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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

Mon 06: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

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.
Fri 10: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. Free.

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.

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

Sunday, February 09, 2014

CD Review: Chris Ingham Quartet - Hoagy.

Chris Ingham (pno/vcl); Paul Higgs (tpt); Rev. Andrew Brown (bs); Russ Morgan (dms).
(Review by Lance).
No offence ladies - I loves y'all - but it is such a treat to have a male vocalist invading your, what sometimes seems to be, overpopulated ranks. That Chris Ingham also plays mighty fine piano is another bonus but the icing on the cake is the material - Hoagy Carmichael. 
Unlike the Broadway Grandmasters of popular song - Kern, Berlin, Porter, Rodgers and Gershwin - whose music was ultimately taken from the quasi operatic settings of the composers and enhanced by jazz musicians and popular crooners, Carmichael's classics were aimed at the jazz and popular market from the moment he put pen to manuscript paper. Add Hoagy's laconic vocal presence and his sympathetic piano and you have the composite all-rounder.
Fast forward to 2014 - enter the Chris Ingham Quartet.
Whilst imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, and there is plenty of sincere flattery here, this is no mere hanging on the shirt-tails of the great man. Ingham has his own personality vocal-wise and his piano playing is marginally more contemporary without losing the flavour of the originals.
Higgs' trumpet playing, whether open or using a variety of mutes, slots nicely into the idiom. Perhaps if Bix had lived longer he may have went in this direction.
On Bixian matters, my favourite track wasn't actually written or even recorded by Hoagy. Dear Bix was composed by Dave Frishberg. Dedicated to the late charismatic genius Bix Beiderbecke it is one of the most emotional pieces I've ever listened to. If we could shift time scales around I think Hoagy would have sung this at Bix's funeral. It almost had me in tears such was the emotive content.
It's not a tune you hear too often - Roly Veitch does a fine version. Next time you're at Blaydon ask him nicely!
The other Carmichael classics on this outstanding CD are - Riverboat Shuffle; Washboard Blues; Old Music Master; Memphis in June; My Resistance is Low; Lazy Bones; Hong Kong Blues; How Little We Know; Old Man Harlem; Baltimore Oriole; Old Buttermilk Sky; Skylark; Huggin' and Chalkin'; Georgia on my Mind and Stardust.
Special mention also of bass and drums who provide the perfect underpinnings. Perhaps Rev. Brown received spiritual guidance or maybe he just practiced in between sermons. Morgan, no relation to the bandleader who recorded So Tired many decades ago, may not have been tired but he is certainly relaxed.
Final accolade. The contrived antiquity of the CD cover is just so appropriate.
The CD: Chris Ingham Quartet - Hoagy is available from March 14, 2014 on Downhome Records.
Lance.

1 comment :

Liz said...

Hoagy, a master of all he performed and wrote. His work was so diverse. When I listen to Memphis in June, I can feel the heat...it's palpable

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