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Bebop Spoken There

Stan Woodward: ''We're part of the British jazz scene, but we don't play London jazz. We play Newcastle jazz. The Knats album represents many things, but most importantly that Newcastle isn't overlooked". (DownBeat, April 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

17923 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 244 of them this year alone and, so far, 91 this month (March 31).

From This Moment On ...

MARCH 2025.

Wed 02: Lauren Bush: The Jazz Singer’s Toolkit @ The Pele, Corbridge. 1:00-4:00pm. Vocalist Lauren Bush with pianist Jamil Sheriff presents a jazz singing workshop. £40.00. (inc. evening concert, see below). Registration required for workshop: www.laurenbushjazz.com. All ability levels welcome.
Wed 02: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 02: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 2:30-4:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Wed 02: Lauren Bush & Jamil Sheriff @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00-9:00pm. £10.00. Concert performance. Tickets: www.laurenbushjazz.com.
Wed 02: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 02: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE! See website for updates: www.theglobenewcastle.bar.

Thu 03: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Women in Jazz.
Thu 03: Eva Fox & the Jazz Guys @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 03: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. A Tees Hot Club promotion. First Thursday in the month.

Fri 04: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 04: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 04: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 04: Ruth Lambert Quartet @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Fri 04: Tom McGuire & the Brassholes @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £20.00.
Fri 04: Nicolas Meier’s Infinity Group + Spirit of Jeff Beck @ The Forum, Darlington. 7:30pm.

Sat 05: Tenement Jazz Band @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 05: Sleep Suppressor @ Head of Steam, Newcastle. 5:30-6:00pm.
Sat 05: King Bees @ Billy Bootlegger’s, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 6:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Raymond MacDonald & Jer Reid @ Lubber Fiend, Newcastle. 6:00-9:30pm. £7.72., £1.00. (minimum donation). MacDonald & Reid + Objections + Yotuns.
Sat 05: Jeff Hewer Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 05: Kamasi Washington @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. £33.00.
Sat 05: Vermont Big Band @ The Seahorse, Whitley Bay. 7:30pm. Tickets: £10.00 (from the venue).
Sat 05: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.

Sun 06: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £7.50.
Sun 06: Learning & Participation Showcase @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm (1:00pm doors). Free. Featuring participants from Play More Jazz! Play More Folk! Blue Jam Singers & more.
Sun 06: Joe Steels Group @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. Ferg Kilsby, Joe Steels, Ben Lawrence, Paul Susans, John Hirst.
Sun 06: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 06: Paul Skerritt @ The Hooch, Quayside, Newcastle. 6:00pm.
Sun 06: Leeway @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 07: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 08: ???

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

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Interview with Gwyneth Herbert by Lance

L. Your new album, “The Sea Cabinet”, was launched last month at Wilton’s Music Hall but the actual tour proper commences tonight – that’s June 12 – at Sage Gateshead.
GH: That’s right.   This is our first large-scale UK tour for a while, and many of the venues have a particular resonance with me and the project.  When I first sang at Wilton’s three years ago, I fell immediately in love with it. It's the oldest surviving Grand Music Hall in the world and it feels as if the very walls whisper with the ghosts of cabaret past; seems to me the most perfect location in which to launch our story-web of sea songs. I also love The Sage – it’s a great space to play, and I've developed my relationship with the venue by working and performing there in a variety of different guises over the last ten years or so.
L Listening to tracks from the album and reading the press release it seems to me to be a giant step away from anything you've done previously, would you agree?  I'm familiar with Bittersweet and Blue and of course I enjoyed your last visit to Sage Gateshead – The Peggy Lee Project – but this is a very different project indeed.
GH: Every day I seem to be taking giant steps away from the one that went before, only to leap sideways and then jump back again the next. In one week I might be recording some 18th Century murder ballads for Radio 4, composing a film score for toy orchestra, singing “Why Don’t You Do Right” with a big band, researching maps for a musical about the inventor of the A – Z, producing a neo-cabaret satirical comedy record, rewriting folk legends with kids, having my head cast in plaster for an art exhibition about obsession and desire… I don’t see my “career” as a linear progression.  It’s a kind of frenetic, ever-expanding hopscotch. On the spot.
L:  The diversity of material should appeal as much to the folk world as well as to the jazz world? The songs are so descriptive of the people and places portrayed.
GH: Isn't it funny how we are still obsessed with genre? Almost as if it’s an ethnicity, or an old school tie.  My songs are inspired – as you so rightly point out – by people and places. I’m a story magpie, and as I wrote most of the album whilst staying on the Suffolk coast, many of the sonic and lyrical ideas are thieved from my time there – the chattering of fisherman, the cry of the gulls, a chance encounter with a beachcomber… This emphasis on narrative in song is certainly present in the folk tradition.  And having jazz musicians in my band – access to that wonderful improvisatory dialogue between players - certainly informs the sound.  In “The Sea Cabinet” there are elements of shanty and bubblegum pop and barbershop music hall… but really it’s the magically diverse language of the sea and the coast that we’re exploring.  And I hope anyone can be transported to Mrs Wittering’s faded seaside hotel or be seduced by Lorelei’s moans… no matter what “tie” they may be wearing.
L: Will you be using a choir at Sage Gateshead as you did at Wilton’s Music Hall?
GH: We have a very special Pirate Chorus from Burnside College in Wallsend!  I came up yesterday to have a session with the kids yesterday and teach them the harmonies... I'm really excited they’re joining us onstage tonight.
L: Do you see your future as composing and singing your own material or will you still dip into the Songbook?
GH: The short answer is yes.  In terms of album output, since Bittersweet and Blue was released 8 years ago, there have been 3 Herbert records with only one cover between them - David Bowie’s “Rock and Roll Suicide” – and in fact it’s only very recently that I’ve allowed myself to fall in love with jazz again.  Not that I ever fell out of love with it, just that I was busy investigating and making and playing and falling in love with other things. I loved singing the beautiful songs of Peggy Lee, and later this year am continuing my association with the wonderful “Café Society” project, exploring the songs and stories of the legendary Greenwich Village Club of the same name.   I am sure that jazz and the Songbook will continue to be a part of what I do.
L:. You attended Durham University. Do you still feel an affinity with the area?
GH: Every time the Cathedral looms large and beautiful into view, I get all misty-eyed out of the train window.  I made my strongest friendships and spent some of my most wonderful years here – playing with Brancepeth trio as “Gwynnie and the Pacemakers”, cutting my teeth with guitarist Will Rutter at Durham cafes and Newcastle bars and nearby forest parties…  I love the musicality of the accents, I love being called flower and pet and darlin’ in the space of one sentence.  I love the river and the green spaces and the cobbles and most of all the people. 
L: Finally, you were part of the Take 5 development scheme.  Has this been of great value to you?
GH: It certainly has.  As part of the scheme, we had access to inspiring people from all areas of the industry who encouraged us as independent artists to think creatively about the business aspects of our career, rather than seeing the elements as mutually exclusive.  I found the whole thing experience empowering.  And I also met a bunch of incredible musicians, got an insight into their very different approaches to artistic process, and made some wicked music together… look out for various collaborations hitting the stages in the next couple of years!
L: Thank you Gwyneth - I'm very much looking forward to tonight's concert.
Tonight's performance by Gwyneth Herbert of The Sea Cabinet is at 8pm in Hall Two, Sage Gateshead. £16.50. Tel 0191 4434661.

2 comments :

Ian Talbot Paterson (on F/b) said...

Good stuff. We were at Durham Uni together. She was fantastic back then and has gone from strength to strength since!

Liz said...

smart lady! a good interview Lance.. well done!
Liz

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