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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

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.

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.

Sun 12: The New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 12: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 12: King Bees @ The Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Superb Chicago blues band.
Sun 12: Dave Bottomley @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar.
Sun 12: Jack Pearce Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 13: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 13: Raymond MacDonald & Andy Champion @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00.

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, January 21, 2013

The Curse of the Banjo and Other Stories

This evening I was wearing my other musical head, at South Shields Folk Club, where there was an   entertaining, and true, banjo story and also many burger tales (or should it be tails!).
John, a banjo player, who is also a model railway enthusiast, was at a model railway exhibition some years ago.  He was playing his banjo to entertain himself when the stall was quiet.  Another stallholder complained to the exhibition manager, instead of approaching John first, and the manager told him to stop playing, which he did reluctantly.  John returned to the same exhibition last year – the other stallholder was nowhere to be seen and it turned out that the exhibition manager was dead!  John reckons this was the curse of the banjo!
Burger jokes:
Heard in Tesco ‘I’ll have a fiver each way on that burger’
A certain supermarket is selling a new line in burgers – My Lidl pony
My wife and I ate horseburgers from Tesco, they were good but we got the trots
I bought a bottle of Bacardi, a bottle of navy rum and some burgers – white rum, dark rum and Red Rum.
I showed the assistant in Tesco’s the barcode and she handed me a zebra.
Ann Alex

3 comments :

Anonymous said...

Apropos of nothing in particular and banjos in general, in Dublinese, the verb 'to banjo' means to commit a violent act against some usually innocent bystanders (This may apply to jazz audiences listening to banjo solos). For reference see Christy Moore's song 'The Crack was Ninety in the Isle of Man'. This may explain the curse of the banjo...but on the other hand, maybe not.

Ann Alexander said...

I'm surprised (or maybe not!) to find that there is a prejudice against banjos in the jazz world as well as in the folk music world. In folk, the bodhran drum is also joked about - it's a one-sided drum held in the hand, and it's more difficult to play than you'd suppose - I know as I've tried. Perhaps all musical instruments are good if played well, so I wonder how these prejudices get started?
Ann Alex

Lance said...

The problem with the Bodhran is that nobody knows the correct pronunciation unless they live in a hamlet situated close to a peat bog near Tipperary. However, the pronunciation is probably totally different in Kildare - it certainly is in Jarrow.
As regards the unmentionable - Bloody Awful Noise Jazz Oddity - Its failings are in melodic charm, harmonic depth, and the ability to sooth the savaged breast. In it's favour, it is lethal in a game of Conkers.

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