Bebop Spoken There

Dominick "Domo" Branch: ''Most people say drummers can't write, they're just time-keepers only beating on things. But I have a very musical brain.'' (DownBeat February, 2026)

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

18288 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 18 years ago. 142 of them this year alone and, so far this month (Feb. 14), 42

From This Moment On ...

February

Thu 19: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £5.00. Subject: George Shearing Jazz Moments.

Fri 20: Alex Clarke w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT! Clarke w. Dean Stockdale, Mick Shoulder, Abbie Finn.
Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: Squabble @ Warkworth Memorial Hall. 7:00pm. Steve Chambers (organ); Jude Murphy (double bass, vocals); Sid White (drums).
Fri 20: Jive Aces @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 7:00pm (6:30pm doors).
Fri 20: Alex Clarke w. Dean Stockdale Trio @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm. Clarke w. Dean Stockdale, Mick Shoulder, Abbie Finn.

Sat 21: ???

Sun 22: Musicians Unlimited: Big Band Blast @ West Hartlepool RFC. 1:00-3:00pm . Free.
Sun 22: Joe Steels Group @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm. A Blue Patch album tour.
Sun 22: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 22: Harben Kay Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 23: Joe Steels Group @ Yamaha Music School, Blyth. 1:00pm. A Blue Patch album tour.
Mon 23: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 24: Finn-Keeble Group @ Newcastle House Hotel, Rothbury. 7:30pm. £11.00.
Tue 24: Liam Oliver & Shayo Oshodi @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 26: Castillo Nuevo Orquesta @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £6.50.
Thu 26: Shalala @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £7.00 adv.
Thu 26: Mick Cantwell Band @ The Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Blues.

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, September 14, 2016

More Quotes From Simon Spillett

"There are techniques involved in the making of the music of which the average critic is often unaware."
Rahsaan Roland Kirk, sleeve notes to Ben Webster: 'Webster's Dictionary' (Philips 1970).

"Unfortunately, the fan of yesterday's jazz often becomes an opponent of today's."
Graham Collier, 'Inside Jazz' (Quartet Books, 1973)

"Hardly any of them would know a good jazz chorus if it fell on them. They have learned, parrot-fashion, the litany of American star names and that is that."
Benny Green on British record producers, 'Scene' magazine, October 5th 1962

"Putting live modern jazz across in this country has been like trying to sell balloons in a cemetery."
Peter Clayton, 'Sunday Telegraph', August 30th 1964
"I'm always suspicious of a man in a clean trench coat. Watch for it - nine times out of ten, he's a square."
Cannonball Adderley, sleeve notes to 'Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago' (Mercury, 1960)

"The avant-garde cannot expect basic stylistic changes to develop among mature players through artificial stimuli; for the hysterical cry for change tends to give sanctuary to charlatans."
Cannonball Adderley, sleeve notes to 'The Young Lions' (VeeJay) 1960

"He is the most unimaginative tenorist I have heard this year. His improvisations seem to be solely based on unusual noises (one can hardly describe them as sounds) placed in the most awkward places."
John Martin, review of Wayne Shorter on Wynton Kelly's Kelly Great LP, 
Jazz News May 24th 1961


"He was interested in non-chordal playing, and I had cut my teeth on that stuff. He later sent me a letter which included 30 dollars for each lesson, and thanked me."
Ornette Coleman on John Coltrane studying with him during 1960, quoted in sleeve notes to CD reissue of John Coltrane/Don Cherry: 'The Avant-Garde' (issued in 2000)

"Please take that off - discontinue that. I have one word for that - tragedy."
Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis, listening to Archie Shepp's recording of 'In A Sentimental Mood', Blindfold Test, DownBeat, 1967

"Great jazz playing is that which is still listenable after the style has ceased to be modern."
Ronnie Scott, Daily Dispatch Jazz Book, 1954

1 comment :

Nick Gould said...

Excellent quotes, must check out Archie Shepp Sentimental Mood

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