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Bebop Spoken There

George Porter Jr.: ''To me, syncopation is like jazz. It wasn't meant for the masses. It was meant just for a hip few". (DownBeat, May 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

18043 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 364 of them this year alone and, so far, 42 this month (May 15).

From This Moment On ...

MAY 2025

Tue 20: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Bailey Rudd.
Tue 20: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ Pleased to Meet You, Bridge St., Morpeth NE61 1ND. 8:00pm.

Wed 21: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 21: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public). b Wed 21: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 22: Nuevo Castillo Orquesta @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £5.00.
Thu 22: Anna Reay & Deon Krishnan @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 7:30-9:15pm. Free.
Thu 22: Pedal Point Trio @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 23: Dean Stockdale Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. ‘Celebrating Oscar’.
Fri 23: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 23: Anna Reay & Deon Krishnan @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free.
Fri 23: Joe Steels Group @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £10.00. + £1.55. bf. A Northumberland Jazz Festival fringe event.
Fri 23: Spilt Milk @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Fri 23: Gaz Hughes Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm.
Fri 23: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 8:00pm. £19.00.; £17.00. ‘Time After Time’.

Sat 24: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:15pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 24: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Bywell Hall, Stocksfield. 1:30pm. Northumberland County Show.
Sat 24: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 24: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ The Peacock, Sunderland. 6:00pm.
Sat 24: Dean Stockdale Quartet + Mingus Sings @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:00pm. Admission: see website: www.queenshall.co.uk. Stockdale (piano); Tim Williams (guitar); Gavin Barras (double bass); Gaz Hughes (drums) + Mingus Sings: Sara Oschlag (vocals); Alan Barnes (reeds); Tim Lapthorn (piano); Arnie Somogyi (double bass); Clark Tracey (drums). A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sat 24: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 24: Saltburn Big Band @ Saltburn Community Hall. 7:30pm. £12.00.
Sat 24: NUJO Jazz Jam @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). £3.00. + bf.
Sat 24: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 25: Zoë Gilby & Andy Champion: Bandstand Sessions @ The Sele, Hexham. 12 noon. Free. A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 25: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: Northern Monkey Brass Band @ Spanish City Plaza (outdoor stage). 1:00pm. Free. A Whitley Bay Carnival event.
Sun 25: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: Catriona Bourne Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Admission: see website: www.queenshall.co.uk. Bourne (harp), Francis Tulip (guitar), James Owston (double bass), Joe Bainbridge (drums). A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 25: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 25: Struggle Buggy @ The Tyne Bar, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sun 25: Joe Steels Group + Norma Winstone (vocals); Nikki Iles (piano); Mike Walker (guitar); Steve Watts (double bass). 7:00pm. Admission: see website: www.queenshall.co.uk. Steels (guitar); Ferg Kilsby (trumpet, flugelhorn); Ben Lawrence (piano); Paul Susans (double bass); John Hirst (drums). A Northumberland Jazz Festival event.
Sun 25: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 25: Xhosa Cole/Neil Charles/Mark Sanders @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A JNE promotion. Note: Xhosa Cole replaces Nicole Mitchell.

Mon 26: Catriona Bourne Quartet @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. £9.00. at the door; £8.20. (inc £0.20 bf) online, in advance.
Mon 26: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

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

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

CD Review:French New Wave - Original remastered jazz on film recordings 1957-1962

No Sun in Venice - MJQ.
Lift to the Scaffold - Miles Davis.
Les Liaisons Dangereuses/ Des Femmes Disparaissent - Art Blakey.
Breathless - Martial Solal./ Un Témoin dans la ville - Barney Wilen.
Eva - Michel Legrand.
(Review by Lance)
Wow! any one of these 5 CD's would be in the running for Jazz Reissue of the Year. To get them all in one boxed set means game over - no contest.
How can I begin to relate the delights within? My only regret is that I haven't got the DVDs to play as I listen. But, and it's a big but (not you darling!) the music stands up on its own.
Marcel Romano captures the whole mood with his comment "Jazz was an integral part of the artistic scene that centred around Saint-Germaine-Des-Pré. So it was only logical that the young, new wave directors made films by day using the same music they heard in the clubs at night".
The MJQ's role in No Sun In Venice (1957) was groundbreaking inasmuch it was the first ever film score written by "A serious jazz composer": the pianist John Lewis. (Ellington's Anatomy of a Murder came a couple of years later.)
Gunther Schuller related it to "Third Stream Music" and maybe it was but it did the biz for the film and stands on its own 8 feet.
Lift To The Scaffold (1958) is well known both in small cinemas and on record. The disc is probably better from a jazz point of view as it seems the music was used more sparsely in the actual film. Apart from Davis, Barney Wilen blows some evocative tenor and crops up elsewhere on this set.
Blakey and the Jazz Messengers have two shots for the Jazz Oscars and, if such a coveted trophy existed, they wouldn't have walked away empty handed!
Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1960) and Des Femmes Disparaissent (1959)  were classic sessions with or without the cinematograph. Blakey was drumming at his best - those distinctive press rolls could have sent the Dagenham Girl Pipers on a knicker flashing trip down the high street - on this occasion they launched Lee Morgan and Benny Golson (who wrote the score to the latter piece) into the history of the future. Wilen blows again on the former film soundtrack. If you're confused, so am I ! I've never been so excited, upon receiving these discs, since my eleventh birthday when Santa brought me a Stanley Gibbon's Stamp catalogue and the Boy's Book of Soccer! - Wonder who's got them now?
Probably not Martial Solal. Breathless (1961) is another classic disc!  There are no half measures with zee French. They either do it brilliantly (Solal etc,) or they don't (Claude Luter et co.) The ubiquitous Wilen pops up again, this time as leader, on Un Témoin dans la ville (1959) in a quintet that includes Kenny Dorham and Duke Jordan.
And Michel Legrand - et tu! He may have wrote so many popular themes yet it must not be forgotten that he has le jazz hachette (Jazz chops?) and the big band soundtrack to Eva (1962) proves it - Gil Evans and Michelle? they're from the same mould.
Tres Magnifique are the only two words from my French vocabulary to describe this album apart from C'est S' Bon.
That it comes with a superb booklet with photos and text describing both musicians and film is an added bonus.
French New Wave - Original remastered jazz on film recordings 1957-1962 is now available on
Jazz on Film Records Vol. 3 Catalogue number JOF 001. Further details at
www.jazzonfilmrecords.com
Lance.

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