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Bebop Spoken There

Sullivan Fortner: ''I always judge it by the bass player: If the bass player is happy, it's going to be a good night". (DownBeat, February 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

17805 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 126 of them this year alone and, so far, 51 this month (Feb.16).

From This Moment On ...

February 2025

Sun 23: Musicians Unlimited @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 23: More Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Mark Williams Trio @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 23: Ruth Lambert Trio @ The Juke Shed, Union Quay, North Shields. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Jazz Jam Sandwich! @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 23: Mississippi MacDonald @ Georgian Theatre, Stockton. 3:00pm. Blues.
Sun 23: Mu Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. CANCELLED!
Sun 23: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 24: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 24: Michael Young Trio @ The Engine Room, Sunderland. 6:30pm. Free.

Tue 25: ?

Wed 26: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 26: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 26: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 27: Jamie McCredie @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Fri 28: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free. THIS WEEK ONLY JAMES BIRKETT (guitar)!
Fri 28: Luis Verde Quartet @ The Gala, Durham. 1:00pm. £8.00. SOLD OUT!
Fri 28: Spilt Milk @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 7:00-9:00pm. Free. Nolan Brothers (vocal harmonies).
Fri 28: Castillo Nuevo Orquesta @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm (doors). £8.00.
Fri 28: Knats @ Lubber Fiend, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £11.50. (inc bf.). Album launch gig. Support act TBC.
Fri 28: Black is the Color of My Voice @ The Gala, Durham. 7:30pm. Apphia Campbell’s one-woman show inspired by the life of Nina Simone, performed by Florence Odumosu.
Fri 28: Great North Big Band Jazz Festival: Musicians Unlimited @ Park View Community Centre, Chester-le-Street. 8:00pm. £10.00. (Weekend ticket £20.00., available on the door). Day 1/3. Musicians Unlimited in concert.
Fri 28: Redwell @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

MARCH 2025

Sat 01: Great North Big Band Jazz Festival @ Park View Community Centre, Chester-le-Street. 11:00am. £15.00. Day 2/3.
Sat 01: TJ Johnson Band @ St Augustine’s Parish Centre, Darlington. 12:30pm. £10.00.
Sat 01: Play Jazz! workshop @ The Globe, Newcastle. 1:30pm. £25.00. Tutor: Steve Glendinning. Get your funk on! Enrol at: learning@jazz.coop.
Sat 01: Shunyata Improvisation Group @ The Watch House, Cullercoats. 2:00-3:30pm. Free.
Sat 01: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Billy Bootleggers. Ouseburn, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free.
Sat 01: Struggle Buggy @ The Peacock, Sunderland. 6:00pm. Blues band.
Sat 01: Edison Herbert Trio @ The Vault, Darlington 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 01: Rendezvous Jazz @ Red Lion, Earsdon. 8:00pm. £3.00.
Sat 01: Jack & Jay’s Vintage Songbook @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

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, November 03, 2016

CD Review: Stuart McCallum & Mike Walker - The Space Between

Stuart McCallum (acoustic guitar, electronics), Mike Walker (electric guitar).
Tracks 1,3,6,7: Laura Senior, Gemma South (violins), Lucy Nolan (viola), Peggy Nolan (cello).
(Review by Steve T)
I'm already familiar with Mike Walker in the excellent Impossible Gentlemen and he's amazing. Not (knowingly) familiar with Stuart McCallum but, in a different way he's equally amazing, at least insomuch as they play different guitars here. In fact he's one of the most complete, precise acoustic guitarists I've heard in a long while, with none of the squeaking and sliding so many are prone to.
The album title celebrates what's not played as much as what is. The fast fingers seem to have fallen out of fashion again, perhaps as a local guitar teacher told me that everybody's a virtuoso nowadays or, as one non-guitarist musician said to me, 'guitarists play fast, that's what they do'.

Walker at least can play as fast as you like but here they're exploring the spaces and demonstrating taste as well as that abstract, enigmatic, subjective notion of 'soul.'
Two guitars and electronics sounds like a recipe for 'mood music' and 'ambient soundscapes' and there's plenty of that here but much more besides.
I believe the songs of Bacharach/ David to be the most likely contender for a latter day inclusion in the Great American Songbook. With Bob Dylan, the mismatch between music and myth is too stark and two of his best were comprehensively Hendrixed more or less on release, and for my generation Bobs greatest contribution was convincing Hendrix it didn't matter that he wasn't a great singer.
Moreover, the songs of genre writers like Curtis Mayfield, Dan Penn and Holland, Dozier Holland, were already transformed beyond mere catchy pop songs, now recognised as a skill in itself though it still takes thirty years for them to be recognised. 
Like the Gershwins and Cole Porter before, the likes of Miles and Gil or Frank and Nelson respectively got hold of them, Bacharach/David songs encapsulate an impersonal neutrality which renders them rife for interpretation.
Two of the North Easts' leading guitarists - James Birkett and Bradley Johnson - have performed and recorded Alfie to great affect but the version here scores from the interplay between acoustic and electric.
Moment Us takes me back to Earl Klugh before he became 'smooth' Jazz or at least before it became a dirty word, and The Yewfield sounds like he's been joined by his old mentor and regular collaborator George Benson.
Some Debussy and, as one of only half a dozen or so classical composers I ever listen to, it's always welcome.
The title track sounds like something Pink Floyd would have recorded but with keyboards and benefits enormously from the string quartet, sounding to me like a full orchestral string section.
Best track is saved until the end which McCallum holds on acoustic, some wood-slapping and simultaneously reminiscent of McLaughlins immense acoustic trios and his Indian Fusion band Shakti, raising tension to fever pitch, particularly on repeated listens when you anticipate the arrival of Walker, plugged in and turned up for the first time, but you don't quite know when it's going to happen.
An album of many moods and great contrasts comprising a very satisfying whole.  
Steve T.

Release date: November 25 on Edition Records.

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