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Bebop Spoken There

Trevor Mires: ''My mum is a Dean Martin fan: I'm not, so I would grab my skateboard and get out of the house whenever I heard "Everybody Loves Somebody, Sometime." ". (Jazzwise, 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

17972 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 293 of them this year alone and, so far, 49 this month (April 22).

From This Moment On ...

April 2025.

Fri 25: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT! Duo performance.
Fri 25: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 25: Andrea Vicari Trio @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. Vicari (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Russ Morgan (drums).
Fri 25: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 25: Red Kites Jazz @ Land of Oak & Iron, Winlaton Mill. 6:00-9:00pm. Free.
Fri 25: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 7:30pm. £15.00. at the door; £14.35. (inc £0.35 bf) online, in advance.
Fri 25: Struggle Buggy @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm. Rhythm & blues.
Fri 25: Paul Skerritt Big Band @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £20.30., £18.00. All-star big band.
Fri 25: Andrea Vicari Trio @ Traveller’s Rest, Darlington. 8:00pm. Vicari (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Russ Morgan (drums). An Opus 4 Jazz Club event.

Sat 26: Durham Alumni Big Band @ Number One Bar, Darlington. 12 noon. Free (donations).
Sat 26: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 26: Vasilis Xenopoulos & Paul Edis @ Elvet Methodist Church, Durham. 7:30pm. Tickets: £12.00. + bf. Duo performance.
Sat 26: Neil Cowley Trio @ The Glasshouse, Gateshead. 8:00pm. £22.50.
Sat 26: Pete Tanton & the Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 27: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 27: Andrea Vicari Trio @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. Vicari (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); John Bradford (drums).
Sun 27: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 27: Vasilis Xenopoulos-Paul Edis Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. Xenopoulos, Edis, Paul Susans, Russ Morgan.
Sun 27: Ruth Lambert Trio @ Juke Shed, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 27: JustKing Jones @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:00pm (doors). £17.50. JustKing Jones (alto sax, soprano sax); Jordan Williams (piano); Jason Clotter (bass); Malcolm Charles (drums). Ace NYC outfit!
Sun 27: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 27: Swing Manouche @ Warkworth Memorial Hall. 7:30pm. £15.00. Tickets from 01665 711388.
Sun 27: Vasilis Xenopoulos-Paul Edis Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Xenopoulos, Edis, Ken Marley, Russ Morgan.

Mon 28: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 29: ???

Wed 30: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 30: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 30: International Jazz Day @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £16.00.; £14.00. adv.. Feat. Guido Spannocchi, John Pope & Steve Hanley + Take it to the Bridge participants + Open Mic Night participants.

MAY 2025

Thu 01: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Member’s Contribution.
Thu 01: Alabaster de Plume @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm.
Thu 01: Living in Shadows + OUTRI @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Thu 01: The Shayo Experiment @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Shayo Oshodi & Liam Oliver.
Thu 01: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free.

