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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

17719 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 39 of them this year alone and, so far, 39 this month (Jan. 15).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Sat 18: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 18: Alter Ego + Jamie Toms/Graham Don Duo @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Sat 18: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Repas 7 by Night, West St., Berwick TD15 1AS. 7:30pm. Free. Album launch gig.
Sat 18: Delta Prophets @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 19: Glenn Miller Orchestra UK @ Glasshouse, Gateshead. 3:00pm. ‘Glenn Miller & the Rat Pack Era’.
Sun 19: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 19: Spilt Milk @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:15-7:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Sun 19: Tenement Jazz Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 19: Nick Ross Orchestra @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm.
Sun 19: Freight Train (Tobin/Noble/Clarvis) @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 19: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 20: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 21: ???

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.
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.

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 02, 2013

Saxophonists Take Note

Do other North-East jazz-lovers share my wish that modern-jazz saxophonists, not least the excellent younger ones, would feel less frequently obligated to demonstrate their undoubted skill in packing as many notes as possible into improvisations? They are presumably still strongly influenced by bebop era greats and that's fine here and there, but too often I find myself starting to glaze over from what I regard as too many notes.

Mike Jamieson

7 comments :

Anonymous said...

Try Kenny G then! By the way, this has been said before - but the comment was made about MOZART. "The famous complaint of Emperor Joseph II about The Marriage of Figaro - "too many notes, Mozart" - is generally perceived to be a gaffe by a blockhead. In fact, Joseph was echoing what nearly everybody, including his admirers, said about Mozart: he was so imaginative that he couldn't turn it off, and that made his music at times intense, even demonic. Hence Mozart's bad, or cautionary, reviews: "too strongly spiced"; "impenetrable labyrinths"; "bizarre flights of the soul"; "overloaded and overstuffed".

Still, in the end, the reputation of Mozart in his own time was about what it is today: he was considered an incomparable master."

Simon Spillett said...

Yawn...yawn...yawn....heard it all before!

Jazz = freedom of expression = play as you want to play. As far as I know, there is no magic number of notes that comprise a good jazz solo, but if any anoraks...sorry, fans...out there know how many there SHOULD be, I'd be grateful if they'd put the answer on a postcard and....




Unknown said...

Louis once stated: "It's not the notes you play that are importand, it's the ones you don't play"
I rest my case!

James said...

Really? If you don't like 'lots of notes' sax solos, avoid gigs where the repertoire or style is post 1930.
Listening to jazz is subjective, like any of the arts, everyone brings their own experiences and expectations and inevitably hears the same music differently. Some might not understand what's happening at a musical or technical level but still engage with the performance and the broader sound and energy, it's up to you if you're willing to invest in what you hear or just have something familiar and unchallenging that you can dip in and out of.
There's lots I don't care to hear in jazz, but usually it's down to undeveloped musicality or overly developed technique at the expense of the music. Why not spend a bit of time with some more 'modern' records, see if you can get to a place where you can relate to what you are hearing.

Lance said...

There's really no case to answer. Miles played some very emotive solos using relatively few notes as did Chet Baker. Dizzy did the same using a lot of notes. Who's to say one is greater than the other. A musicians uses the tools at his disposal. If that player has practised hard and long enough to attain greater technical command of his instrument he's going to use that technique otherwise he may as well have swapped the woodshed for the pub.

Steve Andrews said...

I did swap the woodshed for the pub, Lance (hic!)...........

Miles Stones said...

The inference that Miles played fewer notes due to a limited technique is mistaken, he had the ability to burn through changes (check out the live albums Four And More/My Funny Valentine), the sparse playing was a conscious, stylistic choice.

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