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Bebop Spoken There

Stan Woodward: ''We're part of the British jazz scene, but we don't play London jazz. We play Newcastle jazz. The Knats album represents many things, but most importantly that Newcastle isn't overlooked". (DownBeat, 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

17945 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 266 of them this year alone and, so far, 22 this month (April 8).

From This Moment On ...

April 2025.

Wed 09: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 09: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 09: Tannery jam session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Wed 09: Anatole Muster Trio @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £17.50., £12.50. concs.
Wed 09: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. CANCELLED?

Thu 10: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00.CANCELLED!
Thu 10: Magpies of Swing @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00., £10.00., £7.00. A Globe fundraiser (all proceeds to the venue).
Thu 10: Exhaust: Camila Nebbia/Kit Downes/Andrew Lisle @ Jesmond URC, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:30pm doors). £13.20., £11.00. JNE.
Thu 10: Jeremy McMurray & the Pocket Jazz Orchestra @ Arc, Stockton. 8:00pm. Feat. guests Ray Dales & Jackie Summers.

Fri 11: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland. 1:00pm. £8.00.
Fri 11: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 11: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 11: John Rowland Trio: The Music of Ben Webster @ Jesmond Library, Newcastle. 1:00pm. £5.00. Rowland (tenor sax); Alan Law (piano); Paul Grainger (double bass).
Fri 11: Imelda May @ The Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 11: Shunyata Improvisation Group @ Cullercoats Watch House. 7:30-9:00pm. Free (donations).

Sat 12: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 12: Rob Heron & the Tea Pad Orchestra + House of the Black Gardenia + King Bees @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 6:30pm (doors). £18.00.
Sat 12: Bright Street Big Band @ Washington Arts Centre. 6:30pm. £12.00. Event includes swing dance taster session, DJ dance session. Bright Street Big Band on stage 7:30-8:15pm & 8:45-9:30pm. SOLD OUT!
Sat 12: Milne Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 12: Imelda May @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 7:30pm. £42.20. SOLD OUT!
Sat 12: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 13: Daniel John Martin with Swing Manouche @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00.
Sun 13: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 13: Hejira: A Celebration of Joni Mitchell @ Wylam Brewery, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). £22.50.
Sun 13: Wilkinson/Edwards/Noble + Chojnacki @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £13.20., £11.00. JNE.

Mon 14: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 14: Zoë Gilby Quintet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 15: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.

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

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

CD Review: Delta Saxophone Quartet with Gwilym Simcock – Crimson!

Gwilym Simcock (pianoforte), Graeme Blevins (soprano saxophone), Pete Whyman (alto saxophone), Tim Holmes (tenor saxophone) & Chris Caldwell (baritone saxophone)
(Review by Russell)
The saxophone quartet is a familiar unit to both a classical audience and a jazz audience. A classical enthusiast will listen to a Haydn string quartet at home or in the concert hall without looking around for the jazz fan’s rhythm section comfort blanket. On this Basho Records’ CD the Delta Saxophone Quartet’s approach was to commission a cross-genre work from Gwilym Simcock to arrange for strings and pianoforte.
The ‘prog rock’ band King Crimson provided the source material and a musical link. An earlier association with Bill Bruford’s Earthworks gave Simcock an insight to a world of extended rock (frequently jazz-rock inflected) pieces, with drummer Bruford an alumnus of a late incarnation of King Crimson. This beautifully recorded new release comes in at just under forty-five minutes. Six tracks, the first of them – A Kind of Red – is a Simcock composition, the others a reworking of King Crimson’s output spanning twenty years or more.
The Deltas’ jazz credentials are secure with the participation of the likes of Pete Whyman (alto) having worked with Mike Westbrook and Simcock’s upbringing in classical music make for an empathetic meeting of minds. Whyman’s soprano on the opening track hears Simcock’s pianoforte (‘pianoforte’, one for the classical buffs) comping and meeting the saxophonist at the other end. VROOM/Coda: Marine 475 from King Crimson’s THRAK (1995) – a prog rock title if ever there was one! – veers from an urgent rock pulse via the tenor saxophone of Tim Holmes to filmic minimalism.
The Night Watch from 1974’s Starless and Bible Black incorporates everything. Yes, that well-known prog rock gumbo; collective expressionism (Lark Ascending stuff), anthemic glory, elegant tenor, ruminating piano, a sustained final chord brilliantly recorded by the band’s soprano saxophonist Graeme Blevins doubling up as recording engineer. THRAK yields another tune (all prog rock ten minutes and fifty-nine seconds of it); Dinosaur. An open invitation awaits…Dinosaur…prog rock…nuff said. Much going on here, a bluesy pianoforte, Whyman prominent, great urgency.
The closing number – The Great Deceiver from Starless and Bible Black – showcases the jazz chops of all concerned; flying reeds, arresting voicings, a Blevins and Whyman dual.
Russell.
Crimson! by the Delta Saxophone Quartet is available now on Basho Records SRCD 50-2. The album’s accompanying notes includes an informative essay by Sid Smith from Whitley Bay.

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