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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

17733 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 53 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Jan. 20).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Wed 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 22: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 22: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 22: Pasadena Roof Orchestra @ Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.

Thu 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free. Fortnightly.
Thu 23: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Obituaries 2024.
Thu 23: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:30-6:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Thu 23: Pedal Point Trio @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 24: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 24: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 24: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 24: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 24: Creakin’ Bones & the Sunday Dinners @ Lindisfarne Social Club, Wallsend. 9:00pm. Admission: TBC. Jazz, blues , jump jive, rock ‘n’ roll.

Sat 25: Boys of Brass @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 25: New '58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson's Wharf, Hartlepool. 6:30pm (doors). Free. A Burns' Night event. Jazz, swing, funk, soul, blues etc.
Sat 25: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 25: Red Kites Jazz @ Parish Hall, St Barnabas’ Church, Rowlands Gill. 7:30pm. £10.00. BYOB (tea & coffee available), raffle. Proceeds to St Barnabas’ Church. Performance feat. Shayo (vocals).
Sat 25: Jack & Jay’s Songbook @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Graham Hardy Eclectic Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 26: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:30pm. Free.
Sun 26: Gratkowski, Tramontana, Beresford, Affifi @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00. JNE.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 28: ???

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 30: Matters Unknown (aka Jonathan Enser, Nubiyan Twist) + support TBA @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). £12.22 (gig & food); £9:04 (gig only).
Thu 30: Soznak @ The Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 30: Struggle Buggy @ Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Rhythm & blues.

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

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

Brass Jaw @ The Lit and Phil, Thursday Nov. 3 - take 2.

Paul Towndrow (alto sax), Konrad Wiszniewski (tenor), Allon Beauvoisin (baritone) ; Ryan Quigley (trumpet)
Strange wriggles from the ghosts of book worms,
In a flickering gaslight shadow play,
The theatrical Mr Bream pounds his gavel 
And the curtain rises with a bluesy
Comin' Home Baby feel
Like a Chinese lantern, casting shadows
On the bookcases, seen through the windows 
Of a murder mystery mansion,
Here you'll find FICTION, M-P
And here, FACT, Aardvark-Brass Jaw.

Like voyeurs of this illicit performance, we watch

As they search between the all-hallowed shelves,
Choosing books of alchemy - formulae to transpose
Brass into gold - the trumpet of Ryan Quigley
Hits a high trill with screaming panache,
Trick or treat? Yikes!

This is the first date of their UK tour,
I scribble down notes as fast as they play them,
They're fast alright, such high energy arrangements,
Like Neutrinos defying Einstein's theory of relativity,
Yet much more entertaining than the laws of physics,
As Paul's composition String Theory suggests,This quartet cannot be defied!

They arrange and re-arrange the standards furniture
With a firey Bruce Lee form of Feng Shui:
It Aint Necessarily So, Drive My Car,
Jo Zawinul's Walk Tall and the challenging Zappa composition
Peaches En Regalia, a tough fruit to eat without a juicy squirt!

Their own compositions are also well inspired, arranged
With such wit and wisdom as should be expected in
The library of the Literary & Philosophical Society:
I Like You - Ryan's warm embracing composition
Chimes convincingly like four part bells - he really means it!

Siddhartha - Konrad's only composition on the new album
- is a great philosophical opener Two words in Sanskrit, siddha (achieved) + artha (meaning)

Which together mean
"He who has found the meaning of existence"
Yes, caught dipping into Wikipedia,
But I did read the Hermann Hesse novel once
And this piece really is the journey of a generous spirit

Set 2 defies the laws of Jazz North East raffles
The tickets are in Wes's hat but hark, what haunting
Sound from yonder trumpet balcony breaks?!
Spectral saxes wail a lament from the depths
Of the literary maze - two players stand before us 
While the others, their plaintive calls lost 
In the Geography section!

Allon's Flat Pack Frog hops confidently across a busy road
Dodging the traffic - it's a game of chance,
Can't bear to look, shut your eyes - but it's too late - splat!
The Well Dented Clavicle - no apologies to JSB - gives
Paul the floor with his story of Rugby woe,
The piece plays like adrenalin chasing pain down the nervous
System of a Fly Half with a broken collarbone - or was he a winger!

We all enjoyed Allon's Rochester Rumble which had us late,
Chasing across town to a NY Jazz Festival gig in
A Cathedral - a lilting Latin rhythm gives us an added sense of
Urgency! Get out the way asshole! You're twisting my baritone man!

Of course there had to be an encore - well deserved -
A Brass Jaw arrangement of Georgie Fame's Sunny
To light our way home.

I bought the new album, Branded - I'm listening to it now,
A reminder of another good-humoured, genuinely entertaining
Jazz event at The Lit & Phil, where the crinkled pages
Of a hundred thousand books
Straightened up and flew right!

Photo Link.
George M.

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