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

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, November 07, 2015

Jo Harrop Quartet @ The Gala Theatre, Durham. Nov 6.

Jo Harrop (vocals), Neil Harland (bass), Rob Walker (drums) and Paul Edis (piano).
(Review by Jerry)
Jo Harrop, a great band and a programme listing (among others) Gershwin, Porter, Legrand and Billie Holiday – what a perfect antidote to the soggy Bonfire Night I had in Borrowdale! There was a full house (100), with people being turned away at the door and an expectant hush at 12.59 and into the opening song, Love Me or Leave Me - no noisy diners here!
Looking across the river there were still autumn colours to be seen against a slate-blue sky befitting Autumn in New York. The line: “Autumn in New York is often mingled with pain”, was not true at the Gala with Jo Harrop’s vocals to soothe us. There was seasonal consolation later, too, in Legrand’s You Must Believe in Spring: “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” Nothing like a bit of Shelley to adorn already beautiful lyrics!
I’m a Fool to Want You by Herron / Sinatra / Wolf is a tune which does NOT suffer from being much-covered over the years. Here the backing was stripped down to minimal - no solos - allowing the audience to focus entirely on the plaintive Billie Holiday-style delivery. It was “hear a pin drop time” in the packed room.
Piano and bass both got to solo on Richard Rodgers’ cheery, up-tempo This Can’t Be Love and then we had more master-class lyrics on Cole Porter’s It’s All Right with Me. Who else coolly rhymes “chips” with “lips” outside of a limerick?
Bye Bye Blackbird opened with just vocals and bass and, sung in the manner of Julie London, achieved another “pin-drop” silence until it became Bye Bye Blackbird (Hello Durham Constabulary) as Jo had to contend with sirens full blast on Milburngate Bridge! Nowhere’s perfect…
Rob Walker’s drumming came more to the fore on Gershwin’s lovely The Man I Love. Maybe that should be Gershwins’ as Ira’s lyrics contribute much to the enduring appeal of the tune. Tuesday, there, might be “good news day” but we were all doing nicely on Friday, thank you! I Can’t Give You Anything but Love saw Jo at her most winsome and some trading fours generated more fizz and pop than our sparklers last night.
Then more Cole Porter with an up-tempo Just One of those Things which featured more great lyrics, though apparently it was a friend of Porter’s who suggested the adjective in “gossamer wings”. No one’s perfect?
The official last number was my idea of perfect – how could they top it? Great blues piano (with piano “answering” the vocals), great bass solo and great blues singing on Billie Holiday’s Fine and Mellow…….which they then topped with their encore: I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to Be Free! I have loved this song since I first heard Jo Harrop perform it about 5 years ago and it took on added poignancy having watched, two days ago, a DVD of Twelve Years a Slave in which I found the brutality portrayed truly shocking. Anyway, the audience clearly loved it too.
Never mind soggy Bonfire Night – this was Christmas come early!
Jerry

No comments :

Blog Archive