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Bebop Spoken There

Francis Tulip: ''Music speaks louder than words''. (Jazzwise, June 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

17,550 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 514 of them this year alone and, so far, 92 this month (June 28).

From This Moment On ...

JULY 202

Sat 12: Jazz Stage @ Mouth of the Tyne Festival. From 12 noon. Free. Vieux Carré Jazzmen (12 noon); Rendezvous Jazz (1:00pm); Mississippi Dreamboats (2:00pm); Classic Swing (3:00pm); Abbie Finn Trio (4:00pm). Stage adjacent to Tynemouth Priory.
Sat 12: Making Music Seminar: Latin American Music v. Music of Latin America @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 1:00pm. £15.00. (£5.00. online). Jason Holcomb, Alix Shepherd & Carlos Luis Rivera.
Sat 12: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 12: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Lovaine Community Garden, North Shields. 7:00pm (doors 6:40pm). £6.00. Limited places, booking essential (via the Community Garden website). BYOF&D.
Sat 12: Hot Club du Nord @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Hall Two.
Sat 12: Sleep Suppressor @ Repas 7 by Night, Berwick. 8:00pm.
Sat 12: Anth Purdy @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle.8:00pm. Free. ‘Swing Jazz Guitar’. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 13: Jazz Stage @ Mouth of the Tyne Festival. From 11:00am. Free. Trilogy of Four (11:00am); East Coast Jazzmen (12:10pm); Delta Prophets Trio (1:20pm); House of the Black Gardenia (2:30pm); Mouth of the Tyne All Stars (3:40pm). Stage adjacent to Tynemouth Priory.
Sun 13: Giles Strong Quartet @ The Sele, Hexham. 12 noon. Free. ‘The Bandstand Sessions’.
Sun 13: Julie Dexter @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:30pm (doors). £20.00. ‘The Cluny Matinee Jazz Club’.
Sun 13: ’58 Jazz Collective, Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Tyne Valley Big Band @ Bishop Auckland Town Hall. 2:00pm. Tea Dance. SOLD OUT! A Durham Brass Festival event.
Sun 13: Ferg Kilsby @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Kilsby (trumpet, flugelhorn); Luis Verde (alto sax); Ben Lawrence (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); John Hirst (drums).
Sun 13: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 13: Sloth Racket @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.

Mon 14: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.
Mon 14: Brass Bash @ Hardwick Park, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Mon 14: Brass Bash @ The Story, Mount Oswald, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.

Tue 15: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ The Victoria & Albert Inn, Seaton Sluice. Tel: 0191 237 3697. 12:30pm. ‘July Jazz Barbecue’. Tickets: £15.00.
Tue 15: Brass Bash @ Hackworth Park, Shildon, Co. Durham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Tue 15: Brass Bash @ The Witham, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Tue 15: Julian Lage Trio @ 1856 Exchange, North Shields. 7:30pm . Lage (guitar); Jorge Roeder (double bass); Joey Barron (drums).
Tue 15: Jools Holland’s Rhythm & Blues Orchestra @ The Hippodrome, Darlington. 7:30pm.
Tue 15: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. Stu Collingwood, Paul Grainger, Bailey Rudd.

Wed 16: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 16: Brass Bash @ Willington Town Park, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Wed 16: Brass Bash @ Market Place, Spennymoor, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Wed 16: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 16: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 17: Brass Bash @ Trimdon Community College, Co. Durham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Thu 17: Brass Bash @ Blackhill & Consett Park, Co. Durham. 6:00-8:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Thu 17: NONUNONU @ Elder Beer, Heaton, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £11:55 (inc bf).

Fri 18: Greg Abate w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 18: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 18: Brass Bash @ Town Park, Newton Aycliffe, Co. Durham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Fri 18: Brass Bash @ North Terrace, Seaham, Co. Durham. 6:00-9:00pm. Free. Various bands. A Durham Brass Festival event.
Fri 18: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm.
Fri 18: Knats: Masterclass & jam session @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. £15.00.
Fri 18: Rat Pack - Live in Concert @ Tyne Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Fri 18: Greg Abate w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. £15.00.
Fri 18: Front Porch Three @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. A Hoodoo Blues dance class & social. Social & Front Porch Three only from 8:30pm. £5.00.

