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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

17733 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 53 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Jan. 20).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Fri 24: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
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.

Sat 25: Boys of Brass @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 25: New '58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson's Wharf, Hartlepool. 6:30pm (doors). Free. A Burns' Night event. Jazz, swing, funk, soul, blues etc.
Sat 25: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 25: Red Kites Jazz @ Parish Hall, St Barnabas’ Church, Rowlands Gill. 7:30pm. £10.00. BYOB (tea & coffee available), raffle. Proceeds to St Barnabas’ Church. Performance feat. Shayo (vocals).
Sat 25: Jack & Jay’s Songbook @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Graham Hardy Eclectic Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 26: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:30pm. Free.
Sun 26: Gratkowski, Tramontana, Beresford, Affifi @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00. JNE.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 28: ???

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 30: Matters Unknown (aka Jonathan Enser, Nubiyan Twist) + support TBA @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). £12.22 (gig & food); £9:04 (gig only).
Thu 30: Soznak @ The Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 30: Struggle Buggy @ Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Rhythm & blues.

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

Friday, August 22, 2014

CD Review: Blue-Eyed Hawk – Under the Moon

Lauren Kinsella (voice), Alex Roth (guitar, effects, synth, voice), Laura Jurd (trumpet, synth, voice), Corrie Dick (drums, percussion, harmonium, piano, voice).
(Review by Hugh Cochrane)
Blue-Eyed Hawk are a London-based band who take their name from a line in a W.B. Yeats poem Under the Moon. This their debut album, titled after the same poem.
The album is a record sellers nightmare, as it defies classification by genre. While there are certainly elements of jazz in what is offered, it would probably not be out of place any of the conventional categories.
Writing is shared between all four musicians, each contributing in more or less equal measure across the album. Kinsella and Jurd also wrote some of the lyrics with acknowledgements of inspiration to W.B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, and Armand Silvestre.
In the studio, the electronic artistry of Leafcutter John and production skills of Tom Herbert  enhanced the spectrum of sounds that were recorded over 4 days in April in Giant Wafer Studios – deep in the heart of the mid Wales countryside.
The first track Oyster Trails commences with electronic effects worthy of the BBC Radiophonic workshop and Dr Who. The melody, provided by Kinsella's vocals and Jurd's trumpet gradually develops.
Somewhere is way, way Over the Rainbow, man, as you have never heard it before and is punctuated with a heavy guitar riff that would not be out of place on my metal-loving, teenage daughter's ipod. This track then segues through a recording of birdsong (Bluebirds – geddit?) into the balladic Aurora Sam, stripped down to acoustic basics.
Spiderton is an upbeat number with a jaunty, rhythmic feel driven by the percussive input of Corrie Dick. O Do Not Love Too Long slows things down again with long, haunting chords underneath , supported by almost skeletal percussion and overlain with beautiful drawn out trumpet from Jurd.
The minimalist Reflections in the Spiral keeps things in a contemplative groove before things (perhaps predictably) hot up for Living in the Fast Lane.
Intro (For Fathers) puts us back in a more reflective mood before the rhythmic and beautiful For Tom and Everything. Try to Turn Back is primarily basic vocals and piano, where the purity of Kinsella's vocal line is perhaps best appreciated. Valediction does what it says on the tin and closes the show.
All in all then, this is not jazz, but certainly has something of interest for the die hard jazzer. This is perhaps likely to appeal to a much wider audience than the customary jazz crowd. It is, as the record company website has it, “a genre defying and boundless approach to music making”.
There is a prominent quote at the head of the record company publicity:
So brilliant. Everyone in the room was spellbound – BBC Radio 3. I would wager a fiver this would be Jez on 3 (Jazz on 3 – hosted by Jez Nelson), this album is seriously melodic compared with some of the usual fare.
Under the Moon is released by Edition Records on September 15. Catalogue No. EDN1054
Blue-Eyed Hawk will be on tour in the Autumn of 2014 and play Splinter at The Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne on October 5.
Hugh C.

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