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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

17805 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 126 of them this year alone and, so far, 51 this month (Feb.16).

From This Moment On ...

February 2025

Sun 23: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 23: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Mark Williams Trio @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 23: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 23: Mississippi MacDonald @ Georgian Theatre, Stockton. 3:00pm. Blues.
Sun 23: Mu Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. CANCELLED!
Sun 23: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 24: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 24: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Free.

Tue 25: ?

Wed 26: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 26: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 26: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 27: Jamie McCredie @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Fri 28: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. THIS WEEK ONLY JAMES BIRKETT (guitar)!
Fri 28: Luis Verde Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 28: Spilt Milk @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Fri 28: Castillo Nuevo Orquesta @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £8.00.
Fri 28: Knats @ Lubber Fiend, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £11.50. (inc bf.). Album launch gig. Support act TBC.
Fri 28: Black is the Color of My Voice @ The Gala, Durham. 7:30pm. Apphia Campbell’s one-woman show inspired by the life of Nina Simone, performed by Florence Odumosu.
Fri 28: Great North Big Band Jazz Festival: Musicians Unlimited @ Park View Community Centre, Chester-le-Street. 8:00pm. £10.00. (Weekend ticket £20.00., available on the door). Day 1/3. Musicians Unlimited in concert.
Fri 28: Redwell @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

MARCH 2025

Sat 01: Great North Big Band Jazz Festival @ Park View Community Centre, Chester-le-Street. 11:00am. £15.00. Day 2/3.
Sat 01: TJ Johnson Band @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £25.00. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. Get your funk on! Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Shunyata Improvisation Group @ The Watch House, Cullercoats. 2:00-3:30pm. Free.
Sat 01: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Billy Bootleggers. Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free.
Sat 01: Struggle Buggy @ The Peacock, Sunderland. 6:00pm. Blues band.
Sat 01: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 01: Jack & Jay’s Vintage Songbook @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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, October 29, 2015

CD Review: Ella Fitzgerald - Live at Chautauqua Volume 1.

Ella Fitzgerald (vcl); Tee Carson (pno); Keter Betts (bs); Joe Harris (dms).
(Review by Lance).
Recorded on July 11, 1968 at the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheatre in New York and released as the first album of the Dot Time Legends series, we have an album that finds "The First Lady of Song" in good voice, despite the acoustical vagaries that typify concerts in amphitheatres. The opening, It's All Right With Me, sounds as though Ella was at the back and the drummer up front. The voice distant and echoing, the drums overpowering. Fortunately, by the second number - I'm Beginning to See the Light - the sound seems to have been, if not resolved, at least improved and the balance levelled out. Whether this was done on the night or, as the notes indicate, newly remastered with the goal of presenting these recordings in a modern format while striving to keep the original atmosphere of the records.
Whatever, what really matters is the opportunity to hear the most swinging jazz singer ever in concert whilst still close to her peak.
It's 1968 remember and singers, even those of Ella's calibre, had to face up to the challenge of rock and pop and contemporaries less than half her age. To counter this , she attempts to meet them half way. For Once in my Life, taken slower than Stevie Wonder, brings a different dimension to the song but the medley of Sunny and Goin' Out of my Head (You Go to my Head as an intro to the latter is a clever ploy) doesn't quite match the pop versions from Bobby Hebb/Georgie Fame/Dusty Springfield, although I doubt if those artists could entwine the songs the way Ella does - she even throws in Yesterday for good measure - and it got the biggest round of applause! In fairness to Ella, their versions were done in a studio over several hours, maybe even days, whereas this was live - 10 minutes!
However, The Object of my Affection, never previously recorded by Ella, is La Grande Dame at her very finest. A great song, popular when Ella was 17.
Watch What Happens, Midnight Sun, Lady is a Tramp and One Note Samba (fast!) all work - this is the Ella we knew and loved. A Tisket A Tasket may have been overworked by 1968 but it's still being mined by singers today!
I suppose most people remember Ella Fitzgerald from the Verve songbooks, and they are GASbook masterpieces to be filed alongside the definitive Sinatra albums, but this is the real deal. If you heard Ella at Newcastle's City Hall or at any other major concert hall in in any city in the world then this will make those night's come alive again!
Lance.
PS: Needless to say the trio are fine apart from the problems with the drums.

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