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Bebop Spoken There

Sullivan Fortner: ''I always judge it by the bass player: If the bass player is happy, it's going to be a good night". (DownBeat, February 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

17777 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 98 of them this year alone and, so far, 23 this month (Feb.8).

From This Moment On ...

February 2025

Sat 15: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 15: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Sat 15: Elkie Brooks @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. ‘The Long Farewell Tour’.
Sat 15: Milne Glendinning Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 16: MOBO Song @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 12 noon. Free, performances on the concourse. Line-up inc. Jazz Attack (on stage time TBC) & Jambone (12:20pm).
Sun 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 16: MOBO Awards Fringe 2025: BBC Introducing NE X MOBO Showcase @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:00pm. Free (ticketed). Line-up inc. Jambone, Knats, Rivkala, SwanNek.
Sun 16: The Shayo Experience @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 16: Gerry Richardson Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. .

Mon 17: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 17: Matt Forster Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 17: Russ Morgan Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 18: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law, Paul Grainger, John Hirst.

Wed 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 19: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 19: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 20: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 1:15pm. Free.
Thu 20: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Jazz Milestones - 1975.
Thu 20: Renegade Brass Band @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors).
Thu 20: Orange Claw Hammer + Peony @ The Globe, Newcastle.7:30pm. Orange Claw Hammer play Captain Beefheart.
Thu 20: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. Featuring special guest Zoë Gilby.

Fri 21: JazzMain @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 21: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 21: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £10.00. TBC.
Fri 21: Emma Rawicz w. Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 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, September 03, 2012

CD Review: John Surman – Saltash Bells (ECM 279 8108)


John Surman (various instruments.)
(Review by Wes.)
It has certainly been a great pleasure for me to have spent the last few weeks giving repeated listening to one of the new ECM recordings that is Saltash Bells by John Surman. I would however say that it is certainly one that presses the inevitable question of how well can you actually put into words a series of such spacious and free spirited musical compositions, for indeed music surely is it’s own language.
Within the pieces contained on this record I can find reference points and use written language but by no means can or will I get close to the truth and expression of the thing, the music itself.
The more I listen to the contemporary output of ECM the more I feel that the idea of Jazz music is progressing, regressing, pushing and pulling to such an extent it remains actually true to only one thing, and that thing is the artist or artists themselves, regardless of the shape shifting banner it paints itself under, which is “Jazz”. To be fair for a quite a number of years I’ve been struggling in my own mind to reconcile in the contemporary and progressive culture of that word what it means anymore, and the debate I believe will perpetually continue.
An album such as this certainly seems to validate my point.
My initial and remaining feelings from the record is that it actually reminds me as much of a great and rich history of Jazz saxophone players as much as it does medieval music and the kind of ethereal and ambient electronic musicians that I used to listen to in the mid nineties, artists such as Coldcut or The Orb for instance. These artists at the time that although seemed to fall into a category of ambient, electronic, break-beat or even techno music but seemingly remained outside the sphere and were individual, independent and remained with their own voice.
Another way to express this is to say that aforementioned Coldcut playing Autumn Leaves for me was just simply a beautiful piece of electronic ambient music which I later discovered was considered to be a piece of classic Jazz history and repertoire.  It was years later that I only realised this as a passion for Jazz developed, similarly The Orb were artists that used samples as the crux of their music, some which undoubtedly come from Jazz forms and origin, and so it seems Jazz music does not only work in cycles but crosses the circles too, envelopes, flutters, fleets and uses any form necessary to find it’s way out through the instruments, the individuals, the bands and musicians and to us the listeners.
Indeed the playing and compositions on this record are lyrical, free, pleasant, bright, breezy, strangely familiar and warming by that familiarity. Once again embracing, spacious and what seems to be an almost trademark ECM stamp, that of being free, ethereal and timeless.
To sum up a fine record indeed and as easy going on the ear as it is with a subtle combination of Soprano, Tenor and Baritone Saxophones, Bass and Contrabass Clarinets, Harmonica, Synthesizer and Samples, all played and created by Surman himself, this is not a series of recordings to be underestimated or taken lightly, his first solo recording since 1994, a remarkable thing.
Feel it.
Wesley Stephenson 

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