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HOWAY THE LADS!

Bebop Spoken There

John McLaughlin: '' A Love Supreme coincided with my search for meaning in life". (DownBeat, March 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

17873 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 194 of them this year alone and, so far, 41 this month (March 14).

From This Moment On ...

MARCH 2025.

Sun 16: Jason Isaacs @ STACK, Exchange Sq., Middlesbrough. 1:00-2:45pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: Paul Skerritt @ Hibou Blanc, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free. Vocalist Skerritt working with backing tapes.
Sun 16: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 16: Pearl Blossoms @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Ragtime.
Sun 16: Hot 8 Brass Band @ Wylam Brewery. 7:30pm. ‘Big Tuba Tour’.
Sun 16: ARQ @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.
Sun 16: Air4ce @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:30pm (8:00pm doors). £12.00.; £10.00. Tom Atkinson’s all-star band (line-up inc. Lindsay Hannon & Sue Ferris).
Sun 16: Jazz Jam @ Fabio’s, Saddler St., Durham. 8:00pm. Free. A Durham University Jazz Society promotion. All welcome.

Mon 17: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Mon 17: Jamie Toms Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 18: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Laurence Harrison, Paul Grainger, Tim Johnston.
Tue 18: Phil Bancroft’s Beautiful Storm @ The Cluny, Newcastle. 8:00pm. £13.20 & £11.00.. A JNE-Gem Arts co-promotion.

Wed 19: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 19: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free. Rehearsal session (open to the public).
Wed 19: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 20: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ The Holystone, Whitley Road, Holystone. 1:00pm. Free.
Thu 20: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: Nicknames.
Thu 20: Terri Green Experience @ Pilgrim, Newcastle. 7:30pm. £15.90.
Thu 20: Lindsay Hannon Trio @ The Harbour View, Roker, Sunderland. 8:00pm. Free. Hannon’s ‘Tom Waits for No Man’ set.
Thu 20: Ray Stubbs R&B All Stars @ Mill Tavern, Hebburn. 8:30pm. Free.

Fri 21: Paul Skerritt @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 21: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 21: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 21: Giles Strong Quartet @ 1719, Hendon, Sunderland. 7:30pm. CANCELLED!
Fri 21: New Century Ragtime Orchestra @ Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Featuring special guest Martin Litton (piano).

Sat 22: Jason Isaacs @ St. James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 22: Jason Isaacs @ Seaburn STACK, Seaburn. 3:30pm-5:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 22: Abbie Finn Trio @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 22: Swamp Stomp String Band @ The White Room, Stanley. 7:45pm.
Sat 22: Rivkala @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar & vocals.

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: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: Mississippi MacDonald @ Georgian Theatre, Stockton. 3:00pm. Blues.
Sun 23: Tweed River Jazz Band @ Barrels Ale House, Berwick. 7:00pm. Free.
Sun 23: The Great Deceivers @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Tom Atkinson & co play King Crimson (1969-1974). Atkinson (guitar); Josh Bentham (alto sax); Stu Dawson (bass); Jeff Armstrong (drums).

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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