Total Pageviews

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, July 11, 2015

Book Review: Simon Spillett - The Long Shadow of the Little Giant

If anyone was more qualified to write the definitive biography of Tubby Hayes, other than the late Ronnie Scott, then Spillett is that man. 
Spillett, born a year after Tubby died, may seem an unlikely  person to write such a definitive tome on 'The Little Giant" but, having listened to Spillett's own playing, and digesting the time and research that he has put into the project no one could have done it better. If Paul Quinichette had had Simon's literary talents maybe he could have produced a similar work on Lester Young.
Spillett covers just about every aspect of the tenorist's career from womb to tomb. Rightly recording Hayes' triumphs in America and at home - innumerable Melody Maker awards - the author also acknowledges the self destructive moments and the loves that always came second to the music.
The book brings back so many memories - the Flamingo Club on Wardour St where I used to hang out during and after my National Service days when I lived in Edgware - the musicians, the characters. Tony Hall asking the audience if anyone had a Melody Maker so he could tell them who was on the following night!
I'd follow the bands to the pub across the road during intermission, earwigging on conversations that weren't about Ddim7 or Aaug9 but "Yeah, I know her sister" or "What won the last race at Kempton?" or "Who's Arsenal playing Saturday?" etc. Musicians were human!
All this and more is revealed in this the, surely, definitive work on a complex and dedicated musician. A giant living in a world that wasn't big enough for him.
It's not a book to relax on the beach with, at circa 180,000 words - the equivalent number of notes in a Tubbs blast on Cherokee - the tide would have long come in and washed you away. It's true because you simply would not be able to put it down come hell or high water. That is, not if you belong to that generation that recognises Hayes as the UK's greatest ever jazzman.
In Simon Spillett we have a very rare individual - able to evaluate the music at the highest level and also able to convey the day to day stuff, via just about every media reference known, to the reader without loss of pace.
Again, like a Tubbs solo.
Lance.
PS: There's also an excellent discography.
PPS: Marks out of a 100? 99 - 99? Whitley Bay isn't in Yorkshire! Perhaps it should read Whitby!!
Published by Equinox.

1 comment :

Harry Monty said...

Hi Lance,

I agree - what a fantastic effort and a terrific read - I'm reading it a second time to get the full impact. All praise to Simon Spillett for an outstanding biography and history of the period.The acknowledgements reads like a who's who of all the jazz musicians of the period.
Like you, it brought back many happy memories such as nights at the Flamingo, Ronnie's old and new clubs, attending many of the BBC Jazz Club recordings, Jazz 625, the Couriers' concert at the Dominion theatre and the 1958 Jazz Jamboree at the Gaumont State Kilburn which featured not only the Couriers but also the Vic Ash Sextet, the Johnny Dankworth and Ted Heath Orchestras, the Jazz Makers, the Tony Kinsey Quartet and the Chris Barber and Humphrey Lyttleton Bands amongst others.

Happy reading.

Blog Archive