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Bebop Spoken There

Steve Coleman: ''If you don't keep learning, your mind slows down. Use it or lose it''. (DownBeat, January 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

17655 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 929 of them this year alone and, so far, 74 this month (Dec. 31).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Mon 06: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 07: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.

Wed 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 08: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 09: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: John H Hammond.
Thu 09: FILM: Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat @ Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle. 2:35pm. Documentary (dir. Johan Grimonprez) ‘about jazz, (de)colonial history and activism featuring Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie’.
Thu 09: Happy Tuesdays @ Ye Olde Cross, Ryton. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 09: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 09: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. A Tees Hot Club promotion. The session now monthly, next one Thursday 2nd Feb, then first Thursday in the month thereafter.

Fri 10: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 10: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. Free.

Sat 11: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 11: Under the Wellie @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 12: The New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 12: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 12: King Bees @ The Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Superb Chicago blues band.
Sun 12: Dave Bottomley @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar.
Sun 12: Jack Pearce 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

Monday, October 17, 2011

Zoe's gig, 'Ode to Billie Joe' and favourite song titles

As you say a very nice gig with Zoe and the band with great choice of material. As well as the songs you mentioned, I particularly liked the Donald Duck style scat interplay between the trumpet and voice in 'Centrepiece'.
Interesting that you especially mention 'Ode to Billie Joe' as I was planning to ask Zoe to sing it last night but arrived late and didn't want to start shouting out requests. So I was very pleased that Zoe sang it anyway and introduced it as 'a story, a chance to act a part'.
The reason I was going to request the song was that I've just read Greil Marcus's book 'Invisible Republic' which is a meditation on American folk music taking as a jumping off point Dylan's 'Basement Tapes'. In it he talks about 'Ode to BJ' being in the archetypal tradition of folk songs where themes like loss and memory unfold in a distancing, matter of fact way. I guess like most people I thought the question was 'what was thrown off the bridge?' but, of course, that's not the point at all. The girl/young woman telling the story knows what was thrown off but nobody asks her. The family talk about the suicide with the same interest as they have in black-eyed peas and biscuits, while Billie-Joe's girlfriend is sitting there as part of the same family. Apparently Gentry herself described the song as a 'study in unconscious cruelty'. Reading that makes me hear the song completely differently.
Marcus says that one of the Basement Tapes tracks 'Clothes Line Sage' was originally entitled "Answer to 'Ode' ", and in fact applies the language and tone of 'Ode to BJ' to a whole nation. The song revolves around the essential activity of putting out and taking in the washing from the line and towards the end a neighbour walks by and says 'Have you heard the news. The vice-president's gone mad'  and the mother says 'Gee, that's too bad' to which the reply is 'Well, there's nothing we can do about it'. Then the washing is taken in again. And this was written in the social ferment that was early 1970s America.
Just on the question of favourite song titles, how about 'God must be a Boogie Man' and 'the Wolf that lives in Lindsey' (no, I don't think its that Lindsay), which are also from the Joni Mitchell 'Mingus' album where 'Dry Cleaner' comes from. And then there is the poignant 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' from the same album (maybe that's a track for Zoe and the band?).
JC

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