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

Monday, August 04, 2014

Joshua Redman @ Jazz en la Costa, Almunecar, Spain, July 21

Joshua Redman (sax) , Aaron Goldberg (piano), Reuben Rogers (bass) and Gregory Hutchinson (drums).
(Review by JC). 
Almunecar is a very pretty coastal town on the Costa Tropical in Southern Spain. One thing it's famous for is being the town where Laurie Lee ended up after his epic walk through the length of the country in 1936 with just a fiddle and a loaf of bread in a knotted handkerchief on the end of a stick as luggage. Unfortunately, he arrived in the middle of the Spanish civil war and things were a bit dangerous as the next town along was on a different side to Almunecar, so eventually he had to be rescued by the British navy. He later wrote about his adventures in his book As I walked Out One Midsummer Morning.
Although it is not reported whether Lee played jazz on his fiddle, Almunecar's other claim to fame is that it has hosted a stylish and quirky jazz festival for over 25 years. The location of the concerts must be one of the coolest and most idyllic around as they take place in wonderful tropical gardens beneath an old floodlit castle. The gardens are full of palms and banana trees and there are pieces of interesting sculpture dotted here and there. The open stage sits underneath the castle in front of much tropical greenery and the musicians are sometimes accompanied by squawky scat from cockatoos and parrots as they fly by. And it wouldn't be a total surprise if a ring-tailed lemur was to swing down from the trees and have a quick thrash on the drums ('Yo! lemur' as a recent visiting American musician might say, hopefully not too many times).
There are rows of seats in front of the stage for people who just want to listen to the music, while further back there are tables with red lights (like an old style al fresco Ronnie Scott's) for those who want to drink, talk and also listen. It all works perfectly.
As well as the Joshua Redman Quartet, this year's programme offered Tord Gustavsen from Norway, Dave Holland, singer and composer Zara McFarlane and Charles Lloyd, amongst others. Not a bad selection.
Redman and his colleagues were in great form going straight into one of his own tunes played at full volume and pace. Surprisingly the second tune was Summertime ('but not as you know it, Lance'). This one included a brilliant, fifteen minute piano solo from Aaron Goldberg which crossed summertime with wintertime, Greenwich Mean Time, time after time and the space/time continuum to dismantle and reconstruct the original tune. The drummer had something to say about this as well. When Redman came back in for his second solo he played a number of beautiful Coltranesque phrases to return to the original tune, as well as managing some exuberant leg kicks.
Impressively, Redman did his best to make his announcements in Spanish although sometimes it drifted into Spanglish and bits of French but the local crowd appreciated it, even if it meant I couldn't understand most of it. So, picking up on the few words I could hear, it appeared that the next tune was written by a rock band from New York, but turned out to be another fiery jazz piece with no discernable rock features as far as I could tell. A number of what seemed to be classical inspired pieces followed with incredibly elegant solos from both Redman and Goldberg on piano. As the night went on the pieces became more musically complex with one number having a long and intricate bass intro before the rest of the band took on the theme and developed it further. For one tune the piano player retired from view and Redman played an extended solo intro, which included both more leg kicks but also, in amongst the torrent of notes, what sounded like double bass sounds. I looked at Reuben Rogers to see if his hands were moving but they were still resting on top of the bass, so they had to be coming from the saxophone.
This was one of those red-hot, but at the same time, cool bands who play with what appears to be such effortless technique yet still seem to be really enjoying themselves. The crowd (and the cockatoos) loved it and the band played an encore to a standing ovation. The happy crowd then drifted off quietly into the balmy night for a glass of wine and some tapas at a bar down by the beach. Nice.
JC

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