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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

Sunday, November 02, 2014

Clark Tracey Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle, November 1

Clark Tracey (dms); Chris Maddock (alt/ten); Henry Amburg Jennings (tpt/flg); Harry Bolt (pno); Daniel Casimir (bs).
(Review by Lance/ photo courtesy of Ken Drew ).
This first major gig by the Jazz Co-op was a major coup for the organisers. We've got a Jazz Club!
The lift installed and operational, the table and chairs set out and occupied, drinks served, lights lowered, and strategically draped curtains to soften the somewhat garish colour scheme, the scene was set. Not surprisingly there were several drummers in the audience and so there should be given that we were in the presence of one of the country's finest. Steve Crocker of NORVAL drove up from Leeds (and won a bottle in the raffle) begging the question as to why those members of the North East jazz hierarchy who live somewhat closer weren't!
However, that was a question for another day for now it was time for the Clark Tracey Quintet, smartly suited and neck-tied, to roll.
And roll they did in the time honoured tradition of bands such as the Jazz Messengers; Clifford Brown/Max Roach and those treasured Blue Note albums so beloved of so many (myself included).
Maddock, Casimir, Bolt emerged during Tracey's tenure as a tutor at Birmingham Conservertoire whilst Amburg Jennings has been active on the London scene practically since he was a babe in arms!
Clark Terry's A Pint of Bitter - written originally for Tubby Hayes - gave a foretaste of what was to follow. No instantly forgettable originals, but known, albeit not hackneyed, tunes from the masters. Cedar Walton's Ojos De Rojo (Red Eyes) a typical example.
Despite their youth, the soloists have a mature edge to their choruses. Not the bull in a china shop approach favoured by so many players rather a probing, tentative, feeling out of the tune, searching, absorbing, allowing the tension to build until, suddenly, the air is full of dancing arpeggios, stabbing chords, percussive punctuations, bass notes from the cellar, saxophone harmonics reaching for the moon, trumpet on fire.
This isn't The Globe on Railway Street - it's The World on 'Trane Street!
Moments Notice, by the aforementioned "Trane" had the drummers' mouths hanging open (and those of the sax, trumpet, keys and bass players too) as the leader rubber stamped his credentials as numero uno.
Time to relax with a sumptuous ballad featuring Maddock - I Thought About You. Delicious! The set concluded with Cannonball's The Sticks
The room was quite full and I wondered how many more could be slotted in and just how viable such a small space is.
However, tonight it's musical notes not banknotes that are uppermost in my mind!
An ethereal opener - Twilight - was followed by the only "warhorse" of the evening, Bobby Timmons' Moanin'. I'm not moaning though, I never tire of hearing it and Tracey was at his most Blakey-like which to me is tops. Trumpet evoking the spirit of Hubbard/Morgan, tenor in Mobley mode, keys like Kenny Drew (not to be confused with our KD!) bass as cool a dude as Chambers or Brown and Le Tout Ensemble magique!
Amburg Jennings slowed things down with a beautiful rendition of We'll Be Together Again and the show culminated with Jimmy Deuchar's Suddenly Last Tuesday
It had been my intention to stay for only one set and then nip over to Pink Lane for James and Ian at the Caff but this was just impossible to leave!
Sorry guys.
Many of the pieces played were from the band's new album - Meantime - which will be reviewed here shortly, or rather in however long it takes to play it a million times!
Lance.
PS: Only negative aspect of the evening was the strange bar pricing system - 3 bottles of ale and 3 different prices!

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