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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

17719 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 39 of them this year alone and, so far, 39 this month (Jan. 15).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Sat 18: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 18: Alter Ego + Jamie Toms/Graham Don Duo @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Sat 18: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Repas 7 by Night, West St., Berwick TD15 1AS. 7:30pm. Free. Album launch gig.
Sat 18: Delta Prophets @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 19: Glenn Miller Orchestra UK @ Glasshouse, Gateshead. 3:00pm. ‘Glenn Miller & the Rat Pack Era’.
Sun 19: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 19: Spilt Milk @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 5:15-7:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Sun 19: Tenement Jazz Band @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 19: Nick Ross Orchestra @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:30pm.
Sun 19: Freight Train (Tobin/Noble/Clarvis) @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 19: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 20: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 21: ???

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.
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.

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

Friday, January 08, 2016

CD Review: Echoes of Swing - Dancing

Colin T. Dawson (tpt/vcl); Chris Hopkins (alt); Bernd Lhorsky (pno/ celeste); Oliver Mewes (dms).
(Review by Lance).
This was one that slipped under the radar last October - if it hadn't then last year's CD faves would have been augmented.
Dawson, at 55, has dropped the title of 'Kid' unlike Ory and co who were 'Kids' up to and beyond the grave! Dawson began his career as an actual kid with bands such as the local Heritage Hall Stompers before  recording with the, then, top UK New Orleans outfit - Sammy Rimington. That his musical horizons have expanded  over the years is no better demonstrated than on this ACT CD.
From South Shields to Germany via New Orleans, with this virtual stopover in Harlem circa 1938.
Raymond Scott, John Kirby, Bechet/Ladnier, Red Allen...
Jazz had moved up the river from Storyville, Chicago, called in at Kansas City and found a niche in NYC. Small group swing. Away from the growing emergence of the big bands and ahead of the boppers - Jazz was still dance music.
Dancing is the theme here and even a three legged stomper like myself finds it difficult not to shake a leg to this disc! However, dancer or listener, this is as good as it gets for those who realise that some of the most lasting jazz occurred twixt two of the bloodiest conflicts known to man (to date). Echoes of Swing bring back the era without sounding dated - play this in any trendy bar and I guess everyone would dance.
Dawson plays trumpet,quite restrained but still effective, sings in a soft seductive manner. It might not be what they go for in Whiteleas Club (South Shields)  but at somewhere like the Cherry Tree, Blaydon Jazz Club, Jazz Coop, Jazz Café or in particular, Mike Durham's Classic Jazz Party at Whitley Bay it would be another story... 
The musicians are superb with Hopkins' alto perfectly attuned to Dawson's trumpet whilst Lhorsky and Mewes combine so well that I was half way through the album before I realised there wasn't a bass player!
Originals by Hopkins, Lhorsky and Dawson (Sandancer - a tribute to his home town and the old time music hall act Wilson, Keppel and Betty!) combine with original settings of standards, jazz classics, even JSB's Gavotte1, English Suite No. 6, to give us a potted history of jazz dancing.
Listen to Hipsters Hop.
Lance.
Echoes of Swing - Dancing available on ACT 9103 - 2

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