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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

17957 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 278 of them this year alone and, so far, 34 this month (April 14).

From This Moment On ...

April 2025.

Thu 17: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Only Six Standards.
Thu 17: Redwell @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 18: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 18: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 18: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 18: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Seaburn. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.

Fri 18: Alexia Gardner @ Fika Gallery, Oldgate, Morpeth NE61 1LT. 7:00pm. Trio (Gardner, Alan Law, Jude Murphy).RESCHEDULED FOR JUNE 13

Fri 18: Sarah Jane Morris & Tony Remy: The Sisterhood @ Cluny 2, Newcastle. CANCELLED! 7:30pm (doors). £25.00.

Sat 19: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 1:00-3:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 19: Joseph Carville Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 19: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 20: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 20: Salty Dog @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 20: Spilt Milk @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Sun 20: Tweed River Jazz Band @ The Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 20: C.A.L.I.E @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 21: Newcastle Record Fair @ Copthorne Hotel, Newcastle. 10:00am. Going in search of the Buddy Bolden cylinder…
Mon 21: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 22: Abbie Finn Trio @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. Coquetdale Jazz.

Wed 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 23: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 23: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. CANCELLED!

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

Thursday, September 22, 2016

CD Review: Joshua Breakstone - The Cello Quartet: 88

Joshua Breakstone (gtr); Lisle Atkinson (bs); Andy Watson (dms); Mike Richmond (cello).
(Review by Lance).
As the review copies arrive in ever increasing numbers I'm enveloped in guilt. My postman is already bent and withered, and he's only a young man. The cat trembles at the sound of the combination of CDs  and Tandoori takeaway/pizza menus that land on the doormat.
I classify the discs - vocals for Ann or Debra; familiar contemporary. names for Russell; slightly outré for Hugh; ultra outré for Steve H and a combination of the lot for Steve T - particularly if there is a guitar in the mix. The rest are pigeon - holed for whichever charity shop I like least. Then there are the ones I know will hit my car stereo.
This is just such a one.
Breakstone is my kind of guitarist - like he swings! Not only that, Mike Richmond on cello also swings and cellos aren't noted for their  jazz pendulum qualities!
Superb playing on compositions by some of the best of the first and second generation of bebop masters. Harold Mabern's The Chief; Sonny Clark's' News For Lulu; Cedar Walton's Black; Soul Eyes from the pen of Mal Waldron; An original by Breakstone; Eighty-Eight; Elmo Hope's Moe Is On; Lolita by Barry Harris; Tadd Dameron's sumptuous If You Could See me Now and Lennie's Pennies - a piece composed by Lennie Tristano and guitarist Billy Bauer, probably back in the early 1950s.
Breakstone does the composers proud. Fluent hornlike soloing interspersed with rich chordal passages mark down Breakstone as a born again Christian [Charlie].
Richman, as I've remarked in previous reviews, occupies the area 'twixt guitar and bass and I'd have loved, by way of contrast, to have heard some bowed cello solos. The rich tonal qualities of the instrument are less obvious in pizzicato mode. Nevertheless, all that aside, this is still a very listenable disc and I know it will be played again and again even though I've now got Jazz FM on the car stereo - in fact, particularly because I've now got Jazz FM on the car stereo!
Available October 21 on Capri Records.
Lance.
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