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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

17655 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 929 of them this year alone and, so far, 74 this month (Dec. 31).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Sun 05: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £7.50.
Sun 05: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 05: Salty Dog @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Americana, jazz & blues.
Sun 05: Papa G’s Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free (donations).

Mon 06: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 07: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.

Wed 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 08: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 09: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: John H Hammond.
Thu 09: FILM: Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat @ Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle. 2:35pm. Documentary (dir. Johan Grimonprez) ‘about jazz, (de)colonial history and activism featuring Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie’.
Thu 09: Happy Tuesdays @ Ye Olde Cross, Ryton. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 09: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 09: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. A Tees Hot Club promotion. The session now monthly, next one Thursday 2nd Feb, then first Thursday in the month thereafter.

Fri 10: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 10: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. Free.

Sat 11: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 11: Under the Wellie @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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

Sunday, October 14, 2012

CD Review: Danny Green - A Thousand Ways Home.

Danny Green (pno); Justin Grinnell (bs); Julien Cantelm (dms).; Tripp Sprague (sop/ten) + Eva Scow (mand);  Peter Sprague (gtr); Chico Pinehiro (gtr); Claudia Villela (vcl); Dusty Brough (gtr).
(Review by Lance)
A gem! San Diego based pianist Green is a new name to me even though his debut album With You in Mind won the San Diego Music Awards for Best Jazz Album. I haven't heard that album but if it's half as good as this one it must have walked off with the prize 64 bars ahead of the rest!

Green is a swingy pianist with strong evidence of his classical background seeping through - at times I could detect a whiff of Jacques Loussier. Nothing wrong with that except Green doesn't rely on JSB for his material - he writes his own.
Yes originals - often the bane of my life - but these are good catchy, easy to pick up on themes. Track 10 - Back To Work could, with practice, become a repertoire item for any band. Sprague plays the theme on soprano over a Bossa rhythm before taking off on a solo that is verging on perfection - you know what I mean you get the feeling that not one note could be changed. Green's piano solo takes it along at the same high level before going - back to work!
Brazilian vocalist Villela sings Quintal da Solidao with that puckish delivery inherent in so many Brazilian singers. The song could have been written by Jobim but I defy anyone to sing it better than Villela.
The guitarists all have their moments in the sun but the surprise package is Eva Scow. I've never thought highly of mandolins in a jazz setting but Eva knows her way around the instrument and on her four tracks she demonstrates that, in the right hands, the mandolin has a place in jazz.
Love this one but...like just about every CD you get these days - dark text on a slightly darker background makes the notes impossible to read. Still the music makes up for it!
Check out this YouTube sample.
Danny Green - A Thousand Ways Home goes out on the Tapestry Label on October 16.
Lance.

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