Total Pageviews

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

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

Saturday, September 01, 2012

CD Review - Graham Dechter: Takin' it There.

Graham Dechter (gtr); Tamir Hendelman (pno); John Clayton (bs); Jeff Hamilton (dms).
(Review by Lance.)
A must for guitar buffs! Graham Dechter, a young guitarist from Los Angeles, lives up to his hype as being poised and polished, suave and swinging - he is all these things and more. Both Dechter and pianist Hendelman paid their dues in the Clayton Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and it is fitting that the co-leaders of that orchestra complete the quartet here.

Wes Montgomery's Road Song, Barney Kessel's Be Deedle De Do reveal Dechter to be able to groove with the best and yet retain his own personality. Listen to the lyricism of Jobim's Chega De Saudate, a magical experience! The angular lines flow with the ease of a season pro and yet this is only his second album.
Dechter's original, Together and Apart, is a reflective even melancholic piece - underpinned as it is by soulful arco bass from Clayton - that seems to gradually emerge like a Night-Blooming Jasmine blossoming in the shades of evening before slowly returning to whence it came from.
It's back in the groove for Takin' it There with some driving piano from Hendelman who is a force to be reckoned with on this disc. Hamilton has an impressive drum work out on this one. YouTube.
George Coleman's Father is another lyrical piece that seems tailor-made for Dechter who sails throw the changes effortlessly - I say "Effortlessly" but think of the hours of practice he must have put in to get to this level! Likewise Hendelman whose solo is also on the money.
I'm running out of superlatives, it's that kind of disc, suffice to say John Clayton's Grease For Graham keeps the momentum going with some down home blues, Lee Morgan's Hocus Pocus - full of bop licks that have never dated and kick-ass drumming from Hamilton - Come Rain or Come Shine, Harold Arlen was possibly the most blues orientated of the American composers and Dechter gets to the heart of the tune and finds harmonic depths the composer himself probably didn't dream existed!
To conclude, an original by Dechter, Amanda, and Cole Porter's Every Time we Say Goodbye (End of a Love Affair's in there too).
An emotional ending to a lovely disc.
Lance.
CD Review - Graham Dechter: Takin' it There. Available from Amazon Sept. 18.
at

No comments :

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )

Blog Archive