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Bebop Spoken There

Steve Coleman: ''If you don't keep learning, your mind slows down. Use it or lose it''. (DownBeat, January 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

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

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).

Thu 09: Jazz Appreciation North East @ Brunswick Methodist Church, Newcastle NE1 7BJ. 2:00pm. £4.00. Subject: John H Hammond.
Thu 09: FILM: Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat @ Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle. 2:35pm. Documentary (dir. Johan Grimonprez) ‘about jazz, (de)colonial history and activism featuring Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie’.
Thu 09: Happy Tuesdays @ Ye Olde Cross, Ryton. 7:30pm. Free.
Thu 09: Merlin Roxby @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. Free. Ragtime piano. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.
Thu 09: Mark Toomey Quartet @ Dorman’s Club, Middlesbrough. 8:30pm. Free. A Tees Hot Club promotion. The session now monthly, next one Thursday 2nd Feb, then first Thursday in the month thereafter.

Fri 10: Classic Swing @ Cullercoats Crescent Club. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: Rendezvous Jazz @ The Monkseaton Arms. 1:00pm. Free.
Fri 10: New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band @ The Oxbridge Hotel, Stockton. 1:00pm. £5.00.
Fri 10: Joe Steels Trio @ The Pele, Corbridge. 7:00pm. Free.

Sat 11: Jason Isaacs @ St James’ STACK, Newcastle. 12:30-2:30pm. Free. Vocalist Isaacs working with backing tapes.
Sat 11: Under the Wellie @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 8:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig.

Sun 12: The New ’58 Jazz Collective @ Jackson’s Wharf, Hartlepool. 1:00pm. Free.
Sun 12: Am Jam @ The Globe, Newcastle. 2:00pm. Free.
Sun 12: King Bees @ The Tyne Bar, Newcastle. 4:00pm. Free. Superb Chicago blues band.
Sun 12: Dave Bottomley @ Prohibition Bar, Newcastle. 7:00pm. A ‘Jar on the Bar’ gig. Country blues guitar.
Sun 12: Jack Pearce Quintet @ The Globe, Newcastle. 8:00pm.

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

Sunday, January 29, 2017

New Year New Artists @Sage Gateshead. January 29 Saturday Afternoon Session

(Review by Steve T)
The Elliott Galvin Trio was the main attraction for the Jazz fan. I'm a self-confessed philistine when it comes to piano trios but there's been a definite move towards equal weight for each musician in recent years. I vaguely recall similar claims when I first started listening to 'real' Jazz in the early eighties but I still remember relentless bass solos, so maybe it's like the folk revival. On the other hand, in bands like Bad Plus, GoGo Penguin and these, maybe it's really starting to happen.
If I'm honest I found it a little gimmicky, not least the final piece which began with Punch and Judy being played and replayed on an old cassette (the cool persons equivalent to vinyl, allegedly) and ended with a recording of the police arriving to arrest them.
Along the way there was some fine Jazz and some fantastic musicianship, as you'd expect, but with many non-Jazzers in the audience, I wouldn't want them  to think it's novelty music. 
A pleasant surprise as I arrived was to find a table alongside sitar virtuoso Jasdeep Singh Degun, although he only featured on one of the two extended pieces. I don't mind small doses of sitar (editor: baby sitar?) but, for me, the real appeal of Indian music is the percussion instrument that, I always say, makes a poing sound. The Family T have been threatening to invest in a pair for me for years but they're a bit expensive and require some TLC, which I'm not renowned for.
Probably the set of the day for me, rewarded with rapturous applause from a more or less full level one. 
As I sat awaiting the next concert a lady next to me was directing a chap to an Indian restaurant. I was having similar thoughts, so job well done.
My interest in classical music is largely restricted to ten or twelve composers, Debussy - featured twice during the day - being one of them, and played by at least a string quartet, but preferably a large orchestra with lashings of strings. My plan was to sit next to the exit for a quick getaway after the first piece, but were scuppered right off by uncertainty over parking, so I only got a few minutes.
The good news for the philistines, with only a minimal interest in classical music, was that they each played the concourse, which for me was better than the Northern Rock Foundation Hall, and clarinettist Horacio Ferreira, accompanied by a pianist, sounded Jazzier and more lively in a less formal setting.
Like just about every other style you can think of, folk is cool again, if in the anti-cool way folkies prefer. It's currently going through something of a perpetual revival that's been going on since the fifties at least.
I've never been much of a fan though I've come round to some folk-rock and some North East stuff. The accordion is something of a no go but in Talisk it worked really well, flanked by acoustic guitar and fiddle.
The set was entirely instrumental and really kicked in when each tune burst into a jig, complete with foot-stomping, whooping, yeehaing, clapping and the fiddlers elbow going like - well, a fiddlers elbow. At the end of the afternoon I heard a young lad ask his dad which concert he'd enjoyed the most and he answered Talisk and I'm sure many of the audience, now spilling over to level two, would agree.
I managed to catch pianist Mariam Batsashvili's first piece in its entirety, but the discovery of Lord Paul and Jambone in da house meant my final visit to the classical room for some Debussy was aborted.
The afternoon was a big success with the classical events at capacity and good crowds in Sage Two, I'm guessing, in no small part due to open-minded classical people, which is great. The afore-mentioned curry and back for the evening session.
Steve T.

3 comments :

Stewartd said...

Erm...Talisk weren't playing an accordion, it was a concertina, of local lad Alistair Anderson fame........
But as a jazz fan who went mainly for Elliot Galvin, having sat alongside Laura Jurd and seen him at Foyle's Bookshop in the 2015 LJF, I was actually converted to classical music by the staggeringly expressive virtuosity of Mariam Batsashvili and Tamsin Waley-Cohen.
All in all the afternoon was superb value for the £12.90!

steve T said...

Concertina, accordion, banjo, kazoo. The speed of finger was very impressive, but I will continue to avoid albums or concerts featuring a concertina or accordion.
Sadly I missed Tamsin but saw Maiam do Bach, not a composer who interests me. Zappa used to call classical musicians 'robots' and many Jazz musicians point out that they can't generally improvise. She was certainly impressive but being an impressive musician in itself does not great music make. Post punk-rock, musicianship was largely scorned for about 3 decades. I recall a lady saying on that terrible Danny Baker programme that people don't like John McLaughlin because he's too good.
It's when they start shaking their heads about like there's something going on that isn't, that I switch off; violinists tend to be ther worst.

Steve T said...

Kate Mossman. I'm not clever enough to google a name without losing the screen I'm on. She writes for - I think - the Spectator. Not just John McLaughlin but Zappa, Genesis and Coliseum. I can almost forgive her for Queen.

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