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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

18069 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 390 of them this year alone and, so far, 68 this month (May 222).

From This Moment On ...

MAY 2025

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: Northern Monkey Brass Band @ Spanish City Plaza (outdoor stage). 11:30am & 1:00pm. Free. A Whitley Bay Carnival event.
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: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, North Shields. 1:30pm. Free.
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: 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.

Tue 27: Bold Big Band @ Newcastle Arts Centre, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £12.00. & £10.00.
Tue 27: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Front St., Rothbury NE65 7UT.7:30pm. £12.00.; £10.00. adv. from Tully’s (opp. venue).

Wed 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 28: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 28: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 29: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: That’s the Blues, Dad.
Thu 29: Nova.sol + Mikoudi @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Thu 29: Front Porch Three @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Americana, blues etc.

p>Fri 30: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 30: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 30: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 30: Rivkala @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm.
Fri 30: Ian Millar & Dominic Spencer @ Middleton & Tonbridge Village Hall. 7:30pm.

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 23, 2014

Latest Releases From Babel

Nick Smart's Trogon - Tower Casa. 
Dominic Lash Quartet Opabinia
Alexander Hawkins Ensemble Step Wide, Step Deep
Alexander Hawkins Song Singular
Raymond MacDonald & Marilyn Crispell Parallel Moments
(Reviews by Russell).
Nick Smart's Trogon - Tower Casa. 
Nick Smart (trumpet & flugel), Chris Montague (guitar), Kishon Khan (piano), Denny ‘Jimmy’ Martinez (electric bass), Dave Hamblett (drums) & Pete Eckford (percussion)
Tower Casa is the début release on the Babel Label of trumpeter Nick Smart’s Trogon. The CD’s publicity material suggests ‘Call it World Jazz, if you like’. Trogon, the band, is named after the national bird of Cuba and Smart has assembled a ‘Latin-infused’ sextet to help him ‘tell you tails of sunshine, passions and exotic journeys’. The first three tracks – Tower Casa, Kind Folk and Todi Or Not Todi – set off in the direction of Havana at a mid-tempo rate of knots. Smart’s ballad Candela (accredited ‘Traditional’) shines brightly, beautiful playing all round, more ‘jazz’ than overt Latin textures. Stan Sulzmann’s Round The Round It All and Everybody Else’s Song (comp. Kenny Wheeler/Nick Smart) reinforce the jazz credentials of the sextet; Chris Montague’s considered guitar playing is a joy (hearing him live confirms this), drummer Dave Hamblett and Pete Eckford (percussion) bag the Afro Cuban rhythms alongside the reassuring presence of  bassist Denny Martinez. Pianist Kishon Khan’s light, exuberant contribution is key to Tower Casa’s forward momentum. Smart – trumpet and flugel – gleefully hitches a ride aboard the musical clipper Trogon on it’s journey from cosmopolitan London to sub-tropical Cuba. Tower Casa is released on the Babel Label (CD and download), 2013 – BDV13129 on February 24.             
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Dominic Lash Quartet Opabinia
Dominic Lash (contrabass), Alexander Hawkins (piano), Ricardo Tejero (tenor saxophone & clarinet) & Javier Carmona (percussion)
Opabinia is the debut CD release as sole leader by Dominic Lash. The double bassist emerged from the influential Oxford school of improvisers, relocated to London then upped sticks for a while, throwing himself into the furnace of New York’s Downtown scene. He survived (positively thrived on) the experience, returned to London and set about recording Opabinia. The title of the CD and some of the tracks on it are named after creatures from the Middle Cambrian (in geology a period some zillion years ago). The music heard is of the present, at times digging down into the sub-strata of history (musical or geological). The musicians assembled by Lash are confrères and familiar names to those with an interest in the international improvised music scene. Pianist Alexander Hawkins is co-leader with Lash of the trans-Atlantic Convergence Quartet, Javier Carmona (percussion) has performed and recorded with Lash and Hawkins and Ricardo Tejero (sax/clarinet) has been on the London scene for a decade and more. Ten tracks offer great variety; the opening Isthmus delivers an improv statement – terse, introspective, the second two-part composition Waiting for Javier/Luzern surprises – a post bop Mingus workshop blowing affair supplanted by a wonderful full-on improv assault (Tejero’s angry tenor, Carmona’s responsive, argumentative percussion, Hawkins and Lash largely bystanders). Tone poems – including Hallucigenia and Wixwaxia – separate/link the compositions throughout. The all too brief Azalpho (Hawkin’s piano suggests a stroll in the park), Tejero’s tenor on Halt the Busterman evokes Roland Kirk’s loose, rhythmic feel and Double File returns to a contemporary classical mode. The album concludes with Piano Part Two/Catachretic, veering from bleak statements to contrasting swing sections. Opabinia is a first class statement of the current improv scene. Opabinia is available on the Babel Label (BDV13122) from February 24 in CD format and download. A recommended purchase and should gigs be announced make sure you get along to one of them.    
