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Bebop Spoken There

George Porter Jr.: ''To me, syncopation is like jazz. It wasn't meant for the masses. It was meant just for a hip few". (DownBeat, May 2025).

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

18018 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 339 of them this year alone and, so far, 17 this month (May 7).

From This Moment On ...

MAY 2025

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 12: Gregory Porter + Jo Harrop @ Newcastle City Hall. 7:30pm. Support act: Jo Harrop!

Tue 13: ???

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Recital (stage 2): Leah Kirk (voice) @ The Band Room, Music Studios, Assembly Lane, Newcastle University. 3:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: Tannery jam session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Wed 14: Jerron Paxton @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £24.20. Excellent country blues multi-instrumentalist.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. BACK IN BUSINESS, all welcome!

Thu 15: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: The Greatest in Jazz - Guitarists.
Thu 15: Pete Tanton & the Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 15: New Ways of Moving in the Counterworlds @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). John Garner & John Pope.

Fri 16: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 16: Sophie Speed with the Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 16: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 16: Giles Strong Quartet @ Longframlington Memorial Hall. 7:00pm (doors). Tickets: £12.00. from 01665 570984.
Fri 16: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert’s Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £10.00.
Fri 16: Peter Donegan & Anthony Donegan @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 7:30pm. ‘Lonnie Donegan - The Stories’.

Sat 17: Teresa Watson Band @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sat 17: The Society Quartet @ Hilton Garden Inn, Sunderland. 6:00pm. Tel: 0191 500 9494. £26.00 (inc. two course meal). Line-up: Jason Holcomb, Hannah Taylor, Alix Shepherd & Abbie Finn.
Sat 17: Milne Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 17: Archie Brown & the Young Bucks @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Rhythm & blues, Americana etc.
Sat 17: Rockin’ Turner Brothers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Rockabilly, Western swing etc.

Sun 18: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Seaburn. 12 noon-2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 18: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 18: Ruth Lambert & Giles Strong @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 18: Steve Summers Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

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

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Enrico Tomasso w. The Swing City Trio @ Trinity Church Centre, Gosforth.

Enrico Tomasso (tpt/vcl), Steve Andrews (ten/clt), Roly Veitch (gtr/vcl), Roy Cansdale (bs).
The centre adjoining the church was crowded - surely the hippest congregation in town.
And deservedly so.
This was an evening of jazz that swung, and I use the word advisedly, from delicate chamber jazz to straight down the middle solid stompology.
The delicacy came from, no prizes for guessing, Roly Veitch. Using a lightly amped Epiphone Roly gave us chorded solos a la Carl Kress or Dick McDonough coupled with some nice single string, more modern, explorations. Add his vocals on "I Saw Stars", "I Wished on the Moon", "The Touch of Your Lips" and you had surely the perfect example of, let's call it, "Gentlemanly Jazz" and to hell with the sexists!
Roy Cansdale provided the perfect link, in the absence of a drummer, between guitar and front-line. He was there all the time, a tower of strength in both support and the occasional break or solo - chapeau!
Which brings us to the main event.
Steve and Enrico slugged it out like two heavyweights at Madison Square each alternatively complimenting and outdoing the other. Steve's moment of glory was surely his rendition of "Body and Soul" - he has the Hawkins' sound off to a tee, as well as the licks, yet still managed to make it his own - doubt if I've heard him blow better. Enrico came back counter-punching in the up-tempo section but I think Steve edged that one on points.
Enrico's piece de resistance was Berigan's "I Can't Get Started". I've often thought I never want to hear that tune again yet, when I do, I still love it and Signor Tomasso did it more than justice.
Honours even I guess. Steve played some great clarinet and introduced the numbers with more than a touch of humour whilst Enrico charmed us with his singing - "I've Got The World on a String" being but one delight - and his soaring flights of fantasy into the approaches to the stratosphere.
All this and a full house. Perhaps jazz should move out of the pubs and into the churches!
Lance.

2 comments :

Liz said...

Roly singing "I wished on the moon"
sounds like my idea of Saturday night nostalgia...lovely stuff!
Liz

Roly said...

Thanks for the nice words about the Trinity gig Lance.
I absolutely enjoyed that and what a treat to play to a full room. Playing jazz is a labour of love with a lot of frustations along the way but then, once in a while, you are in a situation which makes you appreciate why you do it.
Re the Epiphone, it's not a semi-acoustic (that usually means acoustic body but with a pick up - a lot of archtop jazz guitars have built in or floating pick ups) - no, the Epi is a pure acoustic instrument. But although the old pre-elec dance band type guitars are built to be loud you still would hardly hear it in a group and that's why pick ups and amps took over in the 40s - Charlie Christian et al.
But to me, nothing touches the pure cutting acoustic rhythm sound, so miking up the gtr thru the PA using a condenser mike is often used by players who want to recreate that type of sound.
I must admit that although for years I've played electric archtop (latterly with Jim Hall being my idol) nevertheless I'm now just more and more drawn to pure acoustic guitar for the dynamic response and touch you can get. Electrification kinda of levels all that out. And to
me '4 to the bar' rhythm on elec archtop usually sounds naff (I've tried it for years and am rarely happy with the basic sound - mellow elec guitar and '4 to bar' rhythm just don't go together. Mind you good old Jim Hall made it work somehow but he would always find a way to make beautiful music.
The player who has turned me on to all this is Bucky Pizzarelli. Although he usually plays a 7 string amped semi acoustic in the Van Epps tradition you sometimes hear him on CD
(eg. I saw stars by Becky Kilgore) on an old acoustic (probably an Epiphone) and he is an absolute master at that '4 to bar' plus chorded solo style. Also Barry Galbraith was great at that.
Ah well, that's enough of my rambling. All interesting stuff.
Roly.

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