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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

17655 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 929 of them this year alone and, so far, 74 this month (Dec. 31).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Mon 06: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 07: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.

Wed 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 08: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 09: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: John H Hammond.
Thu 09: FILM: Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat @ Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle. 2:35pm. Documentary (dir. Johan Grimonprez) ‘about jazz, (de)colonial history and activism featuring Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie’.
Thu 09: Happy Tuesdays @ Ye Olde Cross, Ryton. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 09: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 09: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. A Tees Hot Club promotion. The session now monthly, next one Thursday 2nd Feb, then first Thursday in the month thereafter.

Fri 10: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 10: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. Free.

Sat 11: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 11: Under the Wellie @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 12: The New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 12: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 12: King Bees @ The Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Superb Chicago blues band.
Sun 12: Dave Bottomley @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar.
Sun 12: Jack Pearce Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

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

Saturday, May 21, 2016

Noel Dennis Trio @ Jazz Café - May 20.

Noel Dennis - trumpet, flugelhorn. Paul Edis - piano. Andy Champion - double bass.
(Review by Steven T/sketches by Vanessa/photos by Pam)
It was a tough choice, Blaydon last Sunday or Jazz Café tonight. I'm a known philistine for my preference for bands with drums, but Friday night at the Caff has become a regular part of the routine. Man pneumonia intervened and the Caff won out.
I was sat with an American couple from Oregon and Hawaii, now resident in Newcastle, who weren't sure whether to stay or not. She was grinning from the start but he held out until Andy’s' first big solo when pleasure burst out all over his face. I know you're not supposed to have favourites, he told me afterwards. He's a bassoon player and music student and she's a conservation scientist, which means she tries to prevent the deteriation of art - a bit like the band I suppose - and she drew a picture of them while they performed.
Two music stands and a microphone stand from the night before set for seated musicians served to illustrate that these musicians are giants on the local scene. Birthday boy Mark Williams told me 'these guys are world class' and I wasn't going to argue. Just as well, following Shorters' Fe Fi Fo Fum he shouted - I smell the blood of an… enough! intervened the ladies he was sat with. I explained to our American friends why everyone found this hilarious.
I'm claiming the Surman amendment - again? - but I know we got the aforementioned Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson and two from Dennis favourite Tom Harrell. Highlight of the night for me was a Miles Davis mash-up - is that blasphemy? - starting with Blue in Green, in my view one note short of a masterpiece like album mate Flamenco Sketches. He'd warned us it was going into something else and, when Paul lifted the piano lid and started twanging the strings, I wondered whether all this talk of progressive rock - I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it - had got to him and he was going to start banging in nails like the late Keith Emmerson. Re-enter Noel Dennis and it was clear this was something from Bitches Brew, the title track as it happens.
With the tangled web of North East Jazz musicians I wasn't sure whether I'd heard Noel Dennis before but once he got playing I knew I had. He does Miles, whether Kind of Blue or Bitches Brew. As well as Miles, on several occasions he reminded me of Freddie Hubbard, which is just about as high a compliment as I can pay any trumpet player.
Having previously said Andy is, if anything, even better on electric bass, I've changed my mind again and, if anything, he's even, even better on upright. He has phases he told me afterwards.
What's left to say about the good doctor? Musician, composer, educator extraordinaire, held in such regard by the many young musicians under his wing that can border on hero-worship. King Oliver, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and now Lord Paul. He is to North East Jazz what Curtis Mayfield was to Chicago soul in the sixties and early seventies, and they called him the gentle genius. And Chris always says what a lovely lad he is. I hate him me.
Following a particularly boisterous piano solo, Mark announced - I love it when he does that shhhh said the ladies around him. But Mark wasn't the star of the night; that accolade went to Chaplin, Lindsay Hannon's dog, when another Lord Paul solo had him in a spin when he started chasing his tail, which sounds like the name of a song.
There's a quintet version of this band in Darlington in a couple of weeks, presumably with a drummer yeh, which is utterly mouth-watering. I've got my sleeping bag and flask ready to queue overnight to ensure a seat, just in case there's any sense in the world.
Steven T

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