Bebop Spoken There

David Bailey (photographer): ''When I was 16 I wanted to look like Chet Baker. He was my idol - him and James Dean.'' (Talking Pictures documentary : Four beats to the bar and no cheating April, 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

18445 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 309 of them this year alone and, so far this month (April 20 ) 43,

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

From This Moment On

April

Thu 23: FILM: Big Mama Thornton: I Can’t Be Anyone But Me @ Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle. 6:15pm. Dir. Robert Clem (2025).
Thu 23: Castillo Nuevo Orquesta @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. £6.50. 7:30pm (doors).
Thu 23: Eva Fox & the Sound Hounds @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 23: Jeremy McMurray’s Pocket Jazz Orchestra & Musicians Unlimited @ ARC, Stockton. 8:00pm. £19.00. inc. bf.

Fri 24: Noel Dennis Trio @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. Dennis, Mark Willams, Andy Champion. 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: Trio Grand @ Land of Oak & Iron, Winlaton. 6:00-9:00pm. Free.
Fri 24: Ben Vince + The Exu @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £14.33., £11.16, £8.00. A ‘jazz adjacent’ gig!
Fri 24: Daniel John Martin w. Swing Manouche @ The Ship Isis, Sunderland. 7:30pm. £13.20 (inc. bf).
Fri 24: TBC @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm.

Sat 25: Giles Strong Quartet @ Hindmarsh Hall, Alnmouth. 7:30pm. CANCELLED!
Sat 25: Daniel John Martin w. Swing Manouche @ The Old Cinema Launderette, Durham. 7:30pm (7:00pm doors). £13.20 (inc. bf).
Sat 25: ‘Portrait in Evans’: Noa Levy & Alan Barnes w. Paul Edis Trio @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £24.00. Sage Two. ‘Portrait in Evans’. Levy, Barnes, Edis, Andy Champion & Steve Hanley.

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited: Big Band Blast @ West Hartlepool RFC. 1:00-3:00pm . Free.
Sun 26: Daniel John Martin w. Swing Manouche @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00.
Sun 26: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Ni Maxine + Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £17.51., £14.33., £11.16.
Sun 26: Joe Steels @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. Free (donations direct to the musicians). Joe Steels & Friends.
Sun 26: C.A.L.I.E @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £16.00., £14.00., £7.00.

Mon 27: Friends of Jazz @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 27: House of Blues @ the Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £7.00., £5.00. advance. A student-led jazz session. ‘House of Blues’ is, perhaps, a misnomer.
Mon 27: Littlewood Trio @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £10.00 + bf, £7.00. + bf.

Tue 28: Long/Remon/Zilker @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. Tom Remon plays Irish folk!

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 29: Long/Remon/Zilker @ The Ship Isis, Sunderland. 7:00pm. £10.00. + £1.00. bf. Tom Remon plays Irish folk!
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 29: Hackney Colliery Band @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm. £25.00.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Taco Bells & others @ Morden Tower. September 21

(Review by Russell).
Lo-fi (low-financed!) promoters A Better Noise do their thing – obscure, underground, gigs for those who can be bothered. Finland’s Taco Bells were top of the bill but more of them later.
Hapsburg Braganza: Phil Begg (guitar) opened the show with, to quote Rough Trade, ‘lower case electronics’ guitar. That describes perfectly Begg’s approach. An absence of pyrotechnics, introspective leftfield folk melodies, desperately (beautifully) slow, wringing out the last resonant note. Begg’s latest vinyl release (yes, LP format!) Recurring Dreams is available at gigs or via www.altvinyl.com   
John Pope (double bass) & James Joys (clarinet & electronics)
John Pope plays jazz (Alan Glen, Lindsay Hannon). John Pope enjoys the free jazz scene – as a listener or performer. For this set he worked with James Joys (clarinet and Apple Mac). The Mac fired-up (the Silicon Valley fruit shone brightly) leaving the listener in no doubt that there would be some knob-twiddling. There was a bit of spittle clarinet playing, there was a lot of Pope’s free jazz bass playing, there was some good stuff in there.      
Taco Bells: Sami Pekkola (tenor saxophone & washing machine hot/cold hose pipe), Tero Kemppainen (double bass), Jaakko Tolvi (drums) & Stuart Arnot (trumpet)
Three youthful looking lads from Finland, approachable with an excellent command of the English language and a youthful-ish looking Glaswegian trumpeter. The quartet waited patiently to take the stage and when the core trio (the Finns) hit, blew and plucked the first notes it was immediately apparent that this was to be a Peter Brötzmann inspired set. Sami Pekkola (sporting leftfield beard – de rigueur at a Morden Tower event) attempted to blow the roof off the West Walls venue. Bassist Tero Kemppainen (loaning Pope’s instrument) did all the things required of a bassist in a free jazz context (it took him a while to adjust to the sound levels in the small space) and drummer Jaakko Tolvi impressed throughout. How is it that drummers working on the free jazz scene – however young – have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the musical vocabulary? So, to Pekkola’s party piece; attach a coiled length of washing machine hose pipe to the mouth piece to transform the sound to something akin to the oboe. Why? I don’t know. Glaswegian trumpeter Stuart Arnot, resident in Finland, joined the trio mid-set to blow some very free, furious long-note stuff. Washing machine or not Taco Bells scorched through their set with the hot tap very much full on.
Photos from "Anonymous"
Russell 
at

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