Bebop Spoken There

Dominick "Domo" Branch: ''Most people say drummers can't write, they're just time-keepers only beating on things. But I have a very musical brain.'' (DownBeat February, 2026)

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

18288 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 142 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Feb. 14), 42

From This Moment On ...

February

Thu 19: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject: George Shearing Jazz Moments.

Fri 20: Alex Clarke w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT! Clarke w. Dean Stockdale, Mick Shoulder, Abbie Finn.
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Squabble @ Warkworth Memorial Hall. 7:00pm. Steve Chambers (organ); Jude Murphy (double bass, vocals); Sid White (drums).
Fri 20: Jive Aces @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:00pm (6:30pm doors).
Fri 20: Alex Clarke w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. Clarke w. Dean Stockdale, Mick Shoulder, Abbie Finn.

Sat 21: ???

Sun 22: Musicians Unlimited: Big Band Blast @ West Hartlepool RFC. 1:00-3:00pm . Free.
Sun 22: Joe Steels Group @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. A Blue Patch album tour.
Sun 22: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Harben Kay Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 23: Joe Steels Group @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. A Blue Patch album tour.
Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 24: Finn-Keeble Group @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £11.00.
Tue 24: Liam Oliver & Shayo Oshodi @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 26: Castillo Nuevo Orquesta @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £6.50.
Thu 26: Shalala @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £7.00 adv.
Thu 26: Mick Cantwell Band @ The Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. 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

Sunday, February 28, 2016

CD Review: Daryl Sherman - My Blue Heaven.

Daryl Sherman (pno/vcl); Harvey S (bs on 2 tracks)
(Review by Lance).
Six years on, I still relish the memory of hearing Daryl, first at the Saville Exchange, North Shields and, the following evening, at Trinity Centre, Gosforth - two venues now, sadly, lost to jazz.
Since then, I've followed her career avidly. The lady travels. Apart from touching down at Sage Gateshead in 2012 with Carrying Cole to Newcastle and Mike's Classic Jazz Party in 2014, for the past three years, Japan has played a major part in her itinerary. This year she's back again playing the Tableaux Lounge, Daikanyama, Tokyo throughout March, April and May.
This CD is a first, a mainly solo piano/voice album reminding me, in the unlikely event that my memory needed nudging, just how good she is in both departments! However, it also presents a problem for a reviewer such as I inasmuch as the album notes are written in Japanese! Then again, with Daryl, all you need are ears.
These ears thought their birthday had arrived 11 days early, such was the impact of listening to Daryl singing: I Walk a Little Faster; Wouldn't it be Loverly; Feel Like Makin' Love; Let's Go Live in a Lighthouse; Cycling Along With You; Inside a Silent Tear; My Blue Heaven; You Turned the Tables on me; Fly me to the Moon; You Wanna Bet?; The Brooklyn Bridge; The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Particularly interesting to hear Julie Styne and Sammy Cahn's The Brooklyn Bridge, first sung by Sinatra and Jimmy Durante in the movie It Happened in Brooklyn. Blossom's Inside a Silent Tear also a couple of Cy Coleman's - I Walk a Little Faster and You Wanna Bet? Then there's Cycling Along with You, a Daryl original - I'm already inflating the tyres on my bike!. 
What strikes me about this album is that, along with the sophistication, there is the suggestion of an earlier era. An era where we had bootleg gin, speakeasies and singers like Ruth Etting and Annette Hanshaw. An era that Daryl moves in as easily as she handles Jimmy Webb's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress or Roberta Flack's Feel Like Makin' Love. An era personified by the Classic Jazz Party...
Details.
Lance.

1 comment :

Liz said...

"I walk a little faster" is one beautiful number with subtle lyrics " Keep bumping into walls, and taking lots of falls..."TB does it beautifully too!

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