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Bebop Spoken There

Kurt Elling: ''There's something to learn from every musician you play with''. (DownBeat, December 2024).

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

17655 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 929 of them this year alone and, so far, 74 this month (Dec. 31).

From This Moment On ...

January 2025

Thu 02: ???

Fri 03: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 03: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 03: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 03: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 4:00-6:00pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Fri 03: John Gregory @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar.

Sat 04: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Square, Middlesbrough. 3:30-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 04: Rivkala @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 04: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £5.00. Xmas party (rescheduled from early December).

Sun 05: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:45pm. £7.50.
Sun 05: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 05: Salty Dog @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Americana, jazz & blues.
Sun 05: Papa G’s Troves @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free (donations).

Mon 06: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.

Tue 07: Customs House Big Band @ The Masonic Hall, North St., Ferryhill DL17 8HX. 7:00pm. Free.

Wed 08: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: The Tannery Jam Session @ The Tannery, Gilesgate, Hexham. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Wed 08: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.
Wed 08: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).

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, October 06, 2016

CD Review: Tom Harrison - Unfolding in Tempo

Tom Harrison (alto); Cleveland Watkiss (voice); Robert Mitchell (pno); Daniel Casimer (bs); David Lyttle (dms).
(Review by Lance).
It might be said that there is little left to say, musically, about the works of Duke Ellington other than reminiscing in tempo. Just about every aspect of the great man's work has been taken apart and reassembled by the good, the bad and the ugly. (Archie Shepp's In a Sentimental Mood being one of the uglier ones.). Fortunately, Harrison manages to negate the latter two aspects in producing his own Ducal Direction. If anything, it relates to what a Mingus plays Ellington might have sounded like - almost!
The idea of using Watkiss' voice adds to the depth of field - alto and voice blend well together, On the Sy Oliver number, The Minor Goes a Muggin' originally recorded by Duke with trombonist Tommy Dorsey's band, Watkiss scats like Cab Calloway and Harrison stretches out drawing the approval of the audience at Pizza Express before making way for Robert Mitchell to do some muggin' of his own.
Take the A Train - Watkiss reminds us, with an out and out scat solo that ticks all the boxes, that there are other first class male jazz singers around apart from Cullen, Elling and Porter.
Listen to Harrison blow - he cuts it! Which, to those of us who'd heard him at last week's Jazz Café gig with the David Lyttle Trio, is old news! Ditto David Lyttle!
Casimer walks Things Ain't etc. in, Watkiss sings and Harrison lopes around over Casimer's bass who, after Harrison has shot down a lot of better-known UK sax players, has his moment too - he takes it. Watkiss returns to bring things back to what they used to be - eventually!
Too many great moments to list them all, suffice to say it's an alternative take on the maestro's music but one I'd like to think that he'd have Loved Madly!
Take the A Train; Things Ain't What They Used to be; The Minor Goes a Muggin'; My Little Brown Book; Solitude; The Intimacy of the Blues; Warm Valley.
The all live recordings were recorded earlier this year at Soho's Pizza Express and the Cheltenham Jazz Festival.
One for the shortlist.
Available October 14 on Lyle Records.
Lance.
Bonus track - Chelsea Bridge.

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