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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

17680 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 23 of them this year alone and, so far, 23 this month (Jan. 9).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Mon 13: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 13: Raymond MacDonald & Andy Champion @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 14: Zoë Gilby Quintet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm.

Wed 15: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 15: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 15: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 15: Hot Club of Heaton @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘third Wednesday in the month’ session. TBC.

Thu 16: Pete Tanton & the Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 17: Lindsay Hannon: Tom Waits for No Man @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 17: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 17: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 17: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 17: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. £TBC.
Fri 17: Russ Morgan Quartet @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.
Fri 17: Redwell @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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: Delta Prophets @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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, April 08, 2014

GIJF Day Three: Fragments Of Splinter With Wilson & Williams and Roby Glod Trio

Mark Williams (guitar); Graeme Wilson (tenor sax).
(Review by Ann Alex/Photos courtesy of Ken Drew.)
This concert was a collaboration between Jazz North East and the regular Splinter sessions which take place at Newcastle’s Bridge Hotel. Graeme Wilson explained that the set was meant to ‘use up’ tunes they’d both had ‘hanging around’, a laid back description of a fine set of playing.  If this is their spare tunes, the regular tunes must be remarkable!
A mellow bell-like guitar and weaving tenor sax began the set, followed by the sax leading a more angular tune, the instruments playing off each other by turns.  Wilson’s tunes were entitled Creeping Thyme and All The People which were followed by Williams’s  Almost and Why Not?.  Williams is master of his guitar, it growled and rumbled, then became jaggedly percussive and whined. It was as if the guitar and sax were having a row, yet the guitar can be mellow and tender when told to be so. Wilson’s Back To Square One was a strong sax tune, song words could be written to it.  The music continued with riffs and tunes set against riffs; call and response, the instruments sometimes chasing each other, until the final big sound of the last tune, yet ending with a simple fade out of sound.  Such effective stuff!
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The Roby Glod Trio: Roby Glod (alto/soprano saxes); Andy Champion (double bass);
 Mark Sanders (drums)
Roby Glod had been brought over from Luxembourg especially for this gig by Jazz North East, so this was the first time that the drummer and bassist had worked with him.  I was glad that I’d learned something of the ideas behind free form jazz at the Pink Lane Coop workshop on the Saturday so I knew more about what was going on.  The set was totally improvised, the musicians start from scratch, and engage in a musical conversation, team working with each other, but also sometimes taking the piece in another direction when the time seems right, and ending the piece when appropriate. This means also that the sound and lighting technicians become part of the set as they have to react to the music onstage. Once the audience knows the ethos, we can sit back and accept what happens. And watch carefully too, because this set proved to be highly visual, as the musicians played sometimes unconventionally.
It began with a breathy sax, sparse drums and good bass, then built to a fast climax with wild bashes on the drums, a swop from alto to soprano sax, going down to something slow and eerie, with devilish red stage lights and the drummer stroking the sides of the cymbals with the sticks, then scraping drums, and a tune played on the bass strings with a drumstick.  Then something akin to standard jazz, then quiet and a natural ending to the first piece.
The second piece had sparse soprano sax and bass chords, bell sounds from the drums, then alto sax, a much shorter piece. The lighting technicians had the last word, as they put the musicians into silhouette to end the set, which I found both effective and amusing.
It was good to be part of this, one of the many newer directions that jazz is taking.
Ann Alex     

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