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Bebop Spoken There

Kurt Elling: ''There's something to learn from every musician you play with''. (DownBeat, December 2024).

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

17630 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 16 years ago. 904 of them this year alone and, so far, 49 this month (Dec. 20).

From This Moment On ...

December

Tue 24: Lindsay Hannon & Mark Williams @ Ernest, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 11:00am-1:00pm. Free.
Tue 24: Paul Skerritt @ Mambo Wine & Dine, South Shields. 1:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.

Wed 25: Wot? No jazz!

Thu 26: The Boneshakers @ Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. The 17th annual Boneshakers’ Shindig.

Fri 27: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free. Business as usual!.
Fri 27: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 27: Michael Woods @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar & vocals.

Sat 28: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 11:30am. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 28: Fri 20: Castillo Nuevo @ Revoluçion de Cuba, Newcastle. 5:30pm. Free.
Sat 28: Jude Murphy, Rich Herdman & Giles Strong @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 28: Ray Stubbs R & B All-Stars @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Stepney Bank, Newcastle. 9:00pm. Free.

Sun 29: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 29: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 30: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Wheatsheaf, Benton Sq., Whitley Road, Palmersville NE12 9SU. Tel: 0191 266 8137. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 30: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.

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

Friday, April 06, 2012

Paul Edis Sextet, Queen’s Hall, Hexham. Thursday April 5.

Paul Edis (pno), Mick Shoulder (bass), Adam Sinclair (drums), Graeme (B) Wilson (tenor), Chris Hibbard (tbn) and Graham Hardy (tpt/ flug).
Hexham, dusk, “the evening spread out against the sky”, the Abbey squats above burgeoning trees, the café smells of coffee and flapjacks, the trombonist warms up amidst a buzz of chatter: the Sextet are in town for their latest happy return to this lovely venue.
Eight o’clock. Lights dim and Adam “administers” the drums and drives us through the opening number. Then Paul cues in “Monk” with quirky piano intro and catchy head followed by sax notes swirling like the jackdaws round the Abbey tower (jazz van Gogh could paint!) and the high ceilings echo to trombone, robust and round, before feet tap again to the quirky ending.
It was time then for mellifluous Echoes then Sharp 9/8 – honeyed flugelhorn followed by disturbing rhythms and trumpet, evoking film noir, 50’s cops. “Dragnet” in Hexham! Equally filmic and evocative, in a calmer way, Elegy is played out as jackdaws give way to bats in the darkening sky.
The first set gets an Angular finish with the front-men soloing impressively while the rhythm section keep a spiky groove going through to the end. The secret is in the timing - a full café applauds!
Ten past nine, full-dark, Guinness-black and looking frosty but inside a warm Canadian “Hey there…” gets the second-half underway .I’ll omit “hosers”, having Googled it and found that Graeme’s equivocation here may well be justified: no-one here took offence, anyway! Then, for something “completely different” we had Evans-like “moody jazz” with Re-vamp followed (helter-skelter) by Being With You – all raspberry trombone and Mack Sennett piano. Sennett was Canadian: would he have been a “hoser”?
Sanity was restored and “toast and tea” promised (or quoted, at least) as Mick stepped up to usher in the brass long-notes of the CD title (did I mention there’s a CD?): There Will Be Time. This piece is a real slow-burner which grows on you by “visions and revisions” until it fixes in your head just as firmly as the more upbeat stuff.
Time then ticked on – seconds out! - and the sax was unleashed again on Ravelations: it flew, then, with Blues for Dad (I must declare an interest here!) before finally running out, kamikaze-style, with us hosers’ (?) reluctant acceptance that Out Late must surely be followed (after well-earned applause) by the A69 and home.
Get to Crook if you can on April 26 (set off early – there will be time)!
Jerry.
Photos by J.Edis.

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