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Bebop Spoken There

Van Morrison: ''Basically, I'm coming from jazz. Not pop, not rock, not what's commercial. That's where I started, and that's still where I am. I feel the same as I did when I was listening to Louis Armstrong, Lead Belly, Jelly Roll Morton''. (The Northern Echo, 12 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

17,533 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 497 of them this year alone and, so far, 75 this month (June 23).

From This Moment On ...

JUNE 2025

Wed 25: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 25: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 25: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 25: The Magpies of Swing @ The Roxy, Leadgate, Co. Durham. 7:30pm. A Ginger Jitterbugs swing dance event, all welcome.

Thu 26: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Brass Instruments & the use of mutes.

Fri 27: Lewis Watson Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm.
Fri 27: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 27: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 27: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 8:00pm. ‘Time After Time’.

Sat 28: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Linskill Centre, North Shields. 4:00-10:30pm. Free, but ticketed (over 18s only). A multi-bill, multi-genre ‘Canny Shiels - North Shields 800’ event. Three Kings Brewery on site.
Sat 28: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 28: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 29: Jude Murphy & Dan Stanley @ Wallington, Northumberland. 12 noon-1:00pm & 2:00-3:00pm. Tel: 01670 773606. National Trust admission prices apply. ‘Tunes in the Blooms’.
Sun 29: Bal Bruch Social Dance @ As You Like It, Sandyford, Newcastle. 12:30pm. Free. Dance event with Hot Club de Heaton performing live (2:00-3:00pm). A ‘Jar on the Bar’ event.
Sun 29: Glenn Miller Orchestra UK @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 3:00pm. Ray McVay & co.
Sun 29: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 29: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 29: Zoë Gilby w. Ryton Choral Society @ Corbridge Middle School NE45 5HX. 5:30pm. £15.00. Gilby w jazz trio & choir. ‘An evening of jazz song for choir’.
Sun 29: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 29: John Wilson & the Sinfonia of London @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. ‘Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Greatest Hits’.
Sun 29: Out Front @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. JNE.

Mon 30: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.

JULY 2025

Tue 01: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Joe Steels, Paul Grainger, Mark Robertson.
Tue 01: Customs House Big Band @ Masonic Hall, Ferryhill. 7:30pm. Free.

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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