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 14, 2016

The Vicissitudes of Love. The Ruth Lambert Trio @ St. Cuthbert’s, Crook, May 13

Ruth Lambert, vocals, Giles Strong, guitar and Mick Shoulder, bass.
(Review/photos by Jerry)
A conversation overheard summed it up: “A fab evening.” “Yeah, it was great!”
St. Cuthbert’s offered its customary warm welcome (augmented by a glowing log burner) and dished up pizza at half-time: the trio offered their customary first-class musicianship and dished up a sumptuous mix of tunes from the songbooks (Great American and Great North-Eastern!)
Two numbers defy categorisation: The Snake (jazz/funk/Northern Soul?) featured a scat finish with subtle guitar work from Giles and Lullaby (in the newly invented spooky-acoustic-folk genre?) was hauntingly melodic. All the others, standards or originals, were reflections (mostly negative) on love. Another common denominator was that they all featured delightful lyrics which repaid careful listening e.g. “When the summer dies with the first caress of autumn’s lips”. Carmichael? Porter? Gershwin? Shoulder, actually!
Two further originals clearly had back-stories: How Could I? included the lines “My heart has no feeling / Where life has no meaning…” and Love That Never Dies was introduced as being “about the love of my life who turned out not to be”! Both featured great guitar work – electric on the former, with a “clean” solo (I can think of no other adjective for notes so precisely and clearly articulated) then acoustic, fitting well with the bitter-sweet tone of the latter. Love That Never Dies also had a great bass riff leading to a resonating bass finish. (Have I been reading too many real ale tasting notes?)
The perennial anxiety of love underpins You and the Night and the Music - you may live for the moment but: “After the night and the music, will I have you?” Another Lambert/Shoulder original, So Tell Me, poses the question: “Is it safe or should I run away?” The extended metaphor that is Detour Ahead is unequivocal in its advice – turn round and stay on the “smooth road” if you want to avoid the car-crash that is love!
So, how to respond to the problems? Giles Strong’s Everything Was Beautiful suggests that, if you accentuate the positive (or move to The Sunny Side of the Street – introduced by Ruth as “the most positive song ever written”) then even failed love can become a treasured memory: “When I’m old I’ll think of you/And the time when everything was beautiful”. Do you simply get older and wiser as in That Old Feeling: “There’ll be no new romance……it’s foolish to start”? Or, like T.P. Kirk do you take the opposite view and simply go for it? “Don’t even stop and sigh/It doesn’t help if you cry” Those who hesitate or dwell on things risk losing out entirely and are fools – Devil May Care is the only approach to life and love.
Frank Loesser’s Never Will I Marry is brilliantly paradoxical – seemingly pessimistic (“born to wander solitary /born to wander till I’m dead”) so why the cheery, upbeat tempo and singalong melody? Close examination of the words (only about 70 in the whole song and most of them are repeated) suggests that once you embrace solitude, you’ve cracked it: “No burdens to bear/ No conscience, no care/No memories to mourn”! Alternatively, like the speaker in The Man I Love, you could remain determinedly optimistic: “Still I’m sure to meet him, one day”.
Of course, there are GASbook songs celebrating the joy of love: “amorous/glamourous/awful nice/paradise”, Gershwin’s ‘S Wonderful is breathlessly joyful – even the musicians got a bit head-over-heels here! Arlen’s I’ve Got the World on a String is a perfect antidote to much of the foregoing suggesting that being in love gives you a measure of control and Porter’s You’d Be So Nice to Come Home to (impressive vocal gymnastics from Ruth here and an energetic bass solo as well) suggests that a domestic idyll is achievable.
Cleverest song of the evening? – No Moon at All with complex music (Redd Evans?) and lyrics (Dave Mann) which poke fun at the conventions by having a couple fall in love in the total absence of stars and no moon at all. Most moving song of the evening?- Love for Sale, a groundbreaking (and in its day banned!) song inviting the audience to empathise with a street girl expert in “old love, new love/any love but true love”. Ruth’s vocals wrung out every drop of emotion in this poignant number. Brilliant!
Jerry.

2 comments :

Russell said...

Great review Jerry. Devil May Care, what a tune! I can hear Ruth now!

Steven Tulip said...

Certainly northern soul insomuch as any genre can be labelled as an easily defined category. Northern soul is particularly slippery with the sub-Motown tag the most commonplace but strictly speaking it doesn't necessarily need to be either northern or soul but is a record played by a northern soul DJ and/or at a northern soul night which could be in London, Japan, Australia or almost anywhere nowadays.
In his book Northern Soul top 500, Wigan Casino no. 3 Kev Roberts ranked the Snake as fourth most important ever, but by the emergence of Jazz funk it was considered a joke, alongside Dobie Gray Out on the Floor ( rated second ) and Frank Wilson Do I love You? ( rated first ), although I personally think by the final reckoning all three will be considered, not the greatest discoveries ever, but nearer the top of the pile than the bottom.
But now we're really getting away from Jazz - or maybe not in a world post any meaningful structures.

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