quartet delivered the climactic set, the dreadlocked American spending as much time twiddling knobs as playing the trumpet for which he is renowned in the jazz world.
With possibly even more influences that Rivkala, Croker occupies a sound world that is very much his own and must have been coloured by his years as a band leader in China.
Trumpeter, composer, producer and vocalist, his 10th studio album, Dream Manifest, came out only this year.
Once the word ‘psychedelia’ would have been applied to a set like this, with its strange and colourful graphics and infusions of recorded sound. Kept grounded by a hard-working bunch of accomplished musicians, it allowed for some improvisation in which Kinch again participated.
It worked its hypnotic magic on the audience, which become ever more animated, but defining it is beyond me. If you weren’t there, try to catch the concert on Radio 3 or BBC Sounds.
And this was just the start because there’s more of the BBC Proms from The Glasshouse this weekend – and of course throughout the summer on the BBC. Check the BBC Proms 2025 website for details.