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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

Wed 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 22: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 22: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 22: Pasadena Roof Orchestra @ Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.

Thu 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free. Fortnightly.
Thu 23: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Obituaries 2024.
Thu 23: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:30-6:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Thu 23: Pedal Point Trio @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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

Monday, September 10, 2012

The Voice of the North Jazz Orchestra @ The Sage, Sunday Sept. 9

John Warren (cond./comp./arr.); Julian Siegel (clt/sop/ten/cont bs clt); Graham Hardy, Sean Eland, John Dunn, Greg Nicholas (tpts); Chris Hibbard, Alex Leathard, Kieran Parnaby, Eddie Bellis (tmb); Rod Mason, Andy Bennett, Graeme Wilson, Sue Ferris, Niall Armstrong (reeds); Stu Collingwood (pno); Mark Williams (gtr); Andy Champion (bs/bs gtr); Adrian Tilbrook (dms).
(Review by Lance.)
Friday, I vote for the VOTNJO in the Big Band section of the British Jazz Awards, Sunday, the grim reality that this was to be their final concert - at least under John Warren - sinks in. So perhaps we should all vote for them in appreciation of what they have achieved over the past 15/16 years.
The music is complex - a jazz version of say Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique - but it's also accessible to all but the most tunnelled visionaires.
After a few words from Paul Bream of co-promoters JNE, John Warren introduces the evening's guest, Julian Siegel, and the band, already under starters orders are off and into The New One Two. A Warren composition  originally written for the John Surman Brass Project.
It's a dissonant, almost atonal, piece that features Siegel on soprano, Dunn on trumpet and Wilson on tenor. There's also a relaxed, out of tempo, interlude spotlighting bass and drums. An auspicious start that takes up  15 minutes, maybe more, of the first set which is about par.
Wise Child, by Siegel, is dedicated to Wayne Shorter and the composer plays some quite heroic tenor. Bennett, Williams also have a bite at the cherry before a Tilbrook drum excursion brings the piece to it's logical conclusion.
Monk's Ruby My Dear - a Warren arrangement -  features Collingwood's sensitive introduction and sets the sultry mood. The sax section's co-ordination impresses and for a while the band is actually swinging.
The Missing Link - the two Grahams (well Graeme and Graham actually) are both heard to advantage in a piece as quirky as the title.
The set closes with a latin based number the title of which escapes me - more excellent work by Collingwood.
After adjourning to the bar and doing the social circuit it was back to business. This band really is incredible, handling some of the most intricate parts ever scored with apparent ease. The sections gel even though they are often seemingly in conflict albeit carefully contrived conflict which isn't conflict at all!
Mark Williams does some guitar shredding with such intensity it's a wonder the lights don't dim whilst on Aliteration Addict Niall Armstrong takes a giant step forward out of the section for a baritone solo that could arguably be put forward as the best blast of the night.
De Je Vu has Siegel doing some delicate work on Contra Bass Clarinet in tandem with one of the trombones.
As we approach the home straight Rod Mason does some paint-stripping and Sue Ferris, that most lyrical lady, adds the gloss.
It's been quite a night tinged with the sad thought we may ne'er see their like again..
I'm pleased the VOTNJO drew a reasonable crowd - a band this size could quite easily have outnumbered the audience! fortunately this wasn't the case unlike in the Central Bar where I called in for a pre number 27 (bus) pint. Here the bar staff did out number the customers - all three of us!
Lance.
PS: If you decide to vote for the band in the awards click here.

1 comment :

Unknown said...

This was the first (and I hope not the last) time I had been to a VOTNJO gig.
Paul Bream says they're good. Lance Liddle says they're good. But neither had prepared me for the intense joy of their complex sensitive repetoire. Fabulous arrangements, superb musicianship.

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