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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

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

CD Review: Roly Veitch - Wherever Ye Gan

Roly Veitch (vocals, guitar, banjo, ukulele)
(Review by Ann Alex)
Have you finished your Christmas shopping? No? You’d do well to buy this lovely CD for someone. Here we have many typical Geordie songs such as The Keel Row and The Water Of Tyne, but what struck me is that we don’t listen carefully enough to these lyrics: for instance, the title track, Wherever Ye Gan You’re Sure To Find A Geordie, suggests that you’ll meet a Geordie even in the afterlife! How many of us could tell the story of the Lambton Worm in detail, or draw a timeline of the Blaydon Races journey? Roly gives us a gentle, homely take on these songs that we think we know, presented with excellent musicianship and touches of sly humour.  The much-maligned banjo and ukulele come across as serious instruments in Roly’s hands, and the guitar fares well.
Jazz and folk influences abound in the music.  There’s 1 instrumental track, Morpeth Rant/Hesleyside Reel, so well played and arranged that I’d have welcomed more tunes. Cullercoats Bay is sung with gentle sincerity; Wor Nanny’s A Mazer, a sort-of love song, has jazzy guitar and train sounds to represent the journey which was prevented by drunkenness; Alang The Roman Wall is accompanied by a marching rhythm; the lullaby Bonny At Morn is done to slow steady guitar riffs; The Pitman’s Lament (new to me) isn’t about a mining disaster as you’d perhaps expect, but it’s a father’s lament that his grammar school son has become posh. The other tracks are: Wor Geordie’s Lost His Plenker; Ma Bonny Lad; I’ve got A Little Whippet; Keep Your Feet Still Geordie Hinny; Bobby Shafto and the CD is well rounded off with a tribute to God’s own country, Canny Tyneside, followed by a few bars of There’s No Place Like Home on the ukulele.
The CD was available from December, on the GJF label GJFCD008.  More details of how to purchase the CD are online at www.rolyveitch.20m.com
Ann Alex 

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