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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

Friday, August 02, 2013

Mick Shoulder Quintet @ Lit and Phil August 1.

Mick Shoulder (bs); Graham Hardy (tpt); Graeme Wilson (ten); Paul Edis (pno); Rob Walker (dms).
(Review by Lance.)
Close your eyes and Hey! you're in Birdland, NYC, listening to the Jazz Messengers, or is it London's Flamingo Club and the Jazz Couriers? Nah! we're in Newcastle listening to the Emcee 5 in the Down Beat! Well we are in Newcastle but it's 50 years on from those halcyon days and smoky dives. We're in the Literary and Philosophical  Society listening to Mick Shoulder's Quintet. Around us the portraits of past Lit and Phil dignitaries look down upon us like the Lords of Ruddigore in Sullivan's opera of the same name. However, unlike the aforementioned Lords, these portraits do not come to life.
The band, however, do very much come to life!.
Mick Shoulder, to his credit, apart from being a sensitive and meaningful bass player, has played a major role in drawing attention to areas of jazz that may otherwise have been overlooked by today's seekers of new horizons. Djangologie has kept the Hot Club flame burning and this quintet reminds us that the 1950s' Blue Note era is now the centrifugal force of jazz - the new mainstream - drawing on what went before and providing the inspiration for what was to come.That Old Feeling benefitted from an Edis piano intro that led into a superb arrangement with Hank Mobley - sorry Graeme Wilson - setting the standard for what was to follow. Whisper Not and Graham Hardy's flugel is outstanding. It may have been written by Benny Golson but the feeling evoked is Ian Carr and Emcee 5.
Too Close For Comfort (Couriers) swing like crazy. a luscious feature for Wilson - Some Other Time - reminds us of the beauty that abounds in a balladic interpretation and, closing the set, we're Swingin' the Samba a la Horace Silver with Rob Walker giving it that.
A bottle of Lord Collingwood - Wylam Breweries tribute to Nelson's sidekick goes down well at the reasonable price of £2.50.
The second set continues in the same vein - this is going to be high on the Gig of the Year list. Come Rain or Come Shine (Messengers) has great solos all round and none better than Edis' block chords passage that makes me think he's got more than the average number of fingers.
Graham Hardy on flugel and Solitude tugs at the emotions, Thursday's Thing, a minor keyed opus that once more brings Emcee 5 to mind, before the grand finale, Cheek to Cheek, arguably the Couriers finest arrangement and beautifully re-created here.
Everyone in the world should have been here tonight - one or two weren't.
Thank you Mick and the guys but please, don't make us wait another 12 months till the next one!
Photos.
Lance.
PS: Apologies for initially billing this as a sextet - it was all those extra fingers of Paul Edis that confused the issue!

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