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Bebop Spoken There

Stan Woodward: ''We're part of the British jazz scene, but we don't play London jazz. We play Newcastle jazz. The Knats album represents many things, but most importantly that Newcastle isn't overlooked". (DownBeat, April 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

17923 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 244 of them this year alone and, so far, 91 this month (March 31).

From This Moment On ...

MARCH 2025.

Wed 02: Lauren Bush: The Jazz Singer’s Toolkit @ The Pele, Corbridge. 1:00-4:00pm. Vocalist Lauren Bush with pianist Jamil Sheriff presents a jazz singing workshop. £40.00. (inc. evening concert, see below). Registration required for workshop: www.laurenbushjazz.com. All ability levels welcome.
Wed 02: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 02: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 2:30-4:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Wed 02: Lauren Bush & Jamil Sheriff @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00-9:00pm. £10.00. Concert performance. Tickets: www.laurenbushjazz.com.
Wed 02: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 02: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE! See website for updates: www.theglobenewcastle.bar.

Thu 03: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Women in Jazz.
Thu 03: Eva Fox & the Jazz Guys @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 03: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. A Tees Hot Club promotion. First Thursday in the month.

Fri 04: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 04: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 04: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 04: Ruth Lambert Quartet @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Fri 04: Tom McGuire & the Brassholes @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £20.00.
Fri 04: Nicolas Meier’s Infinity Group + Spirit of Jeff Beck @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm.

Sat 05: Tenement Jazz Band @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 05: Sleep Suppressor @ Head of Steam, Newcastle. 5:30-6:00pm.
Sat 05: King Bees @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Raymond MacDonald & Jer Reid @ Lubber Fiend, Newcastle. 6:00-9:30pm. £7.72., £1.00. (minimum donation). MacDonald & Reid + Objections + Yotuns.
Sat 05: Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Kamasi Washington @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. £33.00.
Sat 05: Vermont Big Band @ The Seahorse, Whitley Bay. 7:30pm. Tickets: £10.00 (from the venue).
Sat 05: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Sun 06: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £7.50.
Sun 06: Learning & Participation Showcase @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm (1:00pm doors). Free. Featuring participants from Play More Jazz! Play More Folk! Blue Jam Singers & more.
Sun 06: Joe Steels Group @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Ferg Kilsby, Joe Steels, Ben Lawrence, Paul Susans, John Hirst.
Sun 06: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Hooch, Quayside, Newcastle. 6:00pm.
Sun 06: Leeway @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 07: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 08: ???

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

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Memories of Chris by Ann Alex

I just have to tell blog readers about one of my favourite memories of Chris Yates. I was a student of his Jazz Appreciation classes at the Centre for Lifelong Learning, from about 2008. He was an absolutely great tutor and a lovely man, as I’m sure many blog readers already know. He was very patient with me, as a beginner in Jazz. Anyway, one day he was talking to us about the Great American Songbook (GASBOOK, as Lance calls it!). I was somewhat puzzled about this, so I asked Chris, with an innocent smile on my little face,
‘Chris, can I get the Great American Songbook out of the library?’
He must have wanted to laugh out loud, but good tutors can’t do that, especially not with adult students. He gently explained what the term really meant, that it was a concept rather than an actual book, although the components of the GASBOOK must be contained in many books, on sheet music and on CD and even on old fashioned tapes and cylinders.
Which leads me to speculate about what is to be included In the Great American Songbook. This blog is meant to be for real live discussions, so I’d love to start a debate about what the GASBOOK really is. Everyone knows about the jazz standards which are part of the GASBOOK, but could you perhaps include more recent compositions, say the songs of Bob Dylan; Randy Newman; or Burt Bacharach, and if not, then why not?
Ann Alex

7 comments :

Lance said...

This is one of those 'eyes (or in this case ears)of the beholder' situations.
The general consensus is that it applies to songs written post World War 1 to 1960 or perhaps the advent of Rock and Roll. However, this would eliminate composers such as Stephen Sondheim whose work certainly belongs there.
Also, I don't think the composers have to be exclusively birth Americans. Ray Noble was British and few would deny The Very Thought of You entry to its pages.
On a lighter note - if the Gasbook had been available from the library you'd have had to hire a Pickfords truck to get it home!

Roly said...

An interesting topic. A subjective thing I think. To me its a personal and perhaps idiomatic choice. Some more recent songs (by Dave Frishberg for one example) are Gasbook material but other songs (eg. LLoyd Webber) just don't seem to meet the rather vague, nebulous criteria - whatever these vague, nebulous criteria be.
Hmmm - this is no help whatever - is it?
Roly

Roly said...

I've thought a bit more about this.
I think it embodies all songs (generally with English/American lyrics) which have a reasonable level of popularity and which reasonable numbers of jazz musicians and jazz singers are (or have been) attracted to for performance material.
Roly

George Milburn said...

I think the GASBook should remain as defined for the sake of convenience. i.e. great songs, generally in English, of the jazz era 20's to 60's. There's so much subjectivity and hyperbole in music that having map references which mean something is a help, especially for strangers to the terrain.
I agree, with Lance that Sondheim's work is great, isn't it! with Ann's election of Randy Newman & Dylan and Roly's comments on Dave Frishberg, not to mention the great Tom Waits, but including them under a label from a different era is in my opinion folly. A bit like saying that the Vikings were really sophisticated enough to be included in the period of the Roman Occupation. I like the Vikings obviously but what did the Romans ever do for us?!
Tom Jobim wrote in Portuguese but surely he must be in the GASbook?!

Unknown said...

This is the way I see it. The Great American Songbook is a term for describing a collection of songs written between 1920 and 1960ish that have become standard repertoire for jazz singers.

Contemporary jazz singers often include more modern material in their repertoire, notably Lennon/McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton, but these should not be considered part of The Great American Songbook. To do so would undermine its usefulness as a definition.

However, I think you could say that songs such as Yesterday, River or I Will Always Love You are becoming standards.

Russell said...

Roly's suggestion that 'nebulous criteria' define the Gasbook is a good one. Keep it as it is. It is a bit like the old line 'If you have to ask what jazz is...' We shouldn't admit any old song writer (and certainly no young ones!). George's observation about Jobim is well made. He's in there for me, after all Sinatra helped put him there!

Russell

Ann Alex said...

I'm very pleased that the topic I started has given rise to a useful discussion. Thank you everyone. I've come to the conclusion that the GASbook is probably best defined as English and American songs of the period 1920-60. However that doesn't mean that Jazz singers always have to stick to GASbook material in their performances. And as Lance once said to me, GASbook songs have a certain universal quality and are often not identified with any particular singer, or even with their composer sometimes. As a sometime singer I think I'd draw the line at LLoyd Webber, mind!

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