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Bebop Spoken There

Sullivan Fortner: ''I always judge it by the bass player: If the bass player is happy, it's going to be a good night". (DownBeat, February 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

17777 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 98 of them this year alone and, so far, 23 this month (Feb.8).

From This Moment On ...

February 2025

Mon 10: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 11: Steve Summers Quintet @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm.

Wed 12: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 12: Jam session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Wed 12: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 12: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 13: Student Performances @ King’s Hall, Newcastle University. 4:00pm. Free. Inc. Olly Styles (tenor sax).
Thu 13: MOBO Awards Fringe 2025: Artist Showcase @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:00pm. Free (ticketed). Line-up inc. Hannabiell & Midnight Blue.
Thu 13: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.

Fri 14: John Rowland Trio @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 12:30-1:30pm. £5.00. at the door. New second Friday in the month concert series.
Fri 14: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 14: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 14: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 14: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 14: Archipelago + Anna Tempest @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 7:00pm. £12.00., £10.00., £8.00.
Fri 14: Paul Jones & Dave Kelly @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm. Rhythm & blues.
Fri 14: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm.
Fri 14: Jazz Sabbath @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm.

Sat 15: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 15: James Birkett & Emma Fisk @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Sat 15: Elkie Brooks @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. ‘The Long Farewell Tour’.
Sat 15: Milne Glendinning Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 16: MOBO Awards Fringe 2025: BBC Introducing NE X MOBO Showcase @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 6:00pm. Free (ticketed). Line-up inc. Jambone, Knats, Rivkala, SwanNek.
Sun 16: The Shayo Experience @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 16: Gerry Richardson Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 16: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

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

Thursday, January 29, 2015

CD review: Jack DeJohnette – Made in Chicago

Jack DeJohnette (drums), Muhal Richard Abrams (piano), Larry Gray (double bass & cello), Roscoe Mitchell (sopranino, soprano & alto saxophones, baroque flute, bass recorder) & Henry Threadgill (alto saxophone & bass flute)
(Review by Russell).
Made in Chicago was made at the 2013 Chicago Jazz Festival. Five veterans of the scene on Chicago’s Southside united after fifty years travelling the globe in their own and other bands to open the thirty fifth edition of the Windy City’s annual parkland jazz jamboree. 
Jack DeJohnette accepted an invitation to put together a group entirely of his choosing to play music of his/their choosing. The legendary drummer made a few calls to friends and the project was on. 
The album marks the half century of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) founded by Muhal Richard Abrams and is released on Manfred Eicher’s ECM label. In 1962 Jack DeJohnette’s college class mates included  Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threadgill. One of DeJohnette’s first professional jobs was to work with Abrams in the pianist’s Experimental Band. Bassist Larry Gray first worked in DeJohnette’s company in the 1990s and although several years junior, he too qualifies as a veteran performer.
The concert begins with Abrams’ piano and reeds developing a simple motif. DeJohnette builds momentum with mallets, Abrams sketches a dream sequence until Roscoe Mitchell takes command with a furious Eastern-influenced melody (the title – Chant). DeJohnette hammers toms and crashes cymbals for all he is worth until Mitchell, the composer, calls a sudden halt. Jack 5 (comp. Abrams) surely references the on-stage quintet. Larry Gray lays down a walking-pace bass line right out of Dave Holland’s Bitches Brew tenure with Miles. Stately horns have their say, DeJohnette roams across his kit (distant applause can be heard from the ten thousand strong festival crowd). Composer Mitchell’s baroque flute has a whispered conversation with Gray’s cello on This. Piano and drums attempt to fill a void at a masterly slow tempo.
DeJohnette’s Museum of Time maintains the downbeat, ‘new music’ thread. The straining horns of Mitchell and Henry Threadgill step aside as Abrams’ ruminating piano coaxes a final, rolling flourish from DeJohnette topped-off by A-grade fizzing sticks-work around the hi-hat. Abrams’ dazzling, dense piano playing on Threadgill’s Leave Don’t Go Away threatens a full-blown free piece only to be hijacked by a drum and bass master class and a grateful composer weighs in with a robust coda. The Made in Chicago concert ends on a high. Ten Minutes (a group composition) blows away any wannabees. The five master musicians go for it, hell for leather, in the style of ACV’s Without Bones.
Russell.
Jack DeJohnette’s Made in Chicago is available on ECM (catalogue no. 378 0935).

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