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Bebop Spoken There

Van Morrison: ''Basically, I'm coming from jazz. Not pop, not rock, not what's commercial. That's where I started, and that's still where I am. I feel the same as I did when I was listening to Louis Armstrong, Lead Belly, Jelly Roll Morton''. (The Northern Echo, 12 June 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

18037 (and counting) posts since we started blogging 17 years ago. 458 of them this year alone and, so far, 36 this month (June 11).

From This Moment On ...

JUNE 2025

Sun 15: Lewis Watson Quartet @ Queen’s Hall, Hexham. 3:00pm.
Sun 15: 4B @ The Ticket Office, Whitley Bay. 3:00pm. Free.
Sun 15: Pasadena Roof Orchestra @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:00pm.
Sun 15: Under the Wellie @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. Free. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Sun 15: Hannah Brine Quartet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

Mon 16: Harmony Brass @ Cullercoats Crescent Club (1:00pm). Free.
Mon 16: Giles Strong Quartet @ The Black Bull, Blaydon. 8:00pm. £10.00.

Tue 17: Jam session @ The Black Swan, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free. House trio: Alan Law, Paul Grainger, Abbie Finn.

Wed 18: Vieux Carré Jazzmen @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Wed 18: Darlington Big Band @ Darlington & Simpson Rolling Mills Social Club, Darlington. 7:30pm. Free. Concert performance (open to the public)..
Wed 18: Take it to the Bridge @ The Globe, Newcastle. 7:30pm. Free.

Thu 19: Gareth John & the SOS Big Band @ The Forum Music Centre, Darlington. 7:00pm. £25.00.

Fri 20: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 20: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 20: David Gray's Flextet @ The Lit & Phil, Newcastle. 1:00pm. SOLD OUT!
Fri 20: Strictly Smokin’ Big Band @ Alnwick Playhouse. 7:30pm. £21.50. ‘Time After Time’.br/> Fri 20: Alexia Gardner Quintet @ Sunderland Minster. 7:30pm.
Fri 20: King Bees @ Billy Bootleggers, Ouseburn, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Superb Chicago blues band.

Sat 21: Milne Glendinning Band @ The Vault, Darlington. 7:00pm. Free.
Sat 21: Red Kites Jazz @ Staithes Café, Dunston. 7:00-9:00pm. Free.
Sat 21: Papa G’s Troves @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. 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 17, 2016

Matthew Halsall & The Gondwana Orchestra ft. Josephine Oniyama and Dwight Trible @ Islington Assembly Hall. EFG London Jazz Festival - November 14

Matthew Halsall (trumpet); Jordan Smart (sax/flute); Taz Modi (piano); Amanda Whiting (harp); Gavin Barras (bass); Luke Flowers (drums). + Josephine Oniyama & Dwight Trible (voice)
(Review by Peter Jones).
They should have named it - Before and after Dwight.
Before: it’s a packed house, as Halsall and his band settle into a mellow, somewhat spaced-out vibe, based on simple grooves rather than chord sequences. This music is clearly influenced by the other-worldliness favoured by the likes of Pharaoh Sanders, Carla Bley and Alice Coltrane.
Beginning with a stately, Indian-flavoured tune, Jordan Smart’s flute and Amanda Whiting’s harp take the lead roles. The Orchestra then strike up a number in 6/8, and for the first time we are treated to the beautifully clear, vibrato-free tone of Halsall’s trumpet. Spacy, ethereal harp twinkles and shimmers on the next, a lengthy modal piece, Taz Modi thrumming the strings of his piano. And the next tune is even more minimalist, leading one to speculate that these lovely meditative numbers are probably born of free jamming that goes on for hours. It promotes a pleasant mood of groovy introspection.
Whiting can make her harp sound like a guitar on its lower strings, and sometimes piano and harp don’t quite manage to keep out of each other’s way (a familiar issue when it’s piano and guitar) - not that it really matters with music that flows like this.

Five tunes have gone by before Matthew Halsall speaks to the audience for the first time, to introduce singer Josephine Oniyama. She does a nice job with a tune called As I Walk, Halsall kneeling to play pre-recorded vocal harmonies from some box of tricks on the floor.

After: one more song from Oniyama, and off she goes, to be replaced, with slow and deliberate tread, by singer Dwight Trible, a gentleman of a certain vintage, with white beard and knitted Rasta hat. The band launches into John Coltrane’s Wise One, as presented with Trible’s own lyrics on his 2006 masterpiece Living Water.

Yes, masterpiece. Because Dwight Trible is a singer like no other. A human conduit to the celestial spirit, he makes the walls tremble with transcendent energy-waves. Arms aloft, he is soon testifyin’ and hollerin’, his bass-baritone larynx vibrating with passion, and it jolts the audience back into full consciousness. Continuing with another tune from Living Water - Bill Lee’s John Coltrane - Trible soon has the audience singing along. He delivers a final killer punch with Burt Bacharach’s What the World Need Now is Love. Not happy-clappy, though: it’s deadly serious, and all on one chord. This is Dwight’s response to the unfolding horror on the other side of the Atlantic.

The Gondwana Orchestra are great, but by the time they get to the encores, Dwight has completely taken over their gig, and won a lot of new fans on the way.
Peter Jones
A new album of collaborations between Dwight Trible and the Gondwana Orchestra is planned for release in 2017.

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