Bebop Spoken There

Dominick "Domo" Branch: ''Most people say drummers can't write, they're just time-keepers only beating on things. But I have a very musical brain.'' (DownBeat February, 2026)

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

18288 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 142 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Feb. 14), 42

From This Moment On ...

February

Thu 19: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject: George Shearing Jazz Moments.

Fri 20: Alex Clarke w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT! Clarke w. Dean Stockdale, Mick Shoulder, Abbie Finn.
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Squabble @ Warkworth Memorial Hall. 7:00pm. Steve Chambers (organ); Jude Murphy (double bass, vocals); Sid White (drums).
Fri 20: Jive Aces @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:00pm (6:30pm doors).
Fri 20: Alex Clarke w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. Clarke w. Dean Stockdale, Mick Shoulder, Abbie Finn.

Sat 21: ???

Sun 22: Musicians Unlimited: Big Band Blast @ West Hartlepool RFC. 1:00-3:00pm . Free.
Sun 22: Joe Steels Group @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. A Blue Patch album tour.
Sun 22: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Harben Kay Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 23: Joe Steels Group @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. A Blue Patch album tour.
Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 24: Finn-Keeble Group @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £11.00.
Tue 24: Liam Oliver & Shayo Oshodi @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 26: Castillo Nuevo Orquesta @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £6.50.
Thu 26: Shalala @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £7.00 adv.
Thu 26: Mick Cantwell Band @ The Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. 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

Monday, July 09, 2012

CD Review: Sleepers - Keith Jarrett.


Keith Jarrett (pno/perc.); Jan Garbarek (ten/sop/fl/perc.); Palle Danielsson (bs); Jon Christensen (dms/perc.).
(Review by Lance)
A previously unreleased double CD recorded in Tokyo during Jarrett's 1979 tour Sleeper is a welcome addition to the Jarrett discography by what was referred to at the time as his "European Quartet". In many ways it's a typical Jarrett excursion with lots of wildly exciting charges displaying the man's phenomenal technique as well as showing the range of beautiful moods he could create in between . No less animated is Garbarek. He puts the boot in forcefully and imaginatively a far cry from some of his later more ethereal meanderings - in 1979 he did the business. Not that this is all crash, bang, wallop! There are many tender and lyrical moments not least the evocative interchanges between  Jarrett and Garbarek.

Christenson and Danielsson are no lose formidable driving or cajoling, kicking or caressing going with the mood swings.
The numbers are all Jarrett originals but Innocence, So Tender and Prism could easily be songbook material and in fact the latter two pieces were featured by Jarrett's  Standards Trio.
In his biography of Jarrett, Ian Carr wrote "The influence of this quartet is out of all proportion to its brief life." I can't help but feel he is right. Sleepers has a compulsion about it that is, frankly, quite irresistible. I can hear shades of this album in a dozen - no maybe a hundred bands worldwide.
Call it heresy but I think Ornette and Coltrane got it wrong and Jarrett got it right!
Lance.
Sleepers by Keith Jarrett is released on July 16, 2012 on ECM 370 5570.
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