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Bebop Spoken There

George Porter Jr.: ''To me, syncopation is like jazz. It wasn't meant for the masses. It was meant just for a hip few". (DownBeat, May 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

18018 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 339 of them this year alone and, so far, 17 this month (May 7).

From This Moment On ...

MAY 2025

Mon 12: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 12: Gregory Porter + Jo Harrop @ Newcastle City Hall. 7:30pm. Support act: Jo Harrop!

Tue 13: ???

Wed 14: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Recital (stage 2): Leah Kirk (voice) @ The Band Room, Music Studios, Assembly Lane, Newcastle University. 3:00pm. Free.
Wed 14: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 14: Tannery jam session @ The Tannery, Hexham. 7:00pm.
Wed 14: Jerron Paxton @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £24.20. Excellent country blues multi-instrumentalist.
Wed 14: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. BACK IN BUSINESS, all welcome!

Thu 15: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: The Greatest in Jazz - Guitarists.
Thu 15: Pete Tanton & the Cuban Heels @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 15: New Ways of Moving in the Counterworlds @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). John Garner & John Pope.

Fri 16: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 16: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 16: Sophie Speed with the Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 16: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 16: Giles Strong Quartet @ Longframlington Memorial Hall. 7:00pm (doors). Tickets: £12.00. from 01665 570984.
Fri 16: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert’s Centre, Crook. 7:30pm. £10.00.
Fri 16: Peter Donegan & Anthony Donegan @ The Witham, Barnard Castle. 7:30pm. ‘Lonnie Donegan - The Stories’.

Sat 17: Teresa Watson Band @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Blues.
Sat 17: The Society Quartet @ Hilton Garden Inn, Sunderland. 6:00pm. Tel: 0191 500 9494. £26.00 (inc. two course meal). Line-up: Jason Holcomb, Hannah Taylor, Alix Shepherd & Abbie Finn.
Sat 17: Milne Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 17: Archie Brown & the Young Bucks @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. Rhythm & blues, Americana etc.
Sat 17: Rockin’ Turner Brothers @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Rockabilly, Western swing etc.

Sun 18: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Seaburn. 12 noon-2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 18: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 18: Ruth Lambert & Giles Strong @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 18: Steve Summers 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

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Is this the ultimate North East Jazz Supergroup? - Noel Dennis Quintet @ Opus 4 Darlington - June 17

Noel Dennis (trumpet, flugel); Mark Williams (guitar); Paul Edis (piano); Andy Champion (double bass); Adrian Tilbrook (drums).
(Review by Steve T/Photos from BSH archives). 
Piano intro, slow start settling into a mid-tempo groove - it begins. A round of solos, first round to Andy.
I could never be disappointed hearing Mark Williams, but, for some reason, I was expecting a saxophonist; there's something warm and cosy and perfect about a standard quintet. However, I quickly realised Dennis is one of those trumpet players who doesn't need a sax player and, as I said, I’ve never minded listening to Mark.
A couple of Tom Harrell songs, as always with Dennis; his first switch to trumpet between the two and the band appropriately pick up the pace. Edis drops a reference of The Way You Look Tonight and did I hear a faint hint of a response in Marks comping? His first major solo and he turns up the jouissaunce, taking it up and up and up. Round two to Mark, though Adrian came back with a rousing, perfectly concise solo.
The infamous Miles Davis mash-up.
As a non-musician it seems to me it should be impossible not to play something like Blue in Green note for note, such is the familiarity with the piece. Dennis plays it note for note and then switches to something entirely fresh. I think I'm right in saying we got more of it than we did with the trio version at the Caff a few weeks back, wringing every milligram of emotion from it ‘til this listener was on the verge of embarrassing himself.
Anticipation by now at fever pitch; how are they going to do the switch, with Paul on his portable and additional guitar and drums, when Mark pulls out a solo, still in Blue and Green and obviously no guitar on the original.
Tension blows the roof.
Changeover down to Andy and Adrian, then Andy, Paul Grimaces - he knows what's coming. I've seen that look on his face once before, when the Early Birds did Chungas Revenge at the Lit and Phil - an unlikely closet rocker?
Adrian hits the hi-hat, this is new for me too. Suddenly Paul's Keith Jarrett, Zawinul, Corea, Hancock; all at once.
Who was playing drums for Miles at that time? Couldn't have given it more whack than Tilbrook.
The audience, mostly older than me, look shell-shocked.
Been beckoning Mark for a while to beast it up and what a time to do it!
It ends as it began, with Andy, but it's round three to the drummer.
Pat Metheny to close set one with some great interplay between guitar and trumpet, but any idea of maintaining silence was shot. My first trip to the Travellers Rest but it felt that, like the world in 69/70, Opus 4 would never be the same again.
The local knowledges were kept busy during the interval, launching Chinese Whispers: where are the Beeches Blue? Your Sister's Due?
Knackered and in shock, I think set two began with a Wayne Shorter piece though I missed the title and didn't recognise it. I wrote 'gutsy bass solo, drummer rises to the challenge, fours with the trumpet, the full splendour of his repertoire, but it's the leaders round'.
Sail Away from Harrell and I left during Shorters' Fe Fi Fo Fum, Mark starting to glance my way, his nose twitching.
I would have loved to stay to hear Paul take a round but, in a sense, he always takes every round. That's why the kids love him, they can mess-up - big time - knowing he'll plug the gap, make it sound deliberate and transform it into something brilliant. Maybe that's why the grownups like playing with him too.
I'd have loved to stay but I was done.
Steve T.

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