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Bebop Spoken There

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Postage

16034 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 15 years ago. 1041 of them this year alone and, so far, 73 this month (Nov. 27).

From This Moment On ...

December

Sat 02: Paula Jackman's Jazz Masters @ St Augustine's Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 02: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. £25.00. Enrol at: www.jazz.coop.
Sat 02: Abbie Finn Trio @ Claypath Deli, Durham. 7:00pm.
Sat 02: Tenement Jazz Band @ John Marley Centre, Newcastle. Swing Tyne Winter Social. £8.00. + bf. Advance purchase only, no admission at the door. BYOB. Lindy hop workshop from 11:00am. £39.00.
Sat 02: Zoë Gilby Quartet @ The Masham, Hartburn Village, Stockton. 7:00pm. Feat. Noel Dennis.
Sat 02: Classic Swing @ The Nuthatch, 9 - 11 Bedford St, Middlesbrough TS1 2LL. 7:00-9:00pm. Classic Swing in trio format.
Sat 02: Paul Skerritt w. Danny Miller Big Band @ Westovian Theatre, South Shields. 7:30pm.
Sat 02: Vermont Big Band @ Whitley Bay FC. 7:30pm. £10.00. (inc. hot buffet). Tickets available from WBFC’s Seahorse pub club house.
Sat 02: Milne-Glendinning Band @ Ponteland Social Club, Northumberland. 7:30pm. £18.00 (inc. stotties & soup supper). A fundraiser for Hexham Constituency Labour Party.
Sat 02: Durham Dynamics & Basement Jazz @ Kingsgate Bar & Café, Durham Students’ Union. 7:30pm. £5.00. (£4.50. concs.). ‘Fab & Festive’. A cappella & jazz. Abba, Mariah Carey & more.
Sat 02: Tom Remon & Laurence Harrison @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sat 02: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. Xmas party night inc. buffet & special raffle. £3.00.
Sat 02: Groovetrain @ The Unionist Club, Laygate, South Shields. 9:00pm.

Sun 03: Smokin’ Spitfires @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 12:30pm. £7.50.
Sun 03: The Central Bar Quartet @ Central Bar, Gateshead. 2:00pm. £10.00. The Central Bar Quartet plays Lou Donaldson’s Gravy Train. Featuring Jamie Toms.
Sun 03: Paul Skerritt @ Smith’s Arms, Carlton, Stockton-on-Tees. 7:00pm.
Sun 03: Johnny Hunter Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 03: Jam session @ The Schooner, Gateshead. 8:00pm. Free.

Mon 04: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Mon 04: Northern Monkey Brass Band @ People’s Kitchen, Bath Lane, Newcastle. From 5:30pm. On-street gig supporting the work of the People’s Kitchen charity. Wrap up warm! Donate!
Mon 04: Michael Young Trio w Lindsay Hannon @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 7:00pm. Free.
Mon 04: James Birkett Trio @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £8.00.
Mon 04: Durham University Jazz Orchestra + Durham University Big Band @ Durham Castle DH1 3RW. 8:30pm. £6.00.; £5.00. concs; £4.00. DSM. ‘Jazzy Christmas’.

Tue 05: Customs House Big Band @ All Saints Church, Cleadon. 7:00pm. Concert in the church hall. BYOB.
Tue 05: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Michael Young, Paul Grainger, Sid White. The best free show in town!

Wed 06: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 06: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 8:00pm. Free. Note later start time, concert performance (open to the public).
Wed 06: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.

Thu 07: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, North Tyneside. 1:00pm. Free CANCELLED!
Thu 07: Vieux Carré Hot 4 @ Spanish City, Whitley Bay, Newcastle. 12 noon - 4:00pm. £26.00 (inc 3-course meal in in St Mary's Lighthouse Suite). SOLD OUT!
Thu 07: Gateshead Jazz Appreciation Society @ Gateshead Central Library, Gateshead. 2:30pm. All welcome.
Thu 07: Thursday Night Prayer Meeting @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm.Donations. Feat. Mark Sanders.
Thu 07: Indigo Jazz Voices @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:45pm. £5.00. Downstairs.
Thu 07: Tees Hot Club @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 9:00pm.

