Total Pageviews

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

17733 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 53 of them this year alone and, so far, 53 this month (Jan. 20).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Wed 22: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 22: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 22: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 22: Pasadena Roof Orchestra @ Fire Station, Sunderland. 7:30pm.

Thu 23: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free. Fortnightly.
Thu 23: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Obituaries 2024.
Thu 23: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:30-6:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Thu 23: Pedal Point Trio @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Fri 24: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 24: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 24: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 24: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 24: Creakin’ Bones & the Sunday Dinners @ Lindisfarne Social Club, Wallsend. 9:00pm. Admission: TBC. Jazz, blues , jump jive, rock ‘n’ roll.

Sat 25: Boys of Brass @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 3:30-5:30pm. Free.
Sat 25: New '58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson's Wharf, Hartlepool. 6:30pm (doors). Free. A Burns' Night event. Jazz, swing, funk, soul, blues etc.
Sat 25: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 25: Red Kites Jazz @ Parish Hall, St Barnabas’ Church, Rowlands Gill. 7:30pm. £10.00. BYOB (tea & coffee available), raffle. Proceeds to St Barnabas’ Church. Performance feat. Shayo (vocals).
Sat 25: Jack & Jay’s Songbook @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 26: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Graham Hardy Eclectic Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 26: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 26: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 7:30pm. Free.
Sun 26: Gratkowski, Tramontana, Beresford, Affifi @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00. JNE.
Sun 26: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 27: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 28: ???

Wed 29: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 29: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 29: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

Thu 30: Matters Unknown (aka Jonathan Enser, Nubiyan Twist) + support TBA @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm (7:00pm doors). £12.22 (gig & food); £9:04 (gig only).
Thu 30: Soznak @ The Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:00pm. Free.
Thu 30: Struggle Buggy @ Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Rhythm & 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

Saturday, October 08, 2016

CD Review: Rebecca Dumaine - Happy Madness

Rebecca Dumaine (vcl); Dave Miller (pno); Perry Thoorsell (bs); Bill Belasco (dms) + Brad Beuthe (gtr); Pete Cornell (ten).
(Review by Lance).
I gave it a glance, shrugged my shoulders and thought, "one for Debra or Ann". Then I gave it a second glance - second glances are fatal!
Track number 11 - Destination Moon!*
Dumaine is on her fourth album here and I'm already wishing I had the other three and that's just after hearing her take on Joe Bushkin's Nobody Else But Me.  If Bushkin hadn't spent as much time hanging out with Spanier, Condon and those guys he'd have been in the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
Dumaine does the song justice. I fall in love too easily (not a song on the CD) but from Doris Day via Ella to the late Amy a songbird does it for me. 
I know that, in the past, I've suggested that jazz singers are rolling off a conveyor belt like a plague of locusts. Dumaine ain't no locust! A swinger, an interpreter of lyric, an improviser, a woman capable of getting to the core of the song and doing it delightfully. This one excites me!
Of course, without the superb Dave Miller Trio goosing her along the ten-star review would drop down to 5! Beuthe (his Blues in the Closet intro to It's All Right With Me launches Dumaine into orbit) and Cornell chips in to keep it flying. Car stereo tomorrow - must go for a long drive!
Tracks: Nobody Else But Me; Samba Saravah; Like Someone in Love; Take a Chance; So Nice; It's All Right With Me; I'm Old Fashioned; This Happy Madness; Here, There, and Everywhere; The More I See You; Destination Moon; Haven't We Met?; Spider Man. 
Lance.
*Some 40 years back, Dave Bell had a jazz program on Radio Newcastle which culminated with an 'Identify the band, soloist, singer etc.' competition.The winner received, I think, a record token. As, at the time, I was working in the jazz record dept. of a local music shop it wasn't too difficult for me to make an educated guess at the answer. In fact,  I won so many times (the late Ron Pollard was my closest rival) that eventually I was invited to appear on the show and talk about my favourite records. I can't remember all of the ones I chose although I think Wardell Gray would have been among them. What I do remember is that my choice of Destination Moon by Dinah Washington resulted in just about everyone who'd listened to the show coming into the shop wanting to buy the album. Poor Wardell didn't get a look in!

2 comments :

Liz said...

yes, a great number Lance, new to me, thanks for pointing it out.

Lance said...

Composed by Marvin Fisher who also wrote When Sunny Gets Blue. His father, Fred Fisher wrote Chicago, his sister Doris wrote You Always Hurt the One You Love and his brother Dan had a hand in Good Morning Heartache - quite a family!

Blog Archive