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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

Wed 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 22: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 22: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 22: Pasadena Roof Orchestra @ Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.

Thu 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free. Fortnightly.
Thu 23: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Obituaries 2024.
Thu 23: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:30-6:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Thu 23: Pedal Point Trio @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Zoe Gilby Trio @ The Jazz Café. August 15

Zoe Gilby (vocals), Mark Williams (guitar) & Andy Champion (double bass)
(Review by Russell)
The Jazz Café’s last night of the summer season until September and the place was busy. More than busy, the place was packed. And no wonder, Zoe Gilby was holding court. A gig or two in the West Country, hundreds of miles on the clock, then back home to fulfil an engagement at the Pink Lane establishment.
Lieber and Stoller, Brubeck, Bush (Kate not George) and a pad full of originals peppered the first set. Some Cats Know, Travelin’ Blues (West Country style), In the Warm Room, just a selection from a select set list. Gilby’s working relationship with guitarist Mark Williams and bassist Andy Champion goes back a good few years and it showed. Three of the very best musicians on the scene, appreciative of one another’s abilities, this was a joined-up performance that held the attention of the audience throughout the first set. The original material stood comparison with the familiar, the musicianship of the highest order. In It Together and Your Words heard Williams and Champion knock-out tremendous, on-the-money solos with Gilby’s lyrics, in particular her recall and delivery, quite something. Gilby possesses the stage craft to engage with all, a talent many a vocalist can but aspire to.
Second set offered more of the same top quality jazz. Paul Simon’s Graceland, a Gilby-Champion composition Eleanor, some Cole Porter (at a lick) and the noirish Midnight Bell with the enunciated lyric and Williams’ unsettling, fleetingly discordant solo. A swing-out number – Is It Me? – upped the mood with guitar and bass tearing it up. Red Headed Girl, dedicated to the original redhead, has a great title and line…Red Headed Girl from the North East of Nowhere. The closing number – Red City – featured Andy ‘Souk’ Champion’s evocative intro. Minarets, markets and merchants, the sights and sounds of North Africa. Williams embellished, Gilby sang of the joys of the Red City. This was another assured performance from Ms Gilby, we have come to expect nothing less.            
Russell.      

1 comment :

JC said...

Yes, great session with a brilliant trio. Each of them are fantastic musicians in their own ways and Zoe Gilby keeps flying the flag for her own improvising instrument of scat, which is great. As you say the originals are now a full part of the set and it seems there is a rich seam to be mined here with a song I think she said hadn't been recorded yet ('Secret Kiss'?). Up front in the Jazz Cafe is now the place to be for these gigs as it's like having the band playing in your own front room. Judging by the number of people who were trying to squeeze into this space at this session, it would be great if the listening area could be made bigger.

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