Bebop Spoken There

Christian McBride: ''I believe we are living in a historically embarrassing moment in American history.'' - Downbeat December 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

18061 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 1025 of them this year alone and, so far, 39 this month (Dec. 14).

From This Moment On ...

DECEMBER 2025

Thu 18: Paul Skerritt @ YOLO, Ponteland. 7:00pm. ‘Swing & Jazz Night’. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Thu 18: Joe Steels & Friends @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:30pm. Free (donations).

Fri 19: Fraser Urquhart @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT! .
Fri 19: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free..
Fri 19: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free..
Fri 19: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00..
Fri 19: Castillo Nuevo @ Hotel Gotham, Newcastle. 5:00pm. Free. .
Fri 19: Alexia Gardner @ FIKA Art Gallery, Morpeth. 6:30pm. Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy..
Fri 19: Paul Skerritt @ Middlesbrough Town Hall. 7:00pm. Skerritt w. backing tapes. .
Fri 19: Giles Strong Quartet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. Old Black Cat Jazz Club..
Fri 19: Creakin’ Bones & the Xmas Dinners @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm. £13.01 (inc. bf)..
Fri 19: Mark Toomey Quintet @ The Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Opus 4 Jazz Club.

Sat 20: Jazz Attack @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 11:00am. Free.
Sat 20: Alexia Gardner @ FIKA Art Gallery, Morpeth. 6:30pm. Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy. SOLD OUT!
Sat 20: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. CANCELLED!
Sat 20: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 20: Hoodoo Blues @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:15pm (doors). £14.25, £11.55. Dance class, social dancing, live music & Xmas Party. Live music from 9:00pm - Ruth Lambert, Giles Strong, Ian Paterson & John Bradford (jazz and blues).
Sat 20: John Pope Quintet @ Blank Studios, Newcastle. 7:30-8:30pm. £7.70 (inc. bf). Album recording session.

Sun 21: New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. ‘Xmas Swingalong’. Skerritt w. backing tapes.
Sun 21: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00-5:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 21: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ o2 City Hall, Newcastle. 6:00pm. £35.80., £33.25., £31.00.
Sun 21: The Globe Xmas Party @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Live music.
Sun 21: Tweed River Jazz Band @ The Barrels Ale House, Berwick. 7:30pm. Free.

Mon 22: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 23: Paul Skerritt @ Chakh Dhoom, Jesmond, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Indian restaurant. Skerritt w. backing tapes.

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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