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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

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

JNE/Schmazz: We Free Kings @ Jazz Café - April 28

Toby Greenwood (ten); Simon Beddoe (flug); Kevin Holbrough (tmb); Jamil Sheriff (keys); Richard Hammond (bs); Dave Walsh (dms).
(Review by Lance/Photo courtesy of Ken Drew).
A musically faultless performance by this band from Leeds - do bands ever come from anywhere else but Leeds these days?  Admittedly they didn't hit the deck running - with an audience described by Paul Bream as discerning (AKA absent) -  a low key start was inevitable. However, a Wayne Shorter inspired original by one of the monarchs (Greenwood, his crown a snappy, narrow brimmed fedora) moved up through the gears and it was game on.
Sheriff, a frequent visitor to these parts, we know as an imaginative and harmonically aware player and never was this more evident than tonight. His work, in conjunction with the equally impressive bassist Hammond, was outstanding.
Greenwood, as lyrical as Stan Getz and as forward thinking a tenor player as Wayne Shorter, also writes and arranges the material which is often in the Mingus mode.
Bedoe, his coronet a  flat cap, blew flugel, quite frugal at first but, as the evening progressed, he was really wailing and on the final number (the only non original) Secret Love he had a good old, no holds barred, blast.
Holbrough, fresh from Darlo Festival where he and Sheriff formed part of the Simon Read Octet, was equally effective. His tone, smooth but with a cutting edge, the sound many trombone players would (hypothetically) give their right arm for.
Behind it all, Walsh did the woodchopping, bulldozing, piledriving, pneumatic drilling that contemporary drummers do but with a difference - he incorporated sensitivity and subtlety into the mix.
To those that weren't there - hang your heads in shame. However, as Officer i/c Raffles Bream pointed out, their absence shortened the odds against those present winning which was proven when, not only did I win but Young Pam sitting next to me also won. The prizes? a CD of your own choice from the fabled Bream Collection. I opted for Norma Winstone's Well Kept Secret. Pam's choice, at this moment in time, is also a well kept secret. 
Raffle apart, the real winners were those that made the well deserved effort to hear a splendid band.
Lance

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