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Bebop Spoken There

Trevor Mires: ''My mum is a Dean Martin fan: I'm not, so I would grab my skateboard and get out of the house whenever I heard "Everybody Loves Somebody, Sometime." ". (Jazzwise, April 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

17957 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 278 of them this year alone and, so far, 34 this month (April 14).

From This Moment On ...

April 2025.

Sun 20: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 20: Salty Dog @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 20: Spilt Milk @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Sun 20: Tweed River Jazz Band @ The Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 20: C.A.L.I.E @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 21: Newcastle Record Fair @ Copthorne Hotel, Newcastle. 10:00am. Going in search of the Buddy Bolden cylinder…
Mon 21: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 22: Abbie Finn Trio @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. Coquetdale Jazz.

Wed 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 23: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 23: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. CANCELLED!

Thu 24: Mary Coughlan @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £33.80. Blues, jazz etc.
Thu 24: Darlington Big Band @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm.

Fri 25: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT! Duo performance.
Fri 25: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 25: Andrea Vicari Trio @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. Vicari (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Russ Morgan (drums).
Fri 25: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 25: Red Kites Jazz @ Land of Oak & Iron, Winlaton Mill. 6:00-9:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Fri 25: Struggle Buggy @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm. Rhythm & blues.
Fri 25: Paul Skerritt Big Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £20.30., £18.00. All-star big band.
Fri 25: Andrea Vicari Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Vicari (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Russ Morgan (drums). An Opus 4 Jazz Club event.

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

Sunday, December 13, 2015

The Misterioso Monk @ The Jazz Café – Dec 11

Graeme Wilson (tenor saxophone) & Paul Edis (piano)
(Review by Russell/Photo courtesy of Mike Tilley from a previous gig.)
The Jazz Café’s newly tuned piano awaited a night of Monk. The brethren congregated around the altar to hear some nutty crepusculian sounds courtesy of Thelonious Sphere.
The altar, dedicated to Bacchus, praise be, received the many supplicants, an evening’s cloistered contemplation in the presence of monks Wilson and Edis was upon us.
Graeme Wilson and Paul Edis were about to reprise their set of Thelonious Monk tunes first heard at the Jazz Café earlier in the year. The faithful occupied front row pews, the bacchanalian agnostics lashed themselves to the altar, they were ‘on the lash’. Monk in NYC played to the non-believers, Wilson and Edis were about to do the same. If Monk was looking down on the scene he would be smiling, shuffling to the rhythms (rhythms he gave to the world). Bright Mississippi, on the chords of Sweet Georgia Brown, began the sermon. The duo took Crepuscule with Nellie, then A Merrier Christmas and we, the brethren, received with thanks the offering. Stuffy Turkey (seasonally topical), a Trinkle Tinkle treat, a nutty Nutty, then off on a San Francisco Holiday (Worry Later said Monk) – this was something else! Masters at work, Graeme Wilson’s tenor full-toned, warm, an education for the aspiring, Edis in scintillating form, Monk’s wonderfully skewed logic, left hand stride, rooted in the rootie tootie of the blues.
The non-believers didn’t get it. They moved on. The disciples stayed on. Hornin’ In, the pensive Monk’s Mood, Four in One, the off-centre Off Minor, one after another, this put the gig up there with the best heard this year on Pink Lane. That was about it. Wilson and Edis have to do this again – TS Monk would insist upon it. Ba-lue Bolivar Ba-lues Are – if you have to ask, it don’t mean a thing. Just imagine, if the non-believers were able to hum a Monk tune as they made their way to the next two-bit boozer they might just turn a Brilliant Corner!
Russell.        

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