Bebop Spoken There

Joe Alterman: ''All I wanted to do growing up was to sound like Erroll Garner playing "Poor Butterfly." I thought that was the coolest sound I'd ever heard.'' (DownBeat November, 2026)

The Things They Say!

This is a good opportunity to say thanks to BSH for their support of the jazz scene in the North East (and beyond) - it's no exaggeration to say that if it wasn't for them many, many fine musicians, bands and projects across a huge cross section of jazz wouldn't be getting reviewed at all, because we're in the "desolate"(!) North. (M & SSBB on F/book 23/12/24)

Postage

19,066 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 930 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Oct. 31) 109.

Reviewers wanted

Whilst BSH attempts to cover as many gigs, festivals and albums as possible, to make the site even more comprehensive we need more 'boots on the ground' to cover the albums seeking review - a large percentage of which never get heard - report on gigs or just to air your views on anything jazz related. Interested? then please get in touch. Contact details are on the blog. Look forward to hearing from you. Lance

From This Moment On

November

Sat 07: Mike Durham’s International Classic Jazz Party @ Village Hotel, West Allotment. 12 noon. Day 2/3.
Sat 07: Ewan Bleach’s Cable Street Ragtime Band @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington.
12:30pm. £10.00. Darlington New Orleans Jazz Club. Superb band.
Sat 07: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £27.50. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. Find Your Pocket: Funk & Groove. Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 07: Red Kites Jazz @ Costa Café, St James’ Retail Park, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sat 07: Ray Stubbs’ R&B All Stars @ Billy Bootleggers, Newcastle. 6:00pm.

Sun 08: Mike Durham’s International Classic Jazz Party @ Village Hotel, West Allotment. 12 noon. Day 3/3.
Sun 08: Greg Abate w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 08: Kaberry Big Band @ Forest Hall Social Club. 3:00pm. £7.00 (inc. tea & cake). Charity event for the Poppy Appeal.
Sun 08: Greg Abate w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 09: Bechet-Spanier Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00.; £5.00. Muggsy Spanier was born 125 years ago today (9 November 1901). This afternoon’s all-star quartet - from London, Lewis Taylor (cornet) & Michael McQuaid (reeds), from Paris, Félix Hunot (guitar), from London, Harry Evans (string bass) - salutes Muggsy!
Mon 09: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 09: Bechet-Spanier Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00. Muggsy Spanier was born 125 years ago today (9 November 1901). This evening’s all-star quartet - from London, Lewis Taylor (cornet), from London, Michael McQuaid (reeds), from Paris, Félix Hunot (guitar), from London, Harry Evans (string bass) - salutes Muggsy!

Tue 10: Alan Law @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 2:00pm. Free. Alan Law (piano) w. Becky Tuck (vocals).
Tue 10: Jazz Jam Sandwich @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Wed 11: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 11: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 11: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 11: Plague Doctors Cure All + Noonward @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 8:00pm. JNE.

Thu 12: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Millstone, Mill Rise, South Gosforth, Newcastle. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 12: JANE @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle. 2:00pm. £5.00.
Thu 12: MoonMot + Jack Banjo’s Snackwall @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 12: Ratio: Swingin’ Through the Decades @ The Forum, Darlington. 8:00pm (7:30pm doors). £10.00. A charity fundraiser.
Thu 12: Look Left @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £8.00.
Thu 12: Michael Woods @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free (donations). Acoustic blues.

Fri 13: Giles Strong Quartet @ Bishop Auckland Methodist Church. 1:00pm. £9.00. Giles Strong (guitar); Dean Stockdale (piano); Mick Shoulder (double bass); John Bradford (drums).
Fri 13: Lapwing Trio @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £5.00. Richard Herdman, Jude Murphy, Paula Whitty.
Fri 13: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 13: Northern Monkey Brass Band @ Hexham Lantern Parade, Bandstand, Sele, Hexham. 6:00pm. Free.
Fri 13: Sharp Collective @ Dry Water Arts, Amble. 7:00pm.
Fri 13: East Coast Swing Band @ The Exchange, North Shields. 7:30pm.
Fri 13: Guisborough Big Band @ Saltburn Golf Club. 7:30pm. Tickets: £15.00 (inc. pie & peas

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Le Jazz Hot et Le Jazz Cool

Thanks to Facebook Friends I've enjoyed some video of the 1958 Cannes Jazz Festival. Dizzy, Lucky Thompson, Ella, Bechet, Eldridge, Coleman's Hawkins and Bill, Stan Getz and more. Sadly the Getz clip, which features 5 tenors - Getz, Hawkins, Byas, Barney Wilen and my personal favourite Guy Lafitte - playing "Indiana", cuts out after Getz's solo.
Click here for Ella singing "Just Squeeze Me".
Merci beaucoup.
Lance.

2 comments :

Liz said...

My goodness, wasn't she just the best with that effortless sweet voice which stayed that good throughout her life. I was listening to her "Get out of town" from the Cole Porter songbook which I first heard years ago, such clever lyrics
"Just disappear, I care for you much too much
And when you are near, close to me dear we touch too much"
Liz

Dave The Rave said...

You mentioned Guy Lafitte - Well, in my Army days, I was stationed near Bordeaux for two years aa Medic, and got to be friends with a young trumpeter / university student named Jean-George Bulcourt, whose band sometimes played at the base enlisted men's club. He made it possible for me to join a wonderful jazz club, "Le Bahut", situated in a basement which had been a 13th century wine cellar in what was once the Roman quarter of Bordeaux,where at the beginning of the night, a two-bar electric fire was required to warm up the 'cave' and its piano! I sometimes got to sing with Jean-George's band, and one night, who did appear but the wonderful tenor player Guy Lafitte! Other regulars included Gerard Olimpe, drums, and Jean-Marie Grenuolou, bass. Also a regular, whose name escapes me, was a baritone player who had played with the mambo king Perez Prado, and I felt very lucky to be alllowed into this secret world of jazz; I was only seventeen, and the eperience changed my life! They used to play "Parisian Thoroughfare", which I found out years later was Clifford Brown's! In 1976, we took a band from Newcastle, called "Friends Of Jazz" (I know, that name gets used all the time) over to San Sebastian Jazz Festival, and Jean-George arranged accomodation for all seven of us as we passed through Bordeaux, in two show houses on a brand new estate being built by the company he was working for. He also had a little get-together for us and his neighbours around his pool in Medoc, where we all played, and he even got out his old trumpet and joined in. As I said, we stayed in empty show houses, fully furnished. Imagine Scotty's surprise in the morning, to be walking around in his 'skivvies' and to have the door open and a lady estate agent come into the place with prospective buyers. "No, the drummer isn't included with the house!"

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