Fri 08: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm.
Fri 08: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 08: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms, Monkseaton. 1:00pm.
Fri 08: Hayley's Little Big Band @ Woodland Village Hall, Bishop Auckland. 7:00pm. £12.00.
Fri 08: Sleep Suppressor + Redwell @ Head of Steam, Neville St., Newcastle. 8:00pm. £10.00. (£8.00. adv); £5.00. student.
Fri 08: Hot Club du Nord @ St Cuthbert's Church, Shadforth, Co. Durham.
Fri 08: Têtes de Pois + Nauta @ Cobalt Studios, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £12.00., £8.00.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Sue Ferris Quintet @ Gala theatre Durham - October 14

Sue Ferris (saxophones & flute); Graham Hardy (trumpet); Paul Edis (piano); Neil Harland (bass); Dave McKeague (drums)
(Review by Brian Ebbatson/photo courtesy of Jerry Edis)
It was good to welcome Sue Ferris back to the Gala Lunchtime Concert series. She featured in one of our first concerts – three years ago - in a trio she co-led with Roly Veitch on guitar, and then with her quartet in 2014. She is on her home turf here, and harked back to her days playing with Will Todd, almost twenty years ago, by featuring a piece Will had ‘gifted’ her then, and she has kept in her repertoire since.

The first two numbers set the mood for the concert – the swing of Ellington and (more emphatically) the hard bop of Horace Silver. The Quintet warmed up the audience with a lively version of Ellington’s Just Squeeze Me. Graham and Sue played in the theme on horns, exchanged choruses, and then set off to solo. Sue solo gave us the first taste of her mellow flowing tenor – more Hawk than Lester –, Graham followed, brought in Paul’s piano, and the ensemble bowed out with the Ellington theme.
The band followed with Silver’s Song For My Father. Neil’s bass set the rhythm, tone and hard bop feel of the piece, tenor and trumpet played through the theme, Sue soloed first, Graham cautiously explored the theme, before switching to classic hard-bop phrasing. Paul slowly explored the possibilities of the tune accompanied by Neil’s arco bass and sensitive percussion from Dave, then upped the tempo bringing the ensemble back to a funk groove to restate the theme before a slow fading end.
For Bill Evans’ Peri’s Scope Sue switched to baritone sax, where her sound is full, round and resonant and her story lines always fluent and inventive. After theme and horn solos, Paul – appropriately for a piece written for piano – set off on an upbeat solo of what must be a favourite tune. But the feel remained hard bop. Sue, Graham and Neil each took solos before returning to the gentle rhythm of the tune.
The next tune took us further back to the roots of bop, with Clifford Brown’s Sandu, a regular in Sue’s repertoire. All band members featured on solos, Sue remaining on baritone.
The mood changed with Will Todd’s ballad I Thought About Who? Sue now switched to flute and Graham to flugel. Both found new heights in their solos, Sue in particular soaring away on the flute. For me one of the highlights of the concert.
After the slow ballad the tempo was restored with Cy Coleman’s Witchcraft. Sue started quietly enough on the lowest register of the flute, then climbed through the octaves to develop the theme, before handing over to Graham, the band now swinging energetically behind his Clifford Brownish phrasing. Paul produced a(nother) carefully constructed solo, bass and drums adding emphasis at the right moments. Sue’s flute took flight again before bringing the band back to low slow ensemble finish.
Secret Love was delivered at a similar pace and hard bop mood. Bass and drums opened, piano joined in the groove, then the deep tone of the tenor and the high register of the flugelhorn. More excellent solos from Sue, Graham and Paul, with able support from Neil and Dave.
The time was now up, but there was no stopping the band who played two more numbers to make sure the audience got more than their money’s worth. The first, One Hand One Heart from Bernstein’s West Side Story, gave the musicians the opportunity to re-establish their gentler side, while with the finale, a (new?) composition from Paul, McCoin a Phrase, they got back into their swinging hard bop groove. After a 70 minute set the sell-out audience went home very satisfied.

Brian Ebbatson

1 comment :

JERRY said...

Agree with all that - an excellent gig. Special mention for the drummer - a last-minute dep. who settled in with a solo and some fours and was excellent on the samba-style Secret Love.

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