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Alexander Hawkins Ensemble Step Wide, Step Deep
Alexander Hawkins (piano), Dylan Bates (violin), Otto Fischer (guitar), Shabaka Hutchings (clarinet & bass clarinet), Neil Charles (double bass) & Tom Skinner (drums & percussion)
Pianist Alexander Hawkins has reshuffled his sextet eighteen months on from the release of the brilliant All There, Ever Out. The one survivor is guitarist Otto Fischer, the new recruits all familiar names on the contemporary jazz scene. Violinist Dylan Bates invites comparison with Leroy Jenkins and Ornette Coleman, Fischer’s sonic explorations place him left field and Shabaka Hutchings’ clarinet traverses any perceived jazz boundaries, moving effortlessly from improv to straight ahead settings. Bassist Neil Charles (Zed-U, Mingus Big Band) plays a major part on this album standing firm when all hell breaks loose on tempestuous freer sections (Step Wide, Step Deep – Space of Time Danced Thru and Listen/Glow) or with a light hand on the tiller navigating the calmer waters of the weary Township blues Advice. Percussionist Tom Skinner switches styles with casual facility – free, groove, swing – inviting Bates, Fischer and Hutchings to venture off in new directions. Mastermind Hawkins plays when he chooses, often content to let the ensemble develop a theme. When Hawkins plays, he plays! Seemingly with the history of jazz piano at his fingertips, the compositions on this new CD make exacting demands on the musicians and all demonstrate they are up to the mark. Art Ensemble, Braxton, Convergence Quartet…Alex Hawkins. If there is a finer pianist of his generation this reviewer wants to hear her/him! Step Wide, Step Deep is available from February 24 on the Babel Label on CD (BDV13124) and as a download.  
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Alexander Hawkins (piano)
Pianist Alexander Hawkins composes for quartet (co-leading Convergence Quartet) and his Ensemble sextet. Song Singular hears Hawkins explore his compositional ideas in a solo piano project documented on the Babel Label. Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton and Charles Ives are declared influences and Ellington and Tatum, as composers and pianists, are evidently of more than a passing interest. The ten tracks on the album develop from a compositional idea, none freely improvised. The opening piece – The Way We Dance It Here – references the percussive Taylor, Early Then, M.A. is a pastoral contrast, Take the A Train is respectful yet playful and Unknown Baobabs (Seen in the Distance) perhaps recalls an encounter with a new world as Hawkins splashes vivid colours onto a canvas prepared by Abdullah Ibrahim. The improvisations are rich in invention; dense, taut, sparse, all approached with dazzling technique. The CD’s publicity suggests Hawkins is the youthful heir to Taylor and Tatum. A bold claim, but on listening to Song Singular and having heard Hawkins in concert, there is validity to the argument. Is Alexander Hawkins the successor to Stan Tracey? On this evidence he could be. Song Singular is released on February 24 on Babel BDV13120.              
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Raymond MacDonald (alto & soprano saxophones) & Marilyn Crispell (piano)
Raymond MacDonald and Marilyn Crispell met for the first time in Gateshead at the now discontinued Jazz North East On the Outside festival. Their empathetic music making and personal chemistry set in place an enduring performance and recording relationship. Parallel Moments is a statement of their recent duet collaborations. Recorded in 2010, the CD reveals their improv conversations (the Atlantic a mere physical barrier) as highly developed, intuitive encounters. Scot MacDonald’s mastery of his instrument is clear, enabling him to explore the delicate, then in an instant, charge headlong into a circular breathing tempest, then spent, silenced. Crispell instinctively plays an apposite chord, a chord cluster, a single note into a listening silence (Longing and the title track Parallel Moments). The American’s avant credentials (Anthony Braxton) are to the fore on the title track and she is matched every step of the way by MacDonald (co-founder of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra). MacDonald’s sound – alto or soprano – is imbued with a blues feel (a rare commodity in the world of free jazz), perhaps more Chicago than Glasgow. Raymond MacDonald and Marilyn Crispell lead separate personal lives, perhaps parallel lives in their performance art and when they meet, in concert (their 2013 Newcastle performance was this reviewer’s gig of the year) or the recording studio something magical occurs. Parallel Moments is released on the Babel Label (BDV13125) on February 24.                                    
